Cooking with Books

You are here: Home / Desserts / Marshmallow Madness!

Desserts

Marshmallow Madness!

After you make your first homemade marshmallow, you will NEVER go back to those artificial ones that come in a plastic bag! And after you get your hands on Shauna Sever’s new cookbook all about marshmallows, you might spend endless weeks making marshmallows in all shapes, colors, and flavors!

Marshmallow Madness!, recently released on Amazon and bookstores in your city, is by Shauna Sever and printed by Quirk Books; she is best known for her delicious blog “Piece of Cake“.  Her approachable personality and simple recipes create confidence in first time bakers. She’ll bring you in with her casual and knowledgeable voice, and take you step by step, in this case, in making the best tasting marshmallows you’ve ever tasted!

When I received my review copy of Marshmallow Madness!, my hands started squishing the puffy book. Creatively bound in puffy material and a book cover filled with colorful mallows, it invites you to peruse its pages and find just the right recipe for you. I decided to recreate her Key Lime Pie Marshmallows, light green mallows with bright lime flavor and added crunch with a sprinkling of graham cracker crumbs.

A dessert all in itself, these marshmallows are the type of creative genius you’ll find in her book. Other recipes I’ll be trying: Malibu Marshmallows, Maple-Bacon Marshmallows, and her Mango-Chile-Lime Marshmallows! Also, you can check out #marshmadness and see what other bloggers made!

Thanks to the generous folks at Quirk Books, today I’m sharing Shauna’s Classic Vanilla Marshmallow recipe, a great starting point for those making marshmallows for the first time. Mastering this recipe will let you experiment with more flavorings by adjusting the extracts you add! But that’s not all! Like I said, Quirk Books are really generous tweeps and are giving away THREE puffy copies of Marshmallow Madness to three Cooking with Books readers. Scroll down to enter!

Print
Classic Vanilla Marshmallows

Yield: About 2 dozen 1 1/2-inch mallows

Reprinted with permission of Quirk Books from "Marshmallow Madness" by Shauna Sever, 2012

Ingredients

    THE BLOOM
  • 4 1/2 teaspoons unflavored powdered gelatin
  • 1/2 cup cold water
    • THE SYRUP
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup light corn syrup, divided
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
    • THE MALLOWING
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup Classic Coating plus more for dusting

Instructions

  1. Lightly coat an 8-by-8-inch baking pan with cooking spray.
  2. WHISK TOGETHER the gelatin and cold water in a small bowl and let soften for 5 minutes.
  3. STIR TOGETHER the sugar, 1/4 cup of the corn syrup, water, and salt in a medium saucepan over high heat. Boil, stirring occasionally, until the temperature reaches 240°F. Meanwhile, pour remaining 1/4 cup corn syrup into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Microwave gelatin on high until completely melted, about 30 seconds. Pour it into the mixer bowl. Set the mixer speed to low and keep it running.
  4. WHEN THE SYRUP reaches 240°F, slowly pour it into the mixer bowl. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 5 minutes. Increase to medium-high and beat for 5 more minutes. Beat on the highest setting for 1 to 2 minutes more and beat in the vanilla; the finished marshmallow will be opaque white, fluffy, and tripled in volume. Pour it into the prepared pan, using an offset spatula to smooth it into the corners. Sift coating evenly and generously over top. Let set for at least 6 hours in a cool, dry place.
  5. Use a knife to loosen the marshmallow from the edges of the pan. Invert the slab onto a coating-dusted work surface and dust it with more coating. Cut into whatever size pieces you wish (a pizza cutter works great for squares). Dip the sticky edges of the marshmallows in more coating, patting off the excess.

Notes

Variation: Super vanilla-ize these mallows by adding a scraped vanilla bean or dab of pure vanilla bean paste along with the vanilla extract.

https://www.cookingwithbooks.net/2012/03/marshmallow-madness.html
 
Disclaimer: Quirk Books sent me a review copy of this book, but I was under no obligation to review or host giveaway.

Comments

  7. Beach plum swirled jelly marshmallows – Let’s hope this year is better than last year with the beach plums around here ♫

    Reply

  9. hi i am happy I found your website by accident and I’m going to try out this recipe. I have always wondered how people make marshmallows. but I never had the time to find out instead they would be sticking them on a stick with me out in the desert over campfire.

    As far as my marshmallow flavor I would like it to be a Tom Yum soup which is my favorite food both hot and spicy and sweet. I love barbecue I don’t think that will do well in the marshmallow flavor.

    best wishes alan

    Reply

  11. I was just thinking about making some mildly spicy and cinnamon marshmallows to go with hot chocolate.

    Dream flavor though? How about Bailey’s???

    I NEED this book 😉

    Reply

  12. I think you know what flavor I would want to try… LILIKOI! (passionfruit!) That with coconut, or chocolate, or raspberry. Much experimentation to be done! That book looks fabulous!

    Reply

  18. It must be the sun shining but I’m thinking of lovely exotic fruits local to Malaysia…Lychee and lime marshmallows, or a mango and orange marshmallows coated in toasted coconut (fine) shavings.

    Reply

  27. Hmmmmm…my dream marshmallow flavor? Wellllll…..I do love….dream about banana cream pie a lot! So I would say a banana cream pie marshmallow would be pretty fantastic:-) Hugs, Terra

    Reply

  29. I have never attempted making marshmallows, but thought it would be too involved. I am totally inspired to try them now. This Key Lime looks and founds yummy…..but I would have to go with a Kahlua flavored, or pineapple coconut, strawberry margarita…..the possibilities are endless 😉

    Reply

  35. I have to get myself a sugar thermometer one of these day to make marshmallows. Speaking of favorite flavors, I’ve never tried these but I love the sound of blueberry marshmallows.

    Reply

  42. I make caramel pie with a meringue. I’m a big fan of Dulce de Leche ice cream. I love Goetze’s Caramel Creams. Do we see a pattern here? If I could get that in a marshmallow…mmmm, caramel heaven!

    felicesr@gmail.com

    Reply

  48. Since I was a kid, I’ve LOVED maple marshmallows. I *never* even considered flavoring them, since I’ve been thinking about (and afraid to) make marshmallows from scratch. Now I’m inspired!!

    Reply

  52. I’d LOVE to win his book, since homemade marshmallows have been on my list to try making since the first time I bought them at WF! Love our Key Like creation, and I’m thinking my dream flavor would be maple pecan. What’s Classic Coating??

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *