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!
Reprinted with permission of Quirk Books from "Marshmallow Madness" by Shauna Sever, 2012
Ingredients
- 4 1/2 teaspoons unflavored powdered gelatin
- 1/2 cup cold water
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup light corn syrup, divided
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup Classic Coating plus more for dusting
Instructions
- Lightly coat an 8-by-8-inch baking pan with cooking spray.
- WHISK TOGETHER the gelatin and cold water in a small bowl and let soften for 5 minutes.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
I think I’d love to make mocha marshmallows
My dream marshmallow flavor is chocolate peanut butter, maybe with Reese’s PB chunks in it.
Vanilla Bean with Cinnamon <3
Apple Pie….yum
Butterscotch!
Tiramisu flavored!
Beach plum swirled jelly marshmallows – Let’s hope this year is better than last year with the beach plums around here ♫
I would love to make pistachio flavored marshmallows.
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
great marshmallow flavor! i love the graham crumble yum!
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 😉
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!
Lavender …. Yummmm
Joella Chudy
I’m thinking pina colada would be a great flavor!
cotton candy!
Hmmm I think the perfect flavor for me would be an orange creamsicle. That just sounds so good right now.
What a crazy awesome marshmallow!!
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.
i totally want to eat one of these marshmallows right now…my dream flavor would be chocolate hazlenut!
chocolate raspberry!
blueblanket@hotmail.com
I am going really mad here…. I love marshmallows. My dream flavor would be strawberry shortcake!
Hugs
The fact that the book is puffy is soooo cute!!! I suppose my dream marshmallow flavor would be either peanut butter (because hello? PB&Hot chocolate) or cookie dough—like on Love&Olive Oil, nom nom..:P
I also wanted to let you know I’ve nominated you for The Versatile Blogger Award! 🙂 You can check here for more details: http://cookingactress.blogspot.com/2012/03/awards.html
my dream marshmallow flavor would be peanut butter or banana
My dream marshmallow flavor would be almond (amaretto) marshmallows!
dream flavor would be coffee espresso
I like plain marshmallows the best.
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
Oh my gosh, this sounds so awesome! I’d never buy them from the store again. I’d go for a flavor like white chocolate–two candies in one! 😉
xo,
Margaret
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margeincharge(at)gmail(dot)com
The Bite Size Baker
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 😉
My dream marshmallow flavor would probably be sweet apple
Strawberry marshmallow dipped in chocolate
Peanut butter and banana flavor.
jlammers002@woh.rr.com
what are the contents of the ‘classic coating’ most recipes call for conf sugar.
I’m a plain jane, but it has to be covered in milk chocolate. The best homemade ones are from Wilbur’s Chocolate, Lititz, PA
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.
Chocolate, caramel, with maybe pecan or almond flavor. Yummy…
Chocolate, caramel, with maybe pecan or almond flavor. Yummy…
Chocolate, caramel, with maybe pecan or almond flavor. Yummy…
Well, key lime pie sounds mighty fine. But what about black forest marshmallows?
I love toasted coconut marshmallows dipped in dark chocolate…
Pistachio… Does it sound dreamy?
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
I would love a creamsicle
Chocolate Peanut Butter!
banana flavor. Like the banana flavor that McDonalds had when they served banana shakes.
I think my dream flavor would be caramel amaretto.
I have always wanted to try making homemade marshmallows. Just haven’t made it a priority yet.
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!!
I think a cheesecake flavor marshmallow would be awesome! Everything sounds so yummy!!!
moo77hb at gmail dot com
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I love tropical fruit so maybe some sort of mango and pineapple flavour? Yum!
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??
E! Classic coating is a mix of cornstarch and powdered sugar. Easier, I just toss them in powdered sugar!
OMG!! KEY LIME MARSHMALLOW!!!!! YUM. Makes it hard now to think of my dream flavor, red velvet 🙂
Chocolate chili
Goodness this looks SO fun! My dream flavor would be strawberry. REAL strawberry, not artificial flavoring. Mmmmm. Delicious.