Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Tuesdays With Dorie~Marshmallow Madness



Hooray for making new things for the first time! When I first joined Tuesdays With Dorie and bought the "Baking: From My Home to Yours" cookbook by Dorie Greenspan, this recipe jumped out at me immediately! I have been very anxious to attempt homemade marshmallows, this was really exciting! So again, HOORAY!!! For this week's TWD recipe, JUDY of JUDY'S GROSS EATS has selected Dorie's Marshmallows! Pages 404-405 of the book, "Baking: From My Home to Yours" by Dorie Greenspan. To see the full recipe visit Judy's Blog, or the TWD Blogroll (many of the members will post the full recipe along with their GORGEOUS photos of marshmallows) OR even better, if you have not already, go buy this awesome book!!



My experience with the "mallows" was not so mellow. I think the recipe is good, and I did really enjoy the challenge of making something I have never attempted before, but we still ran in some problems this go around and I'd give our end result a C+ at best.
I was very excited that this was such an intriguing concept that Nate (even on a weeknight) could not resist helping me with this fabulous experiment.
Armed with my spanking new candy thermometer, we measured our ingredients and got to makin' mallows. Because this was a first attempt at such a delightful sweet- I decided we'd make the plain vanilla mallows, and save the juicin' it up for next time.

Nate (even though I was meddling and poking around) manned the sugar and thermometer, while I prepped the gelatin and egg whites. Before the sugar mix had reached the proper temperature, it started to caramelize and so we pulled it off. At that point I think the egg whites were ALMOST ready but another minute or two would not have been a bad thing. So onward we trudged, mixing everything together and spreading the sweetness on to our prepped cookie sheet (which ended up being a jelly roll pan, because that was our best bet with the higher sides...).
We used some ramikins to prop up the parchment paper, and because we were doing this at 10:00pm on a weeknight like lunatics, we left them to set overnight. I opted for a sharp knife to cut them in squares, using tons of cornstarch all the way. I read about one of our brilliant TWD'ers using a powdered sugar/cornstarch combo which I will definitely try next time. Because of the sugar mix getting caramelly these were not snow-white in color, and I think I'd use a little less vanilla next time, but that's just my taste. However, they were squishy and made for some fun photos and a good adventure story. I will attempt the "regular" mallows a few more times before I get tricky with the other flavors.



Enjoy all the beautiful mallows by visiting the newly beautified Tuesdays With Dorie Homepage

My BEST FRIEND is getting married this coming weekend and the weekend after that Nate and I will be off on a camping trip to celebrate our first wonderful year of marriage!! So please go to the TWD site for the next couple Tuesdays to check out what's crackin', I may not be back until May (but sometimes I am able to squeeze it in there, so we'll see!)

25 comments:

Michelle said...

I love that you guys made these together, how fun! Enjoy your vacation :)

Sarah said...

Great color on your marshmallows...they look like they had a caramel flavor. Great job!

April said...

Your marshmallows look great!

Engineer Baker said...

They look awesome! Enjoy your vacation!

Carrie said...

second the "buy this book"!
You marshmallows look delish!
Carrie
http://bakersbakery.wordpress.com

Anne said...

They look beautiful! Have fun on your trips!

Michelle H said...

Your 'mallows look great and what an awesome husband for helping. I'm too territorial in the kitchen so my husband leaves me to my domain. LOL

Have a great trip campin'. :o)

Mary said...

they look great even at a C+!! there are lots of other recipes out there that don't call for egg whites or temp specifics...I prefer those actually....have fun at the wedding and happy early anniversary...how about homemade marshmallows for the camping trip???

Dianne's Dishes said...

They look caramely! They look great! :)

Bumblebutton said...

Very nice job! I like the color--just one more way you can tell they are homemade.

Judy said...

Glad you gave them a try. I bet they taste fabulous.

Mari said...

Well I for one, think your marshmallows look wonderful! Good job!

Annemarie said...

They look just like the pics in Dorie's book! Nice job!!

CB said...

I got a candy thermometer too! Its just a cheapy grocery store one but new gadgets always make me giddy! LOL. That is so cute that your hubs helps you. Beautiful marshmallows!
Clara @ I♥food4thought

Donna said...

Sometimes caramely tasting things are better than the plain! Great Job! I'll bet you can't wait to try the next batch!
Donna

Donna said...

Sometimes caramely tasting things are better than the plain! Great Job! I'll bet you can't wait to try the next batch!
Donna

Natalie said...

I gotta say that caramely vanilla sounds pretty darn good! :)

Mary Ann said...

they look good- I am totally with you on sticking with trying some other flavors next time!

kimberly salem said...

mm they look great! caramel sounds like a good flavor to me, even if it was unintentional :)

Amy said...

Yours look great! And Happy anniversary!

LyB said...

Your marshmallows look deliciously fluffy!

Sharon said...

Looks great, how fun to make things together!

Cecilia said...

Lovely marshmallows! Did they taste like the marshmallows that you find in grocery stores?

Have fun at the wedding and on your camping trip!

Jaime said...

great job beth! and congrats on your 1 yr anniv :)

Heather B said...

Those look so good! Great job! Congrats on your 1 year anniversary!