Cloud 8½

I’ve wanted to make homemade marshmallows for quite awhile now, but for the longest time I was turned off by the fact that I didn’t own a stand mixer and thus, was completely intimidated by the idea. Then I put it off based on the fact that I didn’t own a candy thermometer, which is stupid, ’cause I should really add one to my kitchen tool arsenal.

Finally my sister invited me over for a day of Family Fun complete with Marshmallow Making. Projects like that are always more appealing when I can do them with someone, so I jumped at the chance! On a random Saturday I packed up my daughter, a couple of ingredients, and hit the road for my sister’s house where her four kids were running to and fro. I added my little one to the mix, our Mom showed up to hang out, and my sister I got to work.

I wish I could say that I have a recipe to share with you for these little pillowy clouds o’ delight, but we used one from a cookbook my sister owns: Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It and Other Cooking Projects (by Karen Solomon – a very cool little cookbook, I might add) and I don’t have a copy of it myself.  If you’re looking for one, I’d recommend this one from Smitten Kitchen!

The project took longer than we’d anticipated, mostly because bringing the candy mixture to a boil over low heat took quite awhile.  I do want to note that the liquid we boiled and then beat into, well, marshmallow, looked nothing like the finished product.  To say that we were dubious would be an understatement!  But we just left the stand mixer running and worked on some homemade graham crackers (which I didn’t care for and won’t recommend, so you won’t be seeing those here – a fun project, though!) while it beat away.  Finally, finally, we saw something we recognized!   So, in summation – if you do this at home, just stick with it.  It will come together, I promise you.

This may go without saying, but marshmallows are sticky.  Oh my goodness gracious did we have that stuff everywhere.  Licking the spoon and the bowl was a treat we shared with our family and I’m pretty sure we all ended up covered in it.

I don’t know that this is a project I’ll do with any regularity, but it was certainly fun and something I know I’ll do again another time, possibly even futzing with flavors this time.  The cookbook we used offered cocoa-covered and toasted coconut-covered alternatives and the latter caught my coconut-crazed attention.