Peppermint Marshmallows

 If you haven't ever had a homemade marshmallow, you are missing out! I made them myself for the first time last Christmas, and discovered that they aren't that hard to do. They do take some time to make, but the process isn't too difficult, and you can flavor them in many different ways. I've made raspberry, orange, and coconut, but this time just did peppermint.
You can find many different recipes for marshmallows, but I've only ever tried this one because it works! :) This is from the Food Network magazine Dec 09 issue. The original recipe is for and 8x8 pan, but I doubled it and will put the doubled measurements here, because who wants such a small pan of marshmallows?!
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups cold water
4 packets powdered gelatin (1/2 ounce each)
1 c powdered suger
1 c cornstarch
1 c corn syrup
3 c suger
1 c water
1 tsp Pure vanilla extract (or whatever flavor you want to use)

Combine 1 1/2 cups cold water with the gelatin packets and stir. Set aside to let thicken.

 Cook corn syrup, sugar and 1 c water in a saucepan over med-high heat until its 235 degrees, or a soft ball stage. Ok, I just lost you...you don't have a candy thermometer and don't know what the heck soft ball stage means. Don't worry! Let me explain! :)
When you first put it on the stove it will look like this:

Then it will start to boil, keep an eye on it so it doesn't boil over.

 

Keep the boil going for a few minutes, and you are going to notice that it will start to thicken up.

See the difference in these two?

So, you can keep the candy thermometer in to see when its done, or if you don't have one, take a glass of water pull just a bit of the mixture out and put it into the water. (This cools it so you can touch it) Reach in and grab the sugar mixture out. If it has dissolved, and you can't grab it, then it needs to cook longer. If you can grab it out and make a soft mold-able ball out of it, you are set!

 

While that is boiling, mix together the cornstarch and powdered sugar. Line a pan with wax paper, and coat it all with about half of the cornstarch mix. The recipe doesn't say to use wax paper, but just for ease of use I always have. You could be brave and go without it. :) Either way, be sure to coat the wax paper or pan with a good amount of the cornstarch mix, it will make your life easier later, and anything in excess with just fall right off later.

By now you gelatin will have thickened up quite a bit.

As soon as you know your sugar mixture is done cooking, pour into a large bowl and add the geltain. Then start beating. You will be doing this for quite some time. Be grateful if you have stand mixer and can just let it run...I do not...yet! So here is the breakdown in 5 min increments. If you have a more powerful mixer, it will take less time. You are going to beat until it is the thickness that marshmallows should be.

The start:

5 min in:

10 min in:

15 min in:

20 min in: Just about there!

I think that my camera died, and so I'll just tell you what I did. Just as it is about done, add in your flavoring. You can add more or less to taste. Then, if you want to color your marshmallows, add in food coloring. I wanted a red stripe, so I did some drops and swirled them around. Then, pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle more of the cornstarch mix on the top. Let set overnight.

Here you can see why I did wax paper, it just pulls out of the pan. Pull the sides of the paper away from the marshmallow and cut. I have pizza scissors that I use for these, but a knife works, just be sure whatever you are using you put in the cornstarch mix before cutting in. As you cut the marshmallows, roll the cut edges in cornstarch mix so they don't stick together.

Enjoy! These melt perfectly in a cup of hot chocolate, or taste great just by themselves!