Smores On A Stick

I am so sorry that my pictures are horrible.  I used to at least try to get one nice picture.  But after 3 hours of dipping and wrapping these I was just done.

  I have been dreaming about these for a long long time! You all dream about sugary treats right?  Wait, don't answer that, I don't want to know!

  So I have had these on my  mind obviously, and that is because I have been obsessed with marshmallows ever since I first tried to make them a little while back.  Seriously, I think about all the ways I want to make them, and how I want to make lots of them.  So I finally did it.  I made some.  And I am so glad I did.  My pants, not so glad, they are getting a little mad at me.  Oh well, I can always get new pants right?

This is just the first pan,by the end my whole table was covered in icing sugar.

These are the two cutters I used, it is amazing how many more you get with the smaller cutter.  But I loved how big the big ones were, so much good stuff!

  So my motivation for these was simple, I wanted to make s'mores but I hated how messy they are and I knew that there was an easier way to do them.  And the very day before I made these I saw another blog where the person made these with store bought marshmallows.  So I knew it had to be good.

 To start out I made 3 batches of marshmallows. Yes I said 3!  My thinking was, if you are going to do it, do it right, and make enough to share.  I wanted some for both of my jobs, some for the trampoline place we are going to, some for the tutor and if I have some left over, some for me.  Okay who am I kidding, I ate myself silly before they were even dry. And I made these before my self imposed spending freeze.

  To make these I used the recipe from Martha Stewart that I posted about here. I really like this recipe because there are no eggs, and I am getting to the point where I can whip up a batch in half an hour.

If this picture was not so crappy you would be able to see the melted candy melts and the graham cracker crumbs.

  So I made three pans of them, let them dry over night then cut them out.  I have been wanting to make shape marshmallows for a while, but I hate the thought of all the waste, it's not like you can put the scraps together again. And there is only so much I can eat before I get sick. So I did squares, I just used two of my fondant cutters.  I made one pan with the large cutters, I got 24 out of it.  Then the little ones, well I got lots more, I think I got about 40-50 out of each pan.  And their were even a few scraps, so I just dunked them and ate them.  That gave me the idea that I so need to do a chocolate fondue with these home made marshmallows.  I so need to do that!

This is the lollipop stick, I had to hold it in the marshmallow for a few seconds to let the chocolate set and hold it.

  So I cut them all out and then melted my candy melts.  I also added some paraffin crystals as I didn't want too thick of a coating.  I figure thin was better, and I liked how it turned out.  I also wanted to add some graham crackers and could not decide how to do it. I thought a whole cracker would be too much to bite into, then I thought about just crushing them up, but then again, it would be chunky.  So I opted for ground graham crackers.  I just used my small blender to grind them up, if I was smart I would have gotten a box of the crumbs.

  I will never be accused of being too smart.

  Just so you know.

I ended up using a whole box of the crackers for this, I was surprised how much I used.

These were my first two, I was very happy how they turned out.

  So I started by dipping the lollipop sticks in chocolate then putting them into the marshmallow.  I found I had to hold it a few seconds or it would push back out, I figure the marshmallow is like a little sponge and you know, was too spongy to hold the stick.  Anyway after doing that I let it set for a minute then got to dipping.

Another amazing picture or my baby ones.

  I found the marshmallows very soft so I had to be gentle when dipping.  I would dip one, then tap off as much chocolate as I could, then press it into the cracker crumbs. Then onto the parchment paper to dry.  They worked out great!

This is my little army of Smore pops, and that was less than half of them.

These are the large ones, they were so good!

  I ended up running out of crackers and could not convince Pork Chop to go to the store with me.  He is now allowed to play at the park with his friends, so it is going to be harder to bribe him into the car.  What am I going to do when he is older and no longer wants to talk to me or be in pictures and you know be cute?  I may have to have another one, or get a puppy.  Either way.

Anyway, the sprinkle topped ones were great too, just not a smore like great. If that makes and sense at all.

I was too lazy to look for cute sprinkles, so I just took the only non holiday sprinkle I could find on the Wall O' Sprinkles.

  And of  course I just wrapped them up in lolli pop bags.  And I love that they stay nice and fresh as the chocolate keeps the marshmallow nice and soft. I will make these again for sure.

The one on the right, that is for me, the tiny ones, those are for everyone else.  I deserve the biggest!

Chocolate Covered Home made Marshmallows

 So before I get started I wanted to remind you all to check out my giveaway going on right now.  Make sure you enter, it is really a cute prize!

  So I am home today with a sick Pork Chop.  He was not feeling great last night, so it seems we have a Dr's visit in the works for today.  So I figure that I might as well make the best of it.  He can watch Disney and eat crackers, and I can type out a blog post.  So you know, it could be worse.  I do sort of feel bad that my friends at work have to wait until tomorrow to try this though, if they knew these were waiting for them.  Well I don't think they would make it through the day.

I know right! Those are some huge marshmallows.

  So this past weekend I decided to try something new.  I really wanted to start this blog to try and share new to me things.  So I went right outside my comfort zone and made marshmallows.  Then I got right back into my zone and covered them in chocolate.  It was awesome!

  So to start I did some googling and found out that there are two ways to make marshmallows.  One way was with eggs, and one without.  I opted for no eggs as I am cheap and did not want to buy eggs.  The other reason is with no eggs it's one less way to screw it up.

  So I found a recipe from Martha Stewart, and tweaked it a little bit with help and suggestions from the comments people made.  The other really cool thing is you need a candy thermometer.  Which I have, in the basement.  Still in the package it came in, over 10 years ago.  I know, I needed it when I was in culinary school and I was going to become a famous chef, and then it sat in the basement until now. I really get a lot of use out of my stuff, you know, eventually.

Man if you could only see how dusty the package was, I hope I use it again before I forget about it again.

  So here you are, with like a million pictures, the easiest marshmallows ever! ( okay maybe not ever, but if I can do it, so can you.)

First get all your stuff together.

Marshmallows

Adapted from Martha Stewart

-2 1/2 TBSPs unflavoured gelatin ( this worked out to be 3 envelopes for me)

-1 cup water, split

-1 1/2 cup white sugar

-1 cup light corn syrup

-1/4 TSP salt

-1 TBSP vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)

-icing sugar for dusting

  To start put your gelatin and 1/2 cup water in a mixing bowl and make sure it is combined and let it sit while you get the rest together. 

I know it looks gross, but it will get better, I promise!

  Then prepare your pan, a 9x13 cake pan, grease it with butter and sprinkle it with a lot of icing sugar.

I know, what post would be complete without a super cool picture like this.

 Combine the sugar, corn syrup, 1/2 cup water and salt in a sauce pan, and put over medium heat.  Stir until the sugar dissolves.*  Once it does, turn the heat up and attach your candy thermometer.  Using a wet pastry brush, brush the sides of the pot to make sure there are no granules of undissolved sugar.  Then turn the heat up and let it heat, unstirred until it reaches the hard ball stage.  244 degrees.  I found that the first time the mixture started to boil, it looked like it was going to boil over.  So I pulled it off the heat for a second then put it back on and watched it until it reached the hard ball stage.

* to make sure the sugar is dissolved, coat the spoon you are using to stir and run your finger along it.  If it feels gritty the sugar is not dissolved, obviously if it is not gritty you are good to go.

I was so excited to finally use it, I know my life is sad.

This is once it started to get hot.

See starting to boil.

And then it went to this in a few seconds and I screamed and put the camera down.  But I just took it off the heat for a few seconds and we were fine.  

 Once it reaches the correct temperature, turn your mixer on low, you should be using the whisk attachment.  Then take your sugar mixture and slowly pour it into the gelatin mixture.  Once it is all in turn up the mixer to high and beat it until the mixture turns light, white and fluffy and triples in volume.  It took about 8 minutes.  

So here it is, the sugar mix is all stirred in.

Here it is I turned it up high and let it go.  This is about 3 minutes in.

And here it is just before I added the vanilla bean paste.

The last step is to mix in the vanilla.  Once it is all mixed in, you are ready to pour out the mixture. 

You can see my hand prints, I found it easiest to sift the sugar on top.

  Pour it into your prepared pan and then sift a whole bunch of icing sugar on top.  Then take your hands and push and pat the mixture down to even it out.  If it starts to stick to your hands at all, just dust them in sugar.

  Then you just leave it uncovered over night.  

  The next day, get a cutting board and cover it with icing sugar, then turn out your marshmallow onto it.  If it sticks to the pan, pull it out at the corner and it will come out.  If it is sticking to your hands at all, just dust your hands with icing sugar.

My set up.

Right around here I started doing a little happy dance, I had made marshmallows!! I am queen of the culinary world!

  

Then take a knife or pizza wheel and cut your marshmallows out.  You could even use cookie cutters, but I did not want to waste any.  Also I did not measure, which you can totally tell, but again, it worked out fine, some people will not want large pieces. Although I don't know who that could be, not me for sure.

Okay and now, I came back down to earth, as I realized I cannot cut even marshmallows.

  Once I finished cutting them all, I pulled them apart, and dusted the sticky edges in icing sugar and set them aside while I melted my candy melts.

  I used chocolate candy melts and thinned them out a lot with paraffin crystals.  When I was ready I used two forks to dip each marshmallow, they float so you have to sort of spoon the chocolate over it.  

Oh man!

  Then I left them out to dry.

At this point I just wanted to eat it, but you know, melted chocolate would have been messy.  Sigh.

All done, and I did try to eat one, but it stuck to my paper because it was not totally dry yet.  But is still tasted great.

  And they turned out great!  I love how the vanilla bean paste adds to the marshmallow and the chocolate is a nice thin layer of yumminess. And I am also really surprised with how easy they were, other than the icing sugar ending up everywhere. 

And I tried to not get too upset about the few white patches.  The icing sugar made it hard for the chocolate to stick, so if a bubble popped there would be a white part.  Oh well, it looks more home made this way right?

  So back to watching Disney with Pork Chop and getting some cuddles in. Hey you have to grab them when they offer them.  Wonder if I will be able to make him take a nap, one can hope.

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