Lisa’s Letters Home: Homemade Marshmallows

Every year, my friends and I participate in a fundraiser at our local ceramic painting shop (http://www.crazyglazy.com/squish-a-boob/). It involves putting paint on our boobs in their back room, pressing them against some sort of pottery, decorating it in an artistic manner, and drinking quite a lot of wine. No, seriously – I am not making this up. It’s all in aid of breast cancer research and they’ve done a stellar job in raising thousand of pounds over the past few years.

When I can, I make something edible to sell on the night to help raise funds, always with a boob theme. The first time was cupcakes decorates with jugs, melons, and puppies (Get it? Get it?) and last year I made macaroons with nipples. This year, it’s BoobMeringues and raspberry marshmallows, the latter not looking at all like boobs.

I’ve been meaning to try this marshmallow recipe for ages, mostly to justify the existence of my candy thermometer. I think these make a lovely gift, but it’s also a nice chemical-free alternative to store bought marshmallows. They come out light and fluffy, and melt in your mouth. It’s more like the top to a lemon meringue pie than the chewy variety in stores. They’re very sticky, so coat your hands with icing sugar when you’re packing them away for storage.

I managed to find liquid glucose in my local supermarket (in the baking section, in a tube) but you may need to use a substitute in other countries. I think light corn syrup (the clear kind) would work.

If you don’t have a candy thermometer, you can do a quick test to see if the syrup is ready. You want it to reach the “hard ball” stage, which means if you put a little drop in a cup of ice cold water briefly, it’ll harden immediately after you scoop it out. If it’s still squishy after its ice bath, it’s only at “soft ball” stage and will need a few minutes longer. It took around 10 minutes for mine to get to the hard ball stage.

I cannot see how you could make this without a freestanding mixer, but I suppose you could employ a small child to hold an electric mixer for you.

This is not vegetarian as it uses gelatine, but it is gluten-free for your celiac friends. You can store the marshmallows in an airtight container for a few days.