Vanilla Marshmallows

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will have learned recently that I am a huge fan of Pascall marshmallows.  I love the traditional pink and white ones, and can eat them by the bagful.  I am also rather fond of homemade marshmallows, which have a very different texture and taste.  Marshmallows of the homemade variety are much less sweet than the commercial version, and have a bouncy texture to the touch as opposed to being squishy like the commercial variety.  My mum used to make us homemade marshmallow rabbits every Easter, which we looked forward to with glee.

For Racquel's birthday present, the last kind of sweets that I made (that worked) were homemade marshmallows.  There are a gazillion different ways to make homemade marshmallows, so once again I chose the recipe that seemed to have the fewest and most readily available ingredients, with the least amount of effort.  That recipe came from The Australian Women's Weekly Sweet book.

These marshmallows were quite simple to make, and I didn't have any trouble with them setting.  The recipe is as follows:

2 tablespoons gelatine
1/2 cup cold water
2 cups sugar
1 cup hot water
1 teaspoon rosewater (I used vanilla)
pink food colouring
1 1/4 cups dessicated coconut

Spray a 25cm x 30cm swiss roll pan or baking tray with cooking oil.

Sprinkle the gelatine over the cold water in a small bowl or cup.

In a saucepan, combine the sugar and hot water, then stir over low heat until the sugar dissolves; increase the heat to medium and bring the mixture to the boil.  Add the gelatine mixture to the saucepan, and allow the mixture to boil without stirring for 20 minutes.  Remove the saucepan from the heat, and allow to cool until lukewarm.

Pour the sugar mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer, add the desired amount of food colouring and vanilla, and beat it on high speed for 5 minutes or until the mixture thickens, turns white and holds its shape.  Spread the marshmallow mixture evenly over the prepared swiss roll pan or baking tray, sprinkle the top with coconut, and allow to set at room temperature.

After the marshmallow has set (~2 hours), cut it into squares and roll in coconut.

Enjoy!