Fresh Marshmallows!

Marshmallows.  White, fluffy, "air-puffed" marshmallows.  We've all probably had one of those marshmallows before in our lives, but how many of us have actually had real home-made marshmallows before?  Home made marshmallows?  The thought never even entered my mind to make marshmallows at home!  I remember the first time my cousin was telling me about these made-from-scratch marshmallows that she saw online.  Of course, this site sold really cool and extravagant cookies and goodies too...you know, stuff like chocolate and cracked black pepper cookies and olive oil thyme cookies and whatnots.  And of course, they had these beautiful fluffy marshmallows packaged in beautiful bags.  Really, the marketing was spot on!  Even I wanted to buy some (even though I don't really like marshmallows!)  We were on the verge of buying these goodies...even had the items in our cart.  They were really luxury goods.  And after shipping was calculated, we threw the idea straight out the door.  And since then, home-made marshmallows have been on my mind.  I have always heard that home-made marshmallows were so good and way better than store-bought marshmallows.   And finally, a year and a half later, I decided to try my hands at making my own marshmallows.  

Marshmallows are a fairly simple process.  It requires a candy thermometer...but since I don't have one, I kind of guesstimate on when the cooking process was done.  I guess I guessed right because after the mixture cooled and firmed up, they looked and tasted exactly like marshmallows you buy at the store.  I had cut up some square shaped marshmallows and then last minute decided to cut some heart shapes too.  The hearts were super cute, but they also produced a lot of waste.  I guess I could have made rice krispy treats with the left over marshmallows.  Oops..didn't think about that until now!  

 I have mixed feelings about these marshmallows.  My opinion was that they kind of tasted just like the ones from the store...except these marshmallows cost a lot more than what I can get at the store and they took around eight hours to set.  However, these are natural marshmallows...no corn syrup and weird stuff in them.  The taste was ok.  It definitely didn't have that weird coating you'd get if you ate store bought ones.  These were less plasticy tasting.  I also think I will put more vanilla extract next time to bump up the flavor, but overall, not too shabby!  I bet these will taste pretty darn good sandwiched between some chocolate and graham crackers!