The Marshmallow

Do marshmallows quality has an ancient delicacy? Hard to believe that the stale little things found in a box of Lucky Charms were once only created for ancient royalty and gods. The roots of the marshmallow plant were harvested and turned into medicine. It was much later that the roots were boiled and turned into a gummy confection.

When I think of marshmallow’s contribution to my life I think of Easter Peeps and chocolate covered marshmallows shaped like eggs. The marshmallow made a come back a few years back when Oprah listed these fudge dipped marshmallows in O magazine as one of her favorite things.

Without having ever thought about it, marshmallows are made with gelatin, which means that if you’re a Vegetarian or Vegan, you’ll have to shop around for all no animal product marshmallows heck, if you keep a Kosher diet you’ll also have to pay attention to these little fluffy guys. Who knew there was so much to consider with a little marshmallow!

If you want to tour a marshmallow factory and you’re in Las Vegas, hit the road East for 20 minutes to Henderson and you can tour the Favorite Brands Marshmallow Factory.

There was several recipes I was considering when making marshmallows, but I went with a simple recipe that had been reviewed on Cooking for Engineers by Thomas Keller of the French Laundry. I followed the C4E recipe to a T (including the decision to boil the candy to the Hard Ball stage).

As the marshmallows mix, they will begin to fluff. I mixed mine for 8 minutes and by that time I was getting the consistency I was looking for.

One thing I wasn’t ready for is how sticky the mixture was. I found myself in a catch 22 when pouring it out. Everything I touched became sticky and everything that touched me was sticky. This is one recipe that you’ll need someone around to help you pour and scrape the bowl.

After I allowed them to sit for a day, I took them out of the pan, cut them with a pizza slicer and tossed them in powered sugar. The vanilla taste is so much more pronounced in these homemade marshmallows than I’ve ever experienced in store purchased ones. And besides the days wait, the recipe was really quite easy to follow and the results were spectacular.