Last week, Tom sent me a link to a gallery of homemade candy recipes from Saveur's web site. I can take a hint! I decided to try the recipe for strawberry marshmallows, since I have made a lot of chocolate and vanilla marshmallows in the past, but I've never tried a recipe for any other flavor.
This recipe was pretty easy, as marshmallows go. The final mixture was extremely sticky and a bit difficult to get spread out evenly in the prepared pan (if you have ever made Rice Krispies treats, you have some idea how messy melted marshmallow is).
These marshmallows had the best texture of any homemade marshmallows I've ever made or tasted. They were tall, poufy, soft, and squishy -- very similar to (but even better than) commercial marshmallows. The ones in the picture above are 2-inches square and an inch and a half tall. They stayed soft with no degradation in texture over the several days that they lasted.
I wasn't 100% thrilled with the flavor, though. These marshmallows have no flavoring except for the bits of diced dried strawberry. Even though I used a mild clover honey to make these, I thought there was a strong honey flavor to them, which I didn't particularly like -- although this flavor did subside after the second day or so. I only had 4 oz. of dried strawberries on hand, so I was a little short -- I think that more strawberries would have improved the flavor. Also, I'm thinking about trying these again with freeze-dried (instead of just dried) strawberries or other fruit. Freeze-dried fruit has all of the moisture removed from it, and so it weighs very little and has a crunchy, friable texture. But since it crumbles easily, there is always a lot of fruit dust at the bottom of the package. I think that adding the fruit dust (or even intentionally creating some more by crushing the freeze-dried fruit) would help disperse fruit flavor more evenly throughout the marshmallows, and maybe also help add more natural color. I am thinking about trying this recipe with freeze-dried pears next.
Recipe: Strawberry Marshmallows from Saveur #131.
This recipe was pretty easy, as marshmallows go. The final mixture was extremely sticky and a bit difficult to get spread out evenly in the prepared pan (if you have ever made Rice Krispies treats, you have some idea how messy melted marshmallow is).
These marshmallows had the best texture of any homemade marshmallows I've ever made or tasted. They were tall, poufy, soft, and squishy -- very similar to (but even better than) commercial marshmallows. The ones in the picture above are 2-inches square and an inch and a half tall. They stayed soft with no degradation in texture over the several days that they lasted. I wasn't 100% thrilled with the flavor, though. These marshmallows have no flavoring except for the bits of diced dried strawberry. Even though I used a mild clover honey to make these, I thought there was a strong honey flavor to them, which I didn't particularly like -- although this flavor did subside after the second day or so. I only had 4 oz. of dried strawberries on hand, so I was a little short -- I think that more strawberries would have improved the flavor. Also, I'm thinking about trying these again with freeze-dried (instead of just dried) strawberries or other fruit. Freeze-dried fruit has all of the moisture removed from it, and so it weighs very little and has a crunchy, friable texture. But since it crumbles easily, there is always a lot of fruit dust at the bottom of the package. I think that adding the fruit dust (or even intentionally creating some more by crushing the freeze-dried fruit) would help disperse fruit flavor more evenly throughout the marshmallows, and maybe also help add more natural color. I am thinking about trying this recipe with freeze-dried pears next.
Recipe: Strawberry Marshmallows from Saveur #131.
Comments
I'd encourage you to try the orange ones, too. They are great cut in smaller pieces and coated with a thin layer of dark chocolate. I tried coating the strawberry ones, too, and while they still tasted good, the chocolate overwhelmed the strawberry flavor.