Homemade Marshmallows for S’mores

Blane enjoying one of *many* marshmallows. Since they passed his test, I know the recipe's a keeper!

S’mores Anyone?

I have to share about last weekend’s kitchen escapades. I had so much fun working much of the day preparing for guests, but on two recipes in particular.  Move over boxed graham crackers and junk jet-puffed marshmallows.

Oh yes I did make marshmallows.  And no, it was not stressful. It was really therapeutic to be in the kitchen and the kids were having fun playing by themselves and with daddy. It was so nice!

Let me tell you what a big hit these homemade marshmallows and graham crackers were!  One of the little girls squealed while tasting a marshmallow exclaiming, “These taste just like pancakes!” I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but she loved ‘em. 

The graham cracker recipe can be found here.  I’ve made graham crackers before but gave up after trying a few recipes that were just too sticky and took forever.  These are easy and turn out perfect!  I made two different batches, one with sprouted wheat flour and the other with spelt flour (spelt was better!).

Now on to the marshmallows!  I was so pleased with how they turned out, despite my original thinking that I botched the whole recipe and would need to start over.  Ugh. I hate throwing food away.  I was going to used it to make granola, but thankfully it worked! I remembered Donielle writing about making her own marshmallows with no sketchy ingredients, so I went and found it.  I modified it a bit, so I’ll share my version of the recipe.

Maple Syrup Marshmallows

4Tbsp gelatin

1/2 cup water

2 cups real maple syrup

1/2 tsp cream of tarter

1/4 tsp salt

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

Combine the gelatin with the water in a stand mixer and set aside. Make sure to do this right before adding the syrup mixture.  This is why I thought I botched the recipe.  I added it too soon and when I was ready to add the syrup mixture, the gelatin was already set!  To fix it, I added another tablespoon of gelatin and more cream of tarter than the original recipe calls for (these changes are already in the above recipe).

Heat the maple syrup and cream of tarter to 250 degrees, in a medium sized pot.  I don’t have a candy thermometer so I used a meat thermometer and guessed.    Be careful!  The syrup will bubble up high in the pot!

Once the syrup mixture is hot enough, turn your mixer on and add the syrup.  Cover the mixer, and let it mix until light and fluffy.  It took about 20 minutes for me, but I think it’s because of my gelatin issue.

Butter a 9×13 pan and once mixture is done, using a spatula, fill the pan.  It didn’t look like it was going to cover an entire pan, but it did!

I let the marshmallows sit in the fridge for a good 7 hours or so.  When you’re ready to eat them, use a buttered knife to cut them.  But they’ll still be tricky to cut. They won’t be messy to cut!

Enjoy!

We made s’mores with them.   I forgot to get some pictures, but they don’t exactly work the same way as store bought marshmallows do.  They melt and drip, so just warm them a bit and then quickly get them onto a graham cracker.

Yum!

You’ll find all kinds of new recipes this weekend at Heavenly Homemakers Recipe Parade!!