Snowflake Marshmallows :)

So I was feeling pretty freaking happy today. No, not working, but up at the crack of dawn and finished the final corrections to my Masters dissertation. By 10 o clock. Now what to do? Treadmill? yip..so that got me to 11. This not working craic leaves a lot of time to fill....So, I do what I usually do when I have time to spare and my muscles won't support more exercise. I opened up Pintrest. God, I LOVE pintrest..you can plan your perfect life from work, to wedding to babies in one neat little website. Seriously..if people were to follow me on it...well lets just say it'd scare away most of the single male population. Maybe I'm on to something there? Only the good ones would stick around? Anyway..one of my boards on there is for holiday foods and crafts. (I know, I know..how very American of me..but I didn't want to name it St.Patricks day/Easter/Bonefire night/Halloween/Christmas foods and crafts..) I love my holiday board, it has so much stuff that, in reality, I'll never get around to making, but once I've pinned it, I feel I've achieved something. So its all good.

Anyway, a few days past a friend posted a Christmas countdown on my fb page. Its no small understatement to say I ADORE Christmas. Its just so damn magical. All of it. And not it is not the holidays. It's Christmas. End of. If anyone, ANYONE, ever wishes me Happy Holidays I won't be held responsible for my actions. And I REALLY don't care how un-PC it is to say so. The  Christmas countdown put me in the mood for some Christmas pinning. So off I went. And I found the pin of all pins. 

I should say that last Christmas, instead of buying the usual bottle of wine/bath set/picture frame/ ''artistic'' ornament for my extended family my mother suggested we could make hampers. I liked the sound of this. When I was little, my parents both used to recieve hampers from their respective employers. They were great hampers, and lots of fun to open and rummage through. Plus, the baskets were massive and useful to play make-believe with (I was young ok). Anyways, as the years passed, and the companies became richer and were sold on to bigger corporations, the hampers became decidedly stinger . Until the stopped altogether. I missed them. So when I got the opportunity to make some myself I was delighted! It was time consuming but I think they went down well. Well, the home-made Baileys did anyways ;). 

In the hamper I included a jar of salted caramel hot chocolate powder.It was yummy. I kept some over for myself and made it over the Christmas. With some baileys whipped cream and a few marshmallows on top, it was better than anything Starbucks could have produced (that's a completely unfounded proclamation, as I have never, in fact, eaten or drank in Starbucks). 

Well while looking through the Christmas pins this time around, I found something that would be soooo awesome with the hot chocolate this time around. Marshmallows. Snowflake shaped marshmallows. Unfortunately, the link didn't lead to a very useful site, which told me to ''roll out the marshmallows and cut out snowflake shapes''. Well, that's all very well and good when you can buy rolled up marshmallows (hello???) But I needed to make them first!

Take one did not go well. It was a recipe from the BBC website and for whatever reason didn't set well. Personally I think there wasn't enough gelatine in the recipe.

Take two, I vaguely remembered a copy of Delicious Magazine having marshmallows on the cover YEARS ago. I wasn't sure if I'd saved the recipe, but thankfully it was at the back of my folder. Delicious Magazine is 10 years old this month, and I have to say there are the best magazine out there. Their recipes have NEVER let me down. Ever. You could be someone that burns toast, and if you follow their instructions, you'll have no bother! So I was pretty sure this would work for me 

NOTE: these marshmallows are plain white vanilla flavoured but you can add different flavours as you go. It's usually best to add fruit puree to make fruit flavoured ones. If you want to use alcohol to flavour your marshmallows add it in step five.



You will need:
120 ml liquid (cool)
23g powdered gelatine(2 sackets of Dr.Oetker powder)
440g caster sugar
160ml golder syrup
vegetable oil for greasing
4-5 tbsp cornflower and the same of icing sugar

1. pour the liquid into the bowl of a food mixer and sprinkle over the gelatine. Set aside to allow the gelatine to absorb the liquid.

2.meanwhile, put the caster sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan with enough water to cover. Stir thoroughly and brush down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush .

3. cook over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved, then turn up the heat to bring it to the boil. If you have a sugar thermometer, wait for it reach 130C. If you don't (like me) boil for 8 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and let it cool for 1 min. 

4. whisk the gelatine/liquid mixture (with a hand whisk) initial. Then use the actual stand mixer. add the syrup, slowly. Don't allow it to touch the whisk directly.The mixture should grown in volume (like a meringue)

5. Once all the syrup is added continue to whisk for 20 minutes. (add alcohol flavours now)

6. Line a baking tin with cling film and grease well. spoon the mixture into the tin with a greased spatula then cover with greased cling film and leave to set for 2 hours. 

7. once the marshmallows has set, the cling film and cut into snowflakes with an oiled cutter. if you don't have one you can use any shaped cookie cutter or alternatively use a greased knife to cut into cubes. it will be VERY sticky.

8. roll in the cornflour/icing sugar mix
9 They will keep in an airtight container for two weeks.