Marshmallow Madness Cookbook Review

A couple months ago I received an awesome cookbook by Shauna Sever called Marshmallow Madness to review and have been having a blast looking through all the recipes.  She has a recipe for almost every kind of marshmallow you could think of.  It took me two tries, but I figured it out and made some incredible chocolate marshmallows.

My first attempt was a disaster.  Granted, candy making is not easy and sugar work can be very difficult.  Add in my inexperience around a stand mixer and you have lots of melted threads of sugar all over the kitchen floor.  But, I have not been thwarted.  The author made this whole process sound attainable and I knew it was probably my error.  I reread the recipe and discovered that I should have used a smaller pot and I should have kept the mixer running when I added the hot sugar syrup.  The second time around I corrected these mistakes and success!  Watching the mallow puff up was quite magical.  During the first five minutes I watched the mixer whip the chocolate and began to have my doubts that it would work, but then after I turned it up to med-high speed everything started happening.

I am so happy I conquered marshmallows!  Cooking them was a good mental exercise for my preggo brain.  You have to pay close attention to the sugar as it boils and as you pour so you may want to make these when the kids are in bed or at school.  I would hate to accidentally burn curious young bakers.

I can’t wait to make more of the recipes in this book.  I mean, who doesn’t want a Salted Caramel Swirl Marshmallow?  Or how about a Key Lime Pie Marshmallow covered in ground graham crackers?  Fabulous right?  I think next time I might skip those fancy ones and go straight for the Strawberry Marshmallow made with fresh strawberry puree.  Can you imagine what that must taste like?  Probably amazing.  I can’t wait to find out.

Deeply Chocolate Marshmallows

Recipe from Marshmallow Madness by Shauna Sever

The Bloom

• 5 tsp unflavored powdered gelatin
• 1/2 cup cold water

The Chocolate Syrup

• 3 tablespoons dark unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/4 tsp instant espresso powder
• 1/4 cup hot water
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup

The Sugar Syrup

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 tsp salt

The Mallowing

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Sugar Coating

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder 

Equipment

• stand mixer
• candy thermometer
• medium saucepan
• 8×8 cake pan
• heatproof spatula
• a fine sieve or sifter
• measuring cups and spoons

Directions

1.  Gather and measure ingredients before starting.  Lightly coat a 8×8 inch cake pan with cooking spray.  Make the sugar coating by mixing all sugar coating ingredients together, sifting if necessary.  Set aside.

2.  Make the Bloom: Whisk together the water and gelatin in a small microwave safe bowl and set aside to bloom for 5-10 minutes.

3.  Make the chocolate syrup:  In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk together the cocoa powder, espresso powder and hot water until smooth.  Pour in corn syrup and whisk until well blended.

4.  Make the sugar syrup:  Stir together the sugar, remaining corn syrup, water and salt in a medium saucepan over high heat.  Clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pot and have it submerged in the sugar mixture but not touching the bottom of the pan.  Boil stirring occasionally until it reaches 248-250 degrees F.  Meanwhile, microwave the gelatin mixture for 30 seconds or until completely dissolved.  Pour into the chocolate syrup and set your mixer on low (#2 on my KitchenAid).  Let it run while you attend to the sugar syrup.

5.  When the syrup reaches 245-250 F, slowly and carefully pour it into the running stand mixer with the chocolate syrup.  Increase the speed to medium (#5 or 6) and whip for 5 minutes.  Increase to med-high speed (#8) for another 5 minutes.  Increase to high speed (#10) and beat for another 3-5 minutes or until the mallow holds a soft shape when you stop the mixer and pull up the whisk.  The finished marshmallow will have tripled in volume.

6.  Pour into prepared pan and smooth with an offset spatula or knife. Sift a thick layer of sugar coating over the top and leave in a cool dry place, like a counter, uncovered for at least 6 hours.

7.  When set, use a butter knife to loosen the edges of the marshmallow from the pan.  Sift a thick layer of sugar coating over a piece of parchment paper and carefully flip the marshmallow onto coating covered parchment.  Using a large knife, cut the marshmallows into squares and coat all sides with more sugar coating.

8.  Store in a single layer in a covered container with the lid vented to avoid building moisture.  Dust on more coating if it gets absorbed.

Makes 30-40 marshmallows

Wishing for Summer – Quinoa Salad

I cannot wait for summer food. Peaches, tomatoes, watermelon, cold potato and pasta salads, Popsicles, lemonade, BBQ chicken… please wait while I stop drooling…

Ok I’m back. I needed a summer food fix so I threw together this fast little salad. Quinoa is a great alternative to my favorite pasta, potato and rice salads and takes way less time to make.

I discovered Quinoa a couple years ago at Trader Joes after hearing blogs rave about it online and had to try it. What drew me to quinoa is that it’s a healthy starch that cooks in less than 15 minutes. My main issue with brown rice is the long cooking time. I usually forget to start the rice first and end up waiting on the rice while everything else gets cold. If that happens now I just cook quinoa instead.

“I Can’t Wait for Summer” Quinoa Salad

15 minutes

• 1/2 cup Quinoa
• 1 cup cold water
• 1 med tomato
• 1/3 of a cucumber
• 5 or 6 small balls of marinated mozzarella cheese, cut into pieces
• a small handful of baby spinach, rolled and cut into ribbons
• a sprig of fresh mint, basil or parsley
• 1/2 a lemon
• about 3 tablespoons of the oil from the marinated mozzarella
• Salt & Pepper

1. Combine 1 cup of cold water and 1/2 cup quinoa in a small saucepan on med-high heat. Bring to a boil then cover and simmer on low heat for 10 minutes.

2. While the quinoa cooks chop the tomato, cucumber, cheese, herbs and spinach. When the water is absorbed and you can see the dark grain rings remove the quinoa from the heat. Drizzle 2-3 tablespoons of oil and squeeze half a lemon into the quinoa, fluff with the fork to combine. Gently mix in veggies, cheese, herbs, salt and pepper.

Enjoy hot or cover and place in the refrigerator to serve when cold.

Around the Yard

Have your allergies been bad this year?  Ours are horrible!  I don’t know if it’s the climate in Sonoma County or if this is just a bad pollen year, but we have been suffering big time.  I bought a new allergen hepa filter vacuum  and it has helped a lot already.  I didn’t realize how bad our old vacuum had gotten.  The new vacuum picked up an entire canister worth of dirt just two days after I vacuumed with the old vacuum.  We have all noticed a big improvement in our allergies over the last 24 hours too.  Plus my carpet seems fluffier.

A lot has changed around the yard in the last week.  I harnessed all that second trimester energy into building a huge garden bed out of scrap lumber AND filing it with 6 wheelbarrow loads of dirt.  Although I have to admit it took me two days to do this, with lots of breaks and snacks.  I already plan on putting the beans, cucumbers and tomatoes in that bed, but I am still trying to decide if a squash or zucchini will fit too.  They get so big.  The bed is about 9ft by 3 ft so I have quite a bit of space, but we still have watermelons and cantaloupe to find a home for too!  I know it’s not all going to fit.

Our spring garden in the front yard is growing rapidly and is almost ready for thinning.  We also have had our first strawberry harvest of 2 berries.  They were delicious and I did not share.  I didn’t even tell anyone they were there.  Tee hehe.

The chickies moved into their new home this week.  They are very happy with their new digs.  There are big nesting boxes to cuddle in and perches to hang out on.  There’s a large grazing area protected by an old scrub oak tree and about 2 inches of leaf litter to sift through. They’re in bug heaven.

Don’t they have beautiful colors?  I love CoCo, the brown and white one.  She is going to be gorgeous.  My favorite personality wise is probably Betty White.  She is the white hen.  She is sweet and curious, always the first one to peek out of the hen-house and look around.  My neighbor and I spent a good half hour chatting in their new grazing area watching them peck away at sowbugs, worms and spiders.  We both agreed that it was very relaxing to watch them.  Their repetitive scratching, pecking and happy chirping is meditative, almost hypnotic.  I would bet that watching free range chickens for 30 minutes lowers your blood pressure tremendously, just like owning a cat or dog, except chickens give you eggs.

Whats happening in your garden this week?