homemade marshmallows

(or: OMG LOOK I POSTED A RECIPE!)

This recipe was originally posted on my first blog Bruises in the Frosting on 12/12/2016.

I used to make homemade marshmallows every Christmas. I would make hundreds of them and sell them to fundraise for our local mom’s group giving tree. In lean years, I sold them so my kids could have something under the tree.

One year, I spent 21 straight days making at least 2 batches of marshmallows (20 per batch) a day, shipping them all over the United States and hand-delivering them from the Washington/Canadian border all the way down to Portland. I even stuffed half of my suitcase with marshmallows when I went to visit a friend in California that year.

At one point, I was making so many marshmallows that I almost went into business as “The Marshmallow Queen”. I also taste tested a lot and learned what it looks like when I’m over-sugared. Hey…I used this gelatin from Vital Proteins so they were basically vitamins, right?

A few notes before the recipe:

• Please make sure you read the whole recipe before you start. There are a few steps where you have to have your mise en place or you’re going to get held up!

• Watch the boil on your syrup. It can boil over super quickly.

• Yes, you CAN use a hand mixer, but you’ll be standing there forever. If you can get your hands on a stand mixer, it will make your life so much easier.

• You could make cold brew marshmallows by using plain (no sugar or milk) cold brew concentrate in place of the water, and omitting the vanilla. Don’t stop watching the pot on this one, it WILL boil over and you’ll need to keep an eye on it to prevent that. (It’s a b*tch to clean up!)