Marshmallows

Yes Virginia, you can make homemade marshmallows, but seriously it was funny how many of the Girl Scouts were completely surprised by the thought of making your own marshmallows.  One Girl Scout did say her mom had made them and said they were too hard to make.  I am not a good judge of how hard a recipe is, personally I think this is a very easy recipe. Yes, it does involve some time and certain tools but very doable.  These are very yummy with the graham crackers I showed you how to make here and with Hershey's Kisses, for our Teacher Appreciation Luncheon we made open face S'mores with one graham cracker, marshmallow, and a Hershey's Kiss and toasted them together under the oven broiler.  These crackers are very addictive, each time I reach for one I want another one as soon as I have finished one.  I highly recommend these, the coconut oil puts them over the top.

 Mmmm, marshmallows.  Think of all the possibilities with these beautiful sugar clouds!

Ingredients for this Recipe Are:

1 cup Lite Corn Syrup

1 cup cold water

3 packets Unflavored Gelatin

1 1/2 cups Cane Sugar (white sugar also works)

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1/4 cup Cornstarch

1/4 cup Powdered Sugar

 Pour 1/2 cup water and gelatin in mixing bowl with whisk attachment standing by.

Pour 1/2 cup water, corn syrup, cane sugar, and salt into medium sauce pan with lid over 
medium/high flame for 3 minutes.

Remove lid from sauce pan, attach candy thermometer and continue cooking until temperature 
reaches 240 Fahrenheit.

Turn off burner and begin slowly adding sugar mixture to gelatin, alternating between 
adding syrup and mixing on high until syrup has all been added.

Continue mixing on high for 12 minutes, add vanilla extract right before the time is over.

Mix cornstarch and powdered sugar together.

Place a piece of parchment paper in a 9 x 13 pan.  

Sprinkle 1/2 cornstarch/powdered sugar mixture over the entire bottom of the pan.

 Spread marshmallow fluff into prepared pan.  Allow to rest on counter over night.

Cut into your favorite shape, or just squares.

Eat them on S'mores, in hot chocolate, or whatever you would like.

Enjoy!

Marshmallows

Printable recipe Found Here

1 cup Lite Corn Syrup

1 cup cold water

3 packets Unflavored Gelatin

1 1/2 cups Cane Sugar (white sugar also works)

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1/4 cup Cornstarch

1/4 cup Powdered Sugar

Pour 1/2 cup water and gelatin in mixing bowl with whisk attachment standing by.

Pour 1/2 cup water, corn syrup, cane sugar, and salt into medium sauce pan with lid over medium/high flame for 3 minutes.

Remove lid from sauce pan, attach candy thermometer and continue cooking until temperature reaches 240 Fahrenheit.

Turn off burner and begin slowly adding sugar mixture to gelatin, alternating between adding syrup and mixing on high until syrup has all been added.

Continue mixing on high for 12 minutes, add vanilla right before the time is over.

Mix cornstarch and powdered sugar together.

Place a piece of parchment paper in a 9 x 13 pan.  

Sprinkle 1/2 cornstarch/powdered sugar mixture over the entire bottom of the pan.

Spread marshmallow fluff into prepared pan.  Allow to rest on counter over night.

Cut into shapes.

Enjoy!

Fruit Snacks

This is the recipe my oldest son proclaimed was the best thing I have ever made.  Fruit snacks are super popular in my family and they go super fast when I buy a box of them from the store.  This recipe thankfully is very easy to make and the recipe list is super short.  I have been thinking about making fruit snacks for awhile.  It was a trip to Ikea that finally got me to make them.  I needed a mold to make them, and I didn't want the individual wells to be too big.  In other words I didn't want huge fruit snacks.  Ikea had chocolate molds, 3 for $1.99, so I snatched up four packages.  My next purchase was fruit juice concentrate (as in frozen fruit juice concentrate).  I didn't think finding frozen fruit juice concentrate would be so hard, but it turns out it is.  I ended up making my own frozen fruit juice concentrate for this recipe.  I'm guessing the rest of you will actually be able to find fruit juice concentrate in your local grocery freezer section.  If by chance you don't find it, you can make it by freezing fruit juice and placing it upside down at an angle inside a tall container (a pitcher works) and allow the juice to thaw slowly.  When the ice left in the juice is clear mostly then your done and can discard the ice.  The juice will thaw faster than the frozen water.  For fruit snacks, choose string flavors of juice such as grape, cherry, cranberry.  Avoid pineapple juice the enzyme in pineapple will prevent the gelatin from working.  Also avoid apple.  I prefer 100% juice but that is my preference and you may choose otherwise.

 Do your kids come screaming when you say you have fruit snacks?  Mine do.

 Ingredients for this recipe are: 1/3 cup favorite fruit juice concentrate (Mine are Greek, how about yours?) 2-3 packets of gelatin (2 creates a squishy fruit snack and 3 will create a firmer fruit snack), molds to make them in or a 8 in square pan.

 Pour juice into small sauce pan, and add gelatin on top.  Turn burner to medium and whisk until
gelatin is dissolved.  Remove from heat and pour into measuring cup.

 Spray molds with non-stick spray.  Pour liquid into molds and allow to set for 20 minutes.  I doubled this recipe for my peach juice and tripled it with the sour cherry juice I used.

 These are my sour cherry fruit snacks, work quickly this sets up fast.

 Look at all those fruit snacks.

I used a toothpick to remove mine from the molds.  My children and I both agree that the sour
cherry were better, I think because the flavor was more pronounced.   These were a big hit.
I will definitely make these again.

Enjoy!

Popped Brown Rice Treats

I think Rice Krispies is a trade mark name, but just so you know, that is sort of what I made today, but in a whole new way.  I learned how to make popped rice this weekend.   When I tried it out, and told some friends, they immediately asked about Rice Krispie Treats.  One friend even mentioned making butter and marshmallows too.  I took their words as a challenge.  My inner Curious George culinary novice brain, said yeah lets do this.  Today was the day.   Well actually, last night started the day.  Last night I steamed 3 1/2 cups of short brown rice (Nishiki Sushi grade rice is what I used).   I rinsed it till the water ran clear and put it in the rice cooker pot with enough water to reach my first knuckle with my finger touching the top of the rice.  I set the rice cooker to brown rice and let it do it's job, steaming the rice of course.  After the rice was cooked, I spread it on a long sheet of parchment paper on my kitchen table to dry over night.  

 Popped Brown Rice Treats, like the Rice Krispie Treats we all grew up eating but better.

 This morning I placed the rice in my dehydrator, on the screens included,  and set the temperature
to 105 Fahrenheit and dried it for several hours, rotating the two layers once half way through.
When the rice is dry, you are ready for the next step.  You could also dry your rice on cookie
sheets for a couple of days.   The rice should be dry all the way through for this to work.

 Ingredients to make popped rice are: dried rice, peanut oil, mesh sieve, and stock pot or wok.

 Place rice in a mesh sieve, something that will fit in the pan you have oil in.

 Here is my trick that a friend asked me about. I fry my rice in peanut oil, peanut oil heated to
400 Fahrenheit in a wok on my stove.

 Let the popping commence. Before...

 After!  When the the bubbles have stopped between the rice in your mesh sieve you know
you have cooked all the rice.  I drained my rice on a paper towel lined plate.

 Ingredients you will need for marshmallows: 3 packages unflavored gelatin, 1 cup ice cold water,
12 ounces white sugar (about 1 1/2 cups), 1 cup light corn syrup, 1/4 teaspoons salt,
1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1/4 cup cornstarch, and 1/4 cup confectioners sugar.

 Pour gelatin in mixing bowl with 1/2 cup cold water, let bloom.

 Pour 1/2 cup water, white sugar, corn syrup, and salt into sauce pan.  Place over medium high
heat and cover with lid.  Cook for 3 to 4 minutes. 

 Uncover and clip on candy thermometer.   Cook until the mixture reaches 240 Fahrenheit,
about 7 to 8 minutes.   Remove from heat immediately.

 Turn mixer onto low.   Drizzle mixture down the side of the bowl.  When all the mixture
has been poured, turn mixer speed to high. 

 Mix for 12 minutes.   After 10 minutes add the vanilla extract.

 You only need 1/4 of this for our treats.  Mix cornstarch and powdered sugar together.   Sprinkle
 half on small cookie sheet.  Spread the marshmallow mixture on pan.   sprinkle the other
half the sugar/cornstarch.  Allow marshmallows to set on counter over night, then enjoy
homemade marshmallows. 

 Ingredients for this recipe are: popped rice, 1/4 cup coconut oil, and marshmallow.

Heat marshmallow in mixing bowl on low, on stove, while mixing in coconut oil, this will take
seconds since we didn't let this marshmallow set like the rest.  Add marshmallow/coconut oil
mix to popped rice and stir.  Pour everything into desire greased dish, and allow to cool.

I don't have a rectangular pan so I used my cake pan.  They were delicious just so you know.

Enjoy!