Homemade Peppermint Marshmallows

This has taken me a little longer than I thought it would, but here is the second part of my neighborhood gift I was telling you about last week. These peppermint marshmallows turned out just delicious! I love them! My kids love them! If you love or even like to put candy canes in your hot cocoa, you will love love LOVE these marshmallows! They make your hot cocoa creamy with the taste of peppermint. Make them, you'll love them!

Homemade Peppermint Marshmallows

Ingredients

3 1/2 envelopes unflavored gelatin (2 tablespoons plus 2 1/2 teaspoons)

1 cup cold water, divided

1 3/4 cup evaporated cane juice

1/2 cup agave

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 large egg white

1 1/2 - 2 tablespoons peppermint extract (depending on how pepperminty you want them)

3 drops red food coloring

2 cups organic powdered sugar

3 organic candy canes, crushed

Directions

Grease bottom and sides of a 13x9 inch rectangular metal pan, and dust bottom and side with organic powdered sugar.

In a bowl of a standing electric mixer sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water, and let stand to soften.

Meanwhile, in a 3-quart heavy sauce pan cook evaporated cane juice, agave, second 1/2 cup cold water, and salt over low heat. Stir with a wooden spoon until cane juice is dissolved. Cover and increase heat to moderate high and boil. Once the mixture starts to boil uncover and insert candy or digital thermometer. Boil until the thermometer register 240*F (soft ball stage). Remove pan from heat and pour lot liquid mixture over gelatin mixture. Stir until gelatin is dissolved. Turn on electric mixer to high speed and mix until mixture turns whit, thick, and nearly triples in volume, about 6 minutes.

While that thickens, in a separate bowl with cleaned beaters beat eggs whites until they just hold stiff peaks. Beat egg whites, peppermint, and food coloring into white mixture until just combined. Pour, now pink, mixture into baking pan. Sift some of the powdered sugar evenly over the top. Chill, uncovered, until firm, at least three hours, and up to one day.

When firm, run a thin knife or rubber scraper, around edges of pan and invert pan onto a large cutting board. Lifting up one corner of inverted pan, with rubber scraper, loosen marshmallow and ease onto cutting board. With a large knife rim edges of marshmallow and cut marshmallow into one-inch cubes. Sift remaining organic powdered sugar back into our now-empty baking pan along with the crushed organic candy canes, and roll the marshmallow though it to prevent sticking. Store in a plastic bag in fridge or in freezer for up to one month, and enjoy!

To make small marshmallows like I did, use two 9x13 inch pans and divide pink mixture between the two pans. This allows you to cut them a little smaller for small marshmallows.

Pumpkin Marshmallows

I'm sorry about dropping off the face of the earth last week. To be honest I haven't been cooking and experimenting very much lately. Mostly last minute shopping and getting ready for Christmas. I'll try and do a little better. :]

When I found this recipe for pumpkin marshmallows I was so excited to try them. How good could they be, I thought. Well let me tell you... they are so amazing!!! I love them, and so do my kids and anyone who I let try them. I've decided that they are going to be part of my neighborhood Christmas gift this year. I'll tell you more about that hopefully by the end of this week or the beginning of next. Any who, these are sooo good and if you like to add chocolate chips to your pumpkin bread you will like these in your cup of hot chocolate or hot carob!

Pumpkin Marshmallows

Ingredients

3 envelopes unflavored gelatin

1/2 cup cold water

2 cups evaporated cane juice

2/3 cup agave

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1 heaping teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 level teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 heaping teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup organic powdered sugar

Directions

Spray a 9x13 inch pan with non stick cooking spray and dust with organic powdered sugar. Set aside.

Pour the 1/2 cup cold water into the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the gelatin on top. Set aside for 10 minutes. Combine the evaporated cane juice, agave, and 1/4 water in a sauce pan; cover. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Take the lid off when it starts to boil and add a candy thermometer. Heat to 250* F, or until a small amount of the syrup dropped into a cold a bowl of cold water forms a rigid ball.

Meanwhile, combine the pumpkin puree, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg, mix well.

When the syrup is finished add to the dissolved gelatin and turn on your mixer on slow speed. Increase the speed to medium-high and add the salt. Mix until stiff, shiny, white in color, and tripled in size, about 5-12 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl occasionally using a rubber spatula.

When tripled in size remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the pumpkin mixture until combined. Return the bowl to the mixer and beat on medium-high speed about 3 minute longer. The mixture should form a more-or-less continuous ribbon off the spatula into the bowl.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan so that it is an even depth. Top with a light coat of organic powered sugar. Let the mixture set at room temperature for at least 8 hours or over night.
When the marshmallows have set, turn them onto a work surface and cut them into squares or shapes as desired. Roll each marshmallow in organic powdered sugar to coat each side to prevent sticking. Store in an airtight container in fridge or freezer. They can last for up to a month in the freezer or a week on the counter. Enjoy!

Homemade Suckers

We love homemade suckers in my home. I've been making suckers since...well to be honest I can't remember when I started making them. My mom always made them growing up and I'm not sure when she started teaching me how. I've been making these healthier suckers for about three years now.

There are so many fun things that you can do with homemade suckers. You can do half flavors like shown in the picture below. This one is half strawberry and half pina colada, my personal favorite.

You can add jelly beans, gummy bears, and gum to them either in the middle or just sticking out. My mom was very creative with the suckers we grew up with. We always made them for our Valentine's to take to school. Now you can't do that because they're not wrapped but I still make them for my kids to take to neighbor friends. Depending on the molds you have, you really can make them for every holiday.

So now that you know some of the possibilities of suckers, let me share with you how I've changed my mom's recipe and made it a little healthier. First of all I use evaporated cane juice, then I use Agave, that's it! If you search it on the internet you'll find lots of places that say you can't make hard candy using Agave. Well I'm here to tell you, you can! See my pictures. I've also made suckers with just Agave and no evaporated cane juice. The pina colada half from the sucker in the picture was made with just Agave and water. So have fun with it, experiment at home, and have your kids help you with the molds and sticks.

Homemade Agave Suckers

Ingredients

1/2 cup evaporated cane juice

3 tablespoons agave

1/4 cup water

1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon flavoring

food coloring (optional)

Directions

In a medium sauce pan on stove top combine evaporated cane juice, agave, and water over medium high heat. Once combined, cover and bring to boil for one minute. Then uncover and place candy thermometer on the side of pan and cook until the temperature almost reaches 300*F, or until drops of the syrup form hard balls in cold water. Remove promptly, the temperature will continue to raise after taking it off the stove and you don't want it to burn. Stir until the large bubbles have gone down, let sit for 30 seconds. Next stand back and add food coloring, flavoring, and stir. Be careful when adding flavoring it will cause steam to raise! Make sure that the flavoring and coloring are well incorporated. Do not add to molds until the candy liquid starts to thicken slightly. Once the candy liquid is slightly thick pour into slightly greased molds and let cool completely before serving. If adding gummy bears or other types of healthier candy (see future posts) wait to add them until the candy liquid has cooled down even more in the molds or the candy will melt.

Tips:

-If you are using an oil based flavoring you don't need to add that much, only 1/4 teaspoon. The flavoring should tell you if it is oil based or not. If it isn't an oil based flavoring then add 1/2 teaspoon.

-Because Agave is not clear some of the flavors you don't have to add coloring to. I never add coloring to my root beer, because the candy liquid is already brown.

-If you've ever made suckers before you will have a hard time waiting for the liquid to thicken. Be patient!!! Just trust me, I've been making these for years now and I've messed up a lot. Agave takes longer to cool down than corn syrup does.

-Make sure you have your mold ready with the sticks in them before starting to make the suckers.

-Agave can burn very easily, so Watch the temperature closely!

-This recipe only makes about 6 large suckers and about 10 small suckers. It can be doubled very easily. I like to make several different flavors and not have suckers coming out of my ears.

Wisdom Wednesday!

Sugar answer 'B', what are some refined sugar substitutes?

The refined sugar substitute I use the most is Evaporated Cane Juice. It is the same sugar, at the beginning, as refined sugar. It just isn't sent to a refining factory after the first 24 hours of processing. So it only goes through the first 3 steps (see post here for more info). It is still sugar and should be used in moderation, but a much healthier form of sugar. There are a lot of sugars out there that say 'Organic sugar', and I'm not sure what that means. I've heard some say that it is just refined sugar with a little molasses added to it after it has gone through the entire refining process. Because I don't know for sure I stick with Evaporated Cane Juice. When you are buying organic sugar just look at the ingredients listed on the back of the package to make sure. If it says organic sugar and molasses as the only ingredients then I would personally stay away from it. And that is just because I don't know any more information about it. Study it out before you commit to buying a lot of anything.

You can buy Evaporated Cane Juice at Health Food stores, some grocery stores, and at Costco (it's MUCH cheaper at Costco). Evaporated cane juice also comes in a brown sugar form and powered sugar form, though I usually just like to make my own powered sugar from my evaporated cane juice at home.

The next substitute I like to use is Honey. Honey has been around for ever. My kids love honey! We go through it pretty quickly so I buy it in these huge 60 pound buckets. I mostly use honey in my breads, some muffins, and pancake syrup. There are some things that you can't use honey in place of sugar. It really depends on the recipe.

The next substitute I'll talk to you about is, Agave. It is a wonderful replacement for Corn Syrup, sugar, and honey. Agave is a plant. It is grown in hot climates. There are several different types of Agave plants. The most popular is Blue Agave. Agave nectar or syrup is made from the sap of a 7-10 year old plant. There are both light and dark nectar's. Agave is a low glycemic index sweetener, which means it doesn't raise and lower your blood sugar like sugar and honey will. And the blue agave plant is the most stable on the glycemic index. The taste is a little like honey but not as sweet as honey is. I've heard it said that if you don't like honey you'll like Agave. I think their both fine, thought I do like honey a little more if you're eating it straight from the bottle.

Some bloggers have said that it doesn't have the same properties of corn syrup so you can't make hard candies out of it. I'm not a scientist but I'm here to tell you you can!!! We make tons of home made suckers in my home and we do it with agave. It is slightly different with temperature and things that I'll get into in another post when I tell you how you can make your own suckers at home too. So for now just take it from me it works!

You can buy Agave pretty much everywhere. I've seen it in most grocery stores I've been in (sometimes it's hard to find), the Health Food Stores of course, and now Costco is carrying it too and again it is much cheaper there.

Hope that helps, Happy Substituting!!