I love marshmallows. No, really, I LOVE marshmallows.
I’m not sure how to express to you in words how much I love marshmallows, so let me try again...
I F&#%$!G LOVE MARSHMALLOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There. Did that do it?
Marshmallow is my second favorite sweet flavor/texture in the universe - the first being lemon (more specifically, lemon curd). Put lemon curd on top of a marshmallow, and you might see me pass out from excitement. So, naturally, when I had the “cupcake epiphany”** with homemade marshmallows, I immediately started making them myself. My first try was chocolate-dipped gingerbread marshmallows, and I freak out a bit. My second was early grey marshmallows with swirls of salted caramel, and to this day that’s one of the best things I’ve ever made.
Here I share with you an almost equally fantastic recipe, in a flavor that’s a little more well known and perhaps will appeal to more of the masses: Mexican Hot Chocolate Marshmallows. The nice thing about this recipe is that you can easily eliminate the chili if you don’t like spicy chocolate, or even the cinnamon too if you just want a straight-up delicious chocolate marshmallow. They’re fluffy, flavorful, and completely addictive, so make sure you have people to share them with or iron-strong willpower.
**The Cupcake Epiphany: When you think you don’t like something only to realize it’s because you’ve never had a “good one,” so you make it yourself and realize it’s fantastic and everyone else just doesn’t know how to do it right. Hah.
Happy Baking!
Adapted from Epicurious.com
MAKES 42-64 marshmallows, cut-size dependent
INGREDIENTS/SUPPLIES
5 tablespoons cocoa powder (26g)
1.5 teaspoons cinnamon
cayenne powder (mild=1/2 teaspoon, medium = 3/4 teaspoon, spicy = 1 teaspoon)
3 tablespoons light corn syrup (58g)
1 tablespoon hot water
1/2 cup cold water
3 envelopes gelatin (1/4 ounce each)
1.5 cups sugar (300g)
1 cup light corn syrup (11oz)
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
Stand mixer
Medium saucepan
Candy thermometer
9x9 pan
Tin foil & baking spray
Powdered sugar (~1 cup)
DIRECTIONS
In a medium-sized bowl, hand whisk your 5TB cocoa, 1.5tsp cinnamon, .5-1 teaspoon cayenne powder, 3TB corn syrup, and 1TB hot water; then set aside.
In the bowl of your stand mixer, add 1/2c cold water, then sprinkle over the three packets of gelatin, taking care to spread it evenly over the water so you don’t end up with a bunch of it sitting on top not getting wet.
To your saucepan, add - in this order - your 300g sugar, 1/4tsp salt, 1/2c water, and 11oz corn syrup. Set it over medium-high heat, attached your candy thermometer, and heat it to 240F degrees. It doesn’t need to be stirred, but if you feel the need, you can give it a little swirl with the thermometer.
While it’s heating and once the gelatin has been sitting in the water at least 5 minutes, turn your mixer onto medium and mix the gelatin for 20-30 seconds until it looks like a paste and not chunky.
When your thermometer hits 235 turn your mixer onto low, so that as soon as it hits 240 you can gradually pour the hot sugar mixture into the side of the bowl as the mixer is going. Be careful not to pour it directly onto the side of the bowl, nor to hit the top of the mixer - use both hands to hold the saucepan steady and pour the mixture in gradually - but not slowly, as if you go too slow it will cool too quickly before it hits the gelatin! (I’ll add a video of this step sometime soon).
Turn your mixer to medium (almost as high as you can go without the liquid splashing) and set your timer for 5 minutes.
During those 5 minutes, prepare your 9x9 pan by lining it with foil, giving it a good spray or buttering, and then coating the bottom and sides with powdered sugar. It’s very important the pan is ready when the marshmallow is done in the mixer, so if you’re at all nervous about the timing, do this step before you start any part of the recipe.
When your timer beeps, check to see if your marshmallow mixture is…marshmallowy. What you’re going for is thickened & white, but still pourable - like the marshmallow sauce you get on an ice cream sundae. Don’t worry if it’s not there yet - this could take up to 10 minutes.
Once it gets to that stage, remove about a third of it with a spatula into your medium bowl with the chocolate/spice mixture, and fold it together quickly but until it’s homogeneous (about 20 seconds), return it to your mixer and mixer on medium-high for 1 more minute.
Quickly pour the marshmallow into your prepared pan, scraping the last of it from the bowl with your spatula. Cover the pan with tin foil, taking care to not touch the foil to the top of the marshmallow. Set it aside for at least 4 hours, if not overnight.
Uncover your marshmallows and throw some powdered sugar evenly across the surface, then remove the foil & marshmallow from the pan. Gently pull the foil away from all around the sides of the marshmallow, using your fingers to pry it apart - if you grease & powdered your pan to begin, it should come apart quite easily. Invert your marshmallow onto a cutting board and gently pull the foil away from the bottom (now top) of the marshmallow. Once the foil is off, cover the marshmallow with more powdered sugar, rubbing it gently onto the sides as well. Pour a little pile of powdered sugar onto your cutting board aside the marshmallow, and spread it around a bit. You’ll see why in the next step.
Grab a long & very sharp knife, and cut a 1-2” strip off the side of your marshmallow, then press the just-cut tacky side into your powdered sugar on the cutting board, so that it’s not sticky anymore! Cut the strip into marshmallow-size chunks (whatever that means to you) and roll the now tacky exposed edges of each marshmallow in the powdered sugar. Repeat until they’re all cut up! Start eating them! Or store them in the fridge for a couple weeks, or in the freezer for a really really long time! Grab them one by one sneakily straight from the freezer every few nights cause they’re delicious cold!!