Bourbon Vanilla Marshmallows

 

My husband loves homemade marshmallows.  He has a nut allergy, so he's usually pretty wary of holiday cookies, but our dear friend made marshmallows one year and he loved them so much!  I had to try making them too. 

Marshmallows are not difficult to make, but they require some things you may not normally use in your holiday baking.  A candy thermometer is one.  A stand mixer also makes things much easier. You'll also need corn syrup and gelatin, which not everyone has on hand. But the ingredients are inexpensive and easy to find.  Once you have them you can make marshmallows in any flavour you desire. 

I made bourbon vanilla marshmallows, but the bourbon flavour doesn't really come through.  I would try using more bourbon next time. 

It is so neat to watch the clear liquid transform into white ribbons as you mix the marshmallows. 

Marshmallows keep really well at room temperature for up to 6 weeks.  They're great in hot chocolate or on a cookie tray (and gluten free too!), or you can give them as gifts. 

Adapted from this Epicurious recipe

Ingredients
2 vanilla beans
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons bourbon
vegetable oil or cooking spray
3 packets (7 grams each) unflavoured gelatin
1.5 cups granulated sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions
Split the vanilla beans lengthwise and scrape out the seeds with a sharp knife. Place 1/3 of the vanilla bean seeds in a small bowl with the bourbon.  Place the rest of the seeds in a medium bowl with the powdered sugar.  Mix well, crushing the vanilla seeds with the back of a spoon to incorporate.  Let sit one hour.

Brush or spray a 9-inch square baking pan with vegetable oil.  Sprinkle with vanilla sugar and tap out the excess that doesn't stick to the sides. 

Place 1/2 cup water in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the gelatin and stir to combine.  

Combine 1/2 cup of water, granulated sugar and corn syrup in a small pot and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Add the empty vanilla bean pods to the sugar syrup and place the thermometer in the pot, not touching the bottom.  Boil until the syrup reaches 240 degrees F (this took about 7 minutes for me).  Remove from heat and use tongs to remove the vanilla beans. 

Use the mixer's whisk attachment and whisk the gelatin mixture at low speed.  Carefully pour the hot sugar syrup down the side of the mixer bowl with the mixer running. Increase the mixer speed to high and whisk for about 5 minutes until the mixture is very thick and looks like ribbons when you raise the whisk attachment. Add the bourbon and vanilla seed mixture and whisk until incorporated. 

Using a rubber spatula, pour the marshmallow mixture into the prepared pan.  Let stand, uncovered, at room temperature, at least 4 hours or overnight, until marshmallow is dry.

When you're ready to cut the marshmallows, cover a cutting board with vanilla powdered sugar and invert the pan onto the cutting board. Use a spatula to pull the marshmallow away from the sides if you need to.  Dust the top with vanilla powdered sugar.

Cut the marshmallows into 36 squares (or 64 smaller squares). Place each individual marshmallow in a bowl of vanilla powdered sugar and shake to cover.  

Store in a covered container separated by parchment paper.  

Homemade Gummy Bears

My husband loves gummy bears but doesn't always want to snack on pure sugar. So I decided to make him some fruit juice gummies in his favouite flavours!

Making gummies at home is very easy. I got these gummy bear molds that worked wonderfully, but if you don't have molds, you can set the gummies in a baking pan and cut them into cubes or shapes. I will say that the droppers really help to fill the silicone molds, and the bears come out beautifully.  There are plenty of cute mold shapes available online too. 

I decided to make most of the gummies with 100% juice and no added sugar, and they were lovely.  But I made a small batch with a small amount of added sweetener and I have to admit they were even better.  The honey brought out more flavour in the juice.   I chose wild blueberry, Matt's favourite flavour, and apple cherry juice. You can use any juice you like except pineapple, which doesn't work well with gelatin. 

The other ingredient is the gelatin. I used these standard envelopes of unflavoured gelatin available in any grocery store, but you can get large canisters of grass-fed gelatin online.  The recipe requires a lot of gelatin, but makes a lot of gummies!

Here's what you need to make gummies at home:

1 cup fruit juice
4 tablespoons unflavoured gelatin (equal to 4 pouches in the box above)
1-2 tablespoons honey or maple syrup (optional)
Silicone gummy mold and dropper or metal or silicone baking pan

Place the juice (and honey, if using) in a small pot and slowly stir in the gelatin.  Let it sit for a few minutes, then warm over medium heat, stirring until the gelatin dissolves. Don't let it boil - you just want the gelatin to melt and the mixture to be thin and shiny.  

Remove from heat and use a dropper to fill the gummy molds.  If you get a lot of bubbles, you can use the dropper to suck it back up and fill the dropper with non-bubbly juice to re-fill.  Make sure you place the mold on a baking sheet before filling so you can easily move it to the fridge once full. 

If you're using a metal pan you will need to coat it with non-stick spray or coconut oil before filling.  

Place the filled molds in the refrigerator for 2 hours until completely set.  The gummy bears pop easily out of the molds!  

If you've set the gummies in a pan, carefully use a spatula to remove the set gummies from the pan, and use a cookie cutter or knife to cut into shapes.  

The gummies will keep in the fridge for a week or two.  Don't leave them at room temperature!  They have no preservatives and will get moldy quickly so they must be stored in the fridge.   

This is a fun project with kids and makes an easy, healthy snack!  

Saltine Toffee aka Christmas Crack

A good trashy recipe means many things.  It often includes unlikely, cheap and/or processed ingredients, it's generally easy to make, and it usually becomes much more than the sum of its parts.  This recipe is all those things. It has only four simple ingredients and takes only about 10 minutes of cooking time plus resting and cooling. And it is amazing!  You've got to make it.  It'll become your holiday tradition forever!

All you need is:

40 saltine crackers (one sleeve)
1 cup butter (2 sticks/ 1/2 lb)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 bag chocolate chips

Plus (optional) pecans, white chocolate chips, or anything else you'd care to sprinkle on top.  

I used whole wheat soda crackers because they were out of regular ones at the store, but normal saltines with salted tops are best in this.  I used dark chocolate chips but semi-sweet or milk chocolate ones are good too.  

First preheat the oven to 400 degrees and prep your pan.  You can do this on a non-stick cookie sheet but mine isn't as non-stick as it used to be so I used a couple of layers of foil to keep it from sticking.

First cover in normal foil making sure it hangs over all sides.

Then I used my favourite trick, non-stick foil over top.  If you don't have the non-stick foil you can just use another layer of foil lightly sprayed with cooking spray. You just want to make sure there's no place for the liquid caramel to escape under the foil.

Now lay out your saltine cracker evenly on the cookie sheet.  I used 40 for this pan.  You can use a larger pan if you have one. Just make sure the crackers are flat and even.  If there are a few broken ones, no worries, just piece them together as best you can so there's no space between them.

Now take your cup of butter.  You know butter packages have measurements on them, right?

Add 3/4 cup brown sugar to the butter in a small pot.

Bring to a boil over medium high heat and boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.  

Pour the hot caramel over the crackers in the pan.

Spread it evenly to cover all the crackers, right to the edge.  Then pop it in the oven for 5 minutes.

The caramel will bubble and melt into the crackers.  Carefully remove it from the oven, keeping the pan level.

Let it sit for 3 minutes to cool slightly.  The crackers will sort of float to the surface.

If the crackers are uneven, use a butter knife to lay them flat so none are overlapping.

Now pour the bag of chocolate chips evenly over top.  Let them melt for about 5 minutes.

Once the chocolate chips are softened, spread them with an offset spatula (or regular spatula).

Keep spreading...

...until you have an even layer of chocolate over the caramel crackers. 

Now you can add some toppings if you want.  Pecans are good, or other nuts.  I added some white chocolate chips just for contrast.  A sprinkle of sea salt is a classy topping too.  

Now, put it in the fridge or a cool place for about 20 minutes to firm up.  I put mine outside on a cold day which is easier than finding room in the fridge.

Once firm, break it up into small-ish pieces.

Keep breaking it up.  Don't eat it all while you're doing this - very important.

Now package it up in an airtight container and store it in the fridge.  It also freezes beautifully.  I like to serve it cold but it will be ok at room temperature. The chocolate just gets a little softer.  

This is so simple to make for such great results, you've got to try it.  People go nuts for it. 

Thanks Leila for introducing me to this!