Posts tagged under Marshmallows. Show all posts.
On Good Friday, the kiddos and I did the classic Easter egg decorating thing but then they wanted to try their hands at something sweeter. I know we had done some great recipes on last week’s newsletters for homemade Easter treats but amazingly my kids don’t really like chocolate so I wasn’t sure how they would go over. What they do like though is marshmallows and any variation on the classic rice krispie square, and we tend to make those every week, using all kinds of cereal for them—corn flakes, bran flakes, whatever we have.
So inspired by our wonderful chocolate nest recipe, we mixed up a batch, substituting some of the rice krispies (actually leftover ones from the holiday season, with the red and green in them) with a mixture of corn flakes and bran flakes to make them look more authentic, as if a bird had really foraged for all the different materials for the nest. (This also had the added advantage of using up a couple of boxes of almost finished cereal—hate those!) Once the mixture was cool enough to touch, the kids had fun making balls of the cereal and then forming them into nest shapes, with a small indent in the middle. Make sure if you try this not to squish and squeeze them too much—you don’t want the nests to be too dense. We then cooled them in a muffin tray to keep their shapes, and when they were ready, we popped a couple of Easter egg candies in the middle to make them look like real spring nests. It was fun and easy—and yummy (all gone by dinner time!). Sure to become a family tradition for us. What’s your favourite thing to cook with the kids?
Last Monday, at the weekly editorial meeting held at SavvyMom HQ, I snuck in a bag of homemade cinnamon marshmallows. I like surprising people with these sweet treats because they ooh and aah over them, thinking I’ve spent hours working in the kitchen when in reality, making marshmallows is one of the easiest candy confections I cook up in my kitchen.
To begin with, you only need five ingredients plus a flavouring agent: water, sugar, light corn syrup, salt and gelatin. For plain marshmallows add vanilla, for a cinnamon variety replace the vanilla with the ground, and to make a peppermint variety—my favourite for the holiday season—add some peppermint extract and a few drops of red food colouring.
These package up perfectly for homemade gifts, and we always keep some on hand for warm mugs of hot cocoa. I might consider packaging up a bag of homemade marshmallows with a favourite hot chocolate mix and a new mug for an easy homemade teacher’s gift.
One word of caution though: while the marshmallows are easy to make, they can be a little bit messy. Be sure to have plenty of non-stick spray or vegetable oil on hand.
Have you made marshmallows before? Was it easier than you expected?
To see the full printable recipe, click here: Homemade Peppermint Marshmallows
