To make the process as clear and foolproof as possible, all of the recipes in my book are broken down into a few simple steps:
The Bloom: Unflavored powdered gelatin is “bloomed”, or softened, in a liquid for 5 to 10 minutes. This can be anything from water to fruit juice to booze and more. There are more than 50 recipes and flavor variations in the book, and many of them use the bloom liquid as a great place to inject flavor into the marshmallows.
The Syrup: Sugar, water, corn syrup and a touch of salt are combined and brought to a boil on the stove top (a candy thermometer is the brain if the operation here to ensure that you’re cooking your syrups to the temperatures indicated in each recipe). Occasionally additional ingredients are added to the syrup pot to bolster the vibrance of certain flavors.
The Mallowing: Once your bloom is ready and your syrup has boiled to just the right temperature, the two come together in an electric mixer. Whipping everything together with increasing speed gives the marshmallow its fluff and puff, and turns a small amount of hot liquid into a billowing bowl of marshmallow batter. During the final minute of so of whipping, one more opportunity to bump of the flavor of the marshmallows presents itself: In a basic vanilla marshmallow, for example, you’d just beat in some high-quality vanilla extract (and maybe the seeds of a scraped vanilla bean, if you’re feeling fancy). But that’s just the beginning!
There are tons of great flavorings out there, and for me, the best ones I found (at the best price and highest quality) were from LorAnn Oils. I even gave them their own shining moment on one of the pages in the Kids in a Candy Store chapter! LorAnn has everything from natural fruit oils and essences to outrageous novelty flavors that really bring out the kid in the candymaker—the Bubble Gum marshmallows in my book are one of my all-time favorite mallow flavors. They’re everything a marshmallow should be, pink and puffy and smelling of sweet candy. A sugar lover’s heaven!
As much as I love incorporating ingredients like fruit juices and purees into a marshmallow recipe, I find that using candy oils is the easiest way to get spot-on, big, bold (and great-tasting) flavors. I first started making marshmallows as filler on the dessert tables I create for my little catering business, in different flavors and colors to match party themes, and soon I realized the marshmallows were always the first things to disappear! With a great basic vanilla marshmallow recipe as your blank canvas and a collection of LorAnn oils (and a few fun food colorings), you can have a blast creating just about any flavor marshmallow you can dream up. It’s equal parts edible craft and crazy kitchen experiment. As I always say, we’re making candy here, not breakfast, so go nuts and have fun!
