Hey there Honey's and New-Bees!

With the start of the cold fall evenings and the holidays just around the corner it’s the perfect time to snuggle up in the evening with a warm cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows. Personally, I love marshmallows, they’re probably one of my favourite little treats that I can’t get enough of. Until pretty recently the thought of whipping up a homemade batch of marshmallows had never crossed my mind; I seriously didn’t even think it was an option until I had some spare time last christmas and discovered how EASY it was. Needless to say I made a whole lot of marshmallows last christmas not only because they were delicious, but also because they were so much fun to make!

Many recipes call for the use of corn syrup for marshmallows, however, I try to avoid it as much as possible so I used sugar instead. I also flavoured my marshmallows with vanilla however if you can use any flavouring you want depending on your taste and preferences. Hope you enjoy making and eating this delightful treat and please let me know in the comments about your own variations and how they turned out!

Gelatin is a tasteless and versatile protein that works as a thickening agent and is a key ingredient in marshmallows.
The first thing you want to do is “bloom” your gelatin, which is a fancy way of saying that you want to soften/rehydrate it in water. So for this step all you need to do is mix your powdered gelatin with cold water and let it sit for a couple of minutes.

While your gelatin is blooming you can start heating up your sugar, so combine your sugar and 1/2 cup of water in a medium sauce pan and cook it on medium-high heat, stirring constantly.
Sugar heats up very quickly and liquifies at 160ºC (320ºF) so please be very careful when completing this step.
Once your sugar has liquified, add the gelatin mix and mix well until completely dissolved, then remove from heat.

Let your hot liquid sit at room temperature for about a minute then add your vanilla extract and mix well. Most vanilla extracts are alcohol-based so it’s really important that you add your vanilla AFTER it’s been removed from the heat, otherwise the alcohol will burn off (and very quickly) and will take most of the flavour with it.

Now all you have left to do is whip everything together for it to fluff up – by far my favourite part! Pour your liquid into a large mixing bowl and with an electric mixer whip mixture until it’s soft and has doubled in volume. This should be about 5-10 minutes.
Once your mixture is ready, using an oiled spatula, pour the mixture into an 8” x 8” pan and spread evenly. Oiling your spatula with a non-flavoured oil like canola or safflower oil will make your life a lot easier since the marshmallow mixture is very sticky and the oil will allow you to transfer and spread it into your pan easily without leaving a flavour.

Cover your pan and let your marshmallows sit at room temperature for at least 4 hours.
When ready to cut remove your marshmallows from the pan and transfer them to a cutting board that’s been lightly dusted with icing sugar and cut them with a large knife that’s been generously oiled with canola or safflower oil (to prevent the knife from sticking).
Store in an airtight container and ENJOY!