Fear the Marshmallows

October 14th, 2010  |  22 Comments

Do these scare the pants off you? Eh, me neither. But they’re cute! Maybe you can scare your kids by biting their heads off, in good ol’ Ozzy Osbourne fashion. Not the kids’ heads. The marshmallow ghosts’ heads.

Man, oh, man did I love Halloween when I was a kid. My sweet tooth started going off like some sort of homing device when October 31st drew nearer. Off I’d go with my little friends, in our finest homemade cowgirl outfits, door to door, to collect candy.

It finally dawned on me that it was time to call it quits on the Trick-or-Treating when, one particular year, as I was standing on the neighbor’s porch holding out my beggar’s purse, I realized I was able to look him square in the eye. We were now the same height. He looked behind me for an actual child, saw none, and resentfully handed me Kit Kats with a dose of evil eye. A flush of embarrassment came over me, the same one that swells up when someone points out that your skirt got caught up in your underwear, revealing a butt made lumpier thanks to years of candy consumption. Ahhh, poetic justice.

I was in high school, for crying out loud! Couldn’t I have figured this out myself? I guess I didn’t want to let it go. Thankfully, Trick-or-Treating isn’t the only way to have fun with this greatest of days.

One hotel I worked in invited neighborhood kids to put on their finest goblin dress and come by to collect our specially made treat bags. We filled them with whatever our conspiring little heads cooked up: iced sugar cookies decorated with mummy heads and witches, caramel corn, lollipops with red food coloring dropped in to look like pearls of blood, licorice bats. And one year we made the marshmallow ghosts. We put them between ghost shaped graham crackers, added some chocolate and threw them over a portable flame. Who, I ask you, wouldn’t go batty for that?

How about you? Do you have any Halloween memories?

Marshmallows!

You’ll need a Candy Thermometer for this, and if you want shapes, you’ll need Metal Ghost Cutters. If you want simple cubes, you can cut them with a knife.

The marshmallow batter can be spread out as thick or as thin as you’d like. For a ‘smore, I think thinner’s better, so the shapes fit between the crackers more comfortably. This batch will make about 15-20 ghosts, depending on your cutter size, or a few dozen big 1″ cubes (6 dozen? I lost count). They’ll keep for at least a week in an airtight, Tupperware-style container.

This ratio of ingredients comes from Gourmet but I changed the method to make it go a little faster.

For the marshmallows:
3 1/2 envelopes (2 tablespoons plus 2 1/2 teaspoons) (25 g) unflavored gelatin
1 cup (240 mL) cold water, divided
2 cups (425 g) granulated sugar
1/2 cup (120 mL) light corn syrup (I know people get worked up about the corn syrup, but it’s only a form of sugar, like any other, and helps the marshmallows keep their texture longer.)
1/4 teaspoon (1 g) salt
2 large egg whites
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (or play with other extract flavorings)

For the outer coating:
1/3 cup (40 g) confectioners’ sugar
3 tablespoons (25 g) corn starch

1. The makings of ghosts:

 

2. First, sprinkle the the gelatin over half a cup of the water while I cackle all witch-like.

 

Let it rest for 5 minutes, and continue with the recipe. In 5 minutes it absorbs the water and looks like this:

Oh, what ugly madness, you may think! That’s because I poked it.

 

3. Meanwhile, grab a high-sided pan, about 13″ x 9″, and give it a spritz with some cooking spray…

 

…line it with parchment, and spritz again. The coating under the paper “glues” the parchment to the pan so it doesn’t slide around when the marshmallow goo gets spread. The second coating keeps the marshmallow from sticking to the parchment.

 

4. In a small pot go the sugar, corn syrup, salt and the remaining half a cup of the water.

 

This goes over a high flame like the Salem Witches (mwaaa haaa haaa) along with a candy thermometer. This is going to get cooked to 250 degrees F (121 degrees C.) and will take about 7 minutes. Don’t go far! Watch it like a ghoul!

 

5. While that’s cooking, the egg whites make their way to the KitchenAid bowl, and await their doom.

 

Here’s where it pays to be alert and nimble because everything happens quickly.

When the sugar is a few degrees away from the goal temperature (of 250 F), at around 245 degrees F, start whipping the egg whites on medium speed. They’ll hopefully be foamy and close to soft peak stage by the time we need them, without being fully whipped. Keep an eyeball on them. (eye of newt. mwaaa haaa haaa.)

 

The sugar will come to temperature of 250 degrees F quickly. Shut off the heat, and dump the gelatin blob into the hot, hot, sugar all at once, being careful not to let it splash back on your arms. (Or your arms will look unintentionally Halloween appropriate.)

 

The heat of the sugar will start to melt the gelatin immediately. Do not stir. Swirl the pan gently until it’s completely dissolved. It should take mere seconds. About 30 seconds.

 

It’s melllltting!!!!!

 

6. Once it’s completely liquid, I change the whipping egg speed to high, and I slowly pour the sugar down the side of the mixing bowl WHILE the egg whites are whipping on high. A steady stream, if you will.

 

Add the vanilla extract. Don’t mind my inexact measure. I like living on the edge. Once everything’s in, it may look a little soupy at first. But then, as it whips and cools, the gelatin starts to set and fluff higher.

 

It starts to get more body,

 

…and then gets really bodacious. The streaks starts to hold their shape. This takes about 5-7 minutes.

 

The best time to stop is when the bowl is in the lukewarm range. Touch the side. The bowl should be slightly warmer than room temperature. No need to get worked up about this. It’s just a generality, and there’s plenty of room for error. The stuff shouldn’t get too cool in the bowl, because it starts to firm up, and becomes more difficult to pour out. (Then it will just be stickier and stringier to deal with, but you’ll still get marshmallows.)

 

Quickly, pull out the whip, and shake off the excess batter (but resist the urge the scrape it clean with a spatula or it will look like you’ve been playing with silly string.) Quickly again, pour the batter into the prepared pan. With a few sure strokes of a rubber spatula, help it along by scraping the bottom. If any batter resists, just let it die its proper death.

 

Spread it around to even it out, and let it rest, just like this, UNCOVERED and UNREFRIGERATED for at least 3 hours or overnight.

 

(FYI —The dirty dishes clean up easily under hot water, which will dissolve all the stuck-on sugars.)

Now, it’s later.

Time to make that telltale marshmallow powder that gets all over your clothes. (It’s needed so these babies don’t stick to each other.)

1. Here’s the powdered sugar and the cornstarch.

 

2. Here’s the powdered sugar and cornstarch, mixed.

 

3. Sprinkle the mix over the marshmallow. A fine mesh sieve works best to avoid the clumps, but if you don’t have one, just sprinkle it on with your trusty hands.

 

Run a knife around the edges to loosen…

 

and invert onto a cutting board (or a piece of parchment.)

 

Peel off the parchment, and powder this side, too.

 

And cut shapes…

 

or cubes. Any size. With a sharp knife or a pizza wheel. Toss the cubes in more coating, so they don’t stick to each other.

 

Boooooooooooooooooooo.