homemade marshmallows [from my grandmother’s high school home ec cookbook]

As I was waiting [very impatiently] for the coffee to finish brewing in my mom’s kitchen on Monday morning, I ran across this gem:

That, my friends, is my grandmother’s cookbook from her home ec class in high school. I started flipping through it – and there were things in there that I had never even heard of – and ran across this recipe for marshmallows. I freaking LOVE marshmallows. And I really freaking love homemade rice krispies. And, yet again, I just used stuff I found between my mom’s cabinet’s and my pantry.

I’m not sure if I like these as much as the store-bought kind (maybe just because I grew up on them? I don’t know. I feel like a cooking-blogger-failure in saying that I prefer the chemically processed version…) But anyway, here’s the recipe! I’ll figure out something to do with all these freaking marshmallows and post that in the not-so-distant future.

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbs gelatin
• 1/4 c cold water
• 3/4 boiling water
• 2 c sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• powdered sugar

Directions:

Soak the gelatin in the cold water until it has taken up all of the water. Boil the sugar and water [you’re supposed to do this to the “soft-ball stage.” Since I’m not a candy-maker I completely didn’t heed this direction and just boiled it until the sugar dissolved. I’m guessing this is where I certainly went wrong…] Add the vanilla and salt to the gelatin.

Pour the syrup slowly over the gelatin, beating constantly with a whisk until cool and thick. [I ended up beating it for 20-30 minutes (yes, it was an arm work out) and I even set the bowl of goo into a bigger bowl with some ice water in the bottom – to try and cool it down faster.] Next, butter or spray a pan slightly and dust with your powdered sugar, like so:

Pour the marshmallow mixture into the pan and smooth it all out. Dust with more powdered sugar. It should look kinda like this (at least this is what mine looked like!):

In the morning, cut the weird goo into small squares and roll in [EVEN MORE] powdered sugar. So much sugar… I know.

And *drum roll* VOILA:

Ok so they look more like beignets than marshmallows, to me. But then again, I’ve never seen a homemade one before.

Good luck with those sugar highs, y’all! [I know I’m gonna need it…] Over and out.