MARSHMALLOWS

Although they are easy to find in shops now this traditional recipe gives you the satisfaction of making them from scratch and will rekindle memories of toasting marshmallows on a stick over a fire or on top of a winter hot chocolate.

A little bit about marshmallows first though. The sweet tasting root of the marshmallow plant used to be the main ingredient of this sweetmeat, but now only the name survives in the recipe. Until the 18th century the plant was greatly used for medicinal properties, and a syrup of marshmallows was recommended for curing many ailments such as to cure sore throats, hoarseness and all lung complaints (like we needed an excuse to eat them!!) The first reference to marshmallow prepared as a sweetmeat instead of a medicine was in the Chambers's Journal for 1884. This version is delicately flavoured with vanilla.

The recipe is broken into three parts so that you can see which ingredients are used for which part so hopefully that will make it a lot easier.

RECIPE

Prep : 45 minutes

Cooling and drying : 36 hours

Quantity : this recipe will create 800g

FOR THE GELATINE MIXTURE

25g (1oz) powdered gelatine

150ml (1/4 pint) of water

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

FOR THE SYRUP

450g (1lb) granulated sugar

200ml (7fl oz) warm water

225ml (8fl oz) liquid glucose

1 egg white

FOR THE COATING

3 tablespoons of cornflour

3 tablespoons sieved icing sugar

METHOD

1 Place the water, gelatine and vanilla essence in a small bowl set over a saucepan of water.

Heat it gently over a low heat to dissolve the gelatin, then take the pan off the heat. Leave the

bowl on top of the pan to keep the mixture warm.

2 Dissolve the sugar in the warm water in a fairly large pan over a low heat, then gently stir in

the glucose with a wooden spoon. Stop stirring and let the mixture boil. Remove the pan from the heat.

3. Pour the still warm gelatine mixture into a heatproof mixing bowl rinsed out with water to

stop the mixture sticking. Gradually trickle the sugar syrup into the gelatine mixture,

whisking all the time. A balloon whisk gives the lightest mixture, but an electric mixer saves

hard work!

4. When the mixture is well thickened, beat in the egg white a little at a time. The mixture

should become thick and light and foamy looking.

5. Mix together the cornflour and icing sugar and sprinkle some of it over the bast of an oiled tin

28 x 18 cm (11 x 7 in) tin. Pour the marshmallow into the tin and allow it to cool slowly leaving

it for 24 hours.

6 Dust the worksurface and hands lightly with the coating mixture. Use a knife to lift a corner of

the marshmallow, then pull it gently out of the tin on to the worksurface. Use a hot sharp

knife (make sure the knife is very dry) and cut the marshmallow into squares. Dip the cut

sides in the coating mixture and leave to dry for about 12 hours. If you arent using straight

away then store the marshmallows in layers in an airtight tin.