homemade marshmallows

Watch out world (and waistline) I have discovered homemade marshmallows! The recipe has been on my to do list for the last year but I was afraid it would be way too messy and difficult to make. Surprising it was really easy and despite a spilled bag of powdered sugar and marshmallow in my hair, it wasn't as messy as I expected! It think homemade marshmallows would make a perfect sweet treat for Valentines Day!

The recipe I used was from the Barefoot Contessa (Ina Garten) but I tweaked it just a little by adding orange extract and dipping them in chocolate.

Ingredients-

3 packages unflavored gelatin

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 cup light corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Start by combining the three packets of gelatin

with 1/2 cup of cold water. Set aside and let sit.

Combine 1 1/2 cups of sugar, 1 cup of corn syrup, 1/4 teaspoon of salt

and 1/2 cup of water together in a sauce pan.

Cook over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved.

Raise the heat to high and cook until the syrup reaches 244 F degrees on a candy thermometer.

Pour the syrup into the gelatin mixture.

Mix on high and whip until the mixture is thick.

At this point I added about a teaspoon of orange extract

and continued to whip a little bit longer.

Next, grease a baking pan with vegetable oil

and dust a heavy layer of powered sugar (don't spill the bag of powdered sugar!)

This will keep everything from sticking to the pan.

Pour the marshmallow mixture into the pan

Sprinkle another layer of powdered sugar on top.

Let it sit at room temperature over night.

You can remove the entire sheet of marshmallow from the pan and place on a cutting board to cut it up OR you can cut from the pan like I did (I found it was less messy).

I used little candy liners for each of my marshmallows.

I used a heart cookie cutter to cut out heart shaped marshmallows and used kitchen scissors to clean up the shape.

FYI- all the little scraps left over from cutting out the shapes can be used as little marshmallows for baking! Just package them up tuperware.

Add the large marshmallows to hot chocolate or a mocha.

Or even dip in chocolate! The combo of the orange flavored marshmallows and the chocolate is to DIE FOR!

Line up on a pretty tray and serve as Valentines Day treats or even package them up to give as gifts.

Now that I know how easy and TOTALLY delicious it is to make your own, I don't know if I will ever buy marshmallows from the store again!