It's a marshmallow world in the winter...

That's right! Homemade marshmallows!

I used this recipe from the Joy of Baking website. It was the easiest thing I have ever made, and let me tell you I was nervous! I read the instructions and got to "candy thermometer" and thought to myself "oh well... I'll have to find something else". But I sucked it up and forged ahead... because what is the worst thing that could happen? I burn the crap out of it? Meh... it's not like it was calling for anything exotic and expensive - no big loss!

So I made the sugar syrup and clipped in my candy thermometer - oh funny story. Turns out the clip on the side of the thermometer slides up and down so you can clip it to any pot. I was highly annoyed that my thermometer was stupid long and I did not have deep enough pot to clip it to. I seriously had out the biggest pot I had when I realized the clip moved. Marshmallow one... Amy - zip.

So I stirred it around a bit... and then when it was at about 235F it started almost bubbling over the pot!! Oh heck no. I am NOT cleaning sugar syrup off my stove. No. It was done enough.

So I put the sugar syrup in the mixing bowl "slowly" with the gelatin that had been sitting for a bit. I had the mixer set to low until I got all that hot hot syrup IN the bowl. Who wants to get splashed by hot candy? Not I. Marshmallow 1 - Amy 2. (Because I am counting winning the boiling over battle...)

So you turn up the mixer and let her fly. Walk away... clean your candy pot... and check in after 5 minutes and the above is what you get. So go prepare your dish and really all you need to do is spray a little cooking spray into a dish, line it with plastic wrap, and sprinkle on some icing sugar.

Then go and check your mixer again... it's been about 10 minutes...

Look.... it's fluffy and whippy.... and shiny! Now you can stare at it for a few more minutes, and doubt the size of your bowl... and grab the vanilla (or whatever flavor you are using... imagine using almond in a hazelnut fancy coffee? Or peppermint in a dark hot chocolate... mmm) Oh time is up!

It's HUGE! Dump it into the pan... then swirl red food coloring into it like it says on the queen of Good Things website... yeah right. Once you make this, then read that, you will realize that cannot be possible. They are robots I think. Definitely maybe robots.

So what you are supposed to do here is spray the back of the spoon, off set spatula or whatever you want to use to smooth out the top, with cooking spray so it doesn't stick. So I tried that. Eh... kind of works.
So then I picked up the pan, shook it, whacked in on the counter, shook it some more... and decided that the beauty of homemade marshmallows is that they are not perfect. That is what makes them look homemade! Then when people say "oh weird! Where did you get the squarish blobs of marshmallow?" You can say proudly "I MADE them!"  Then smile like a crazy person, because, hello... who makes marshmallows??