Homemade Marshmallows (Masmelos)
A sugar syrup taken to the thread stage and beaten into dissolved gelatine until the mixture turns white and thick, then set in a tray dusted with powdered sugar and cut into squares. Two ingredients do the work: sugar and gelatine.
Servings: 30 marshmallows
Calories: 505kcal
Ingredients
- 500 g sugar
- 250 ml water half for the syrup, half for the gelatine
- 15 g unflavored gelatin
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- A pinch of salt
- Powdered sugar for the tray and the tops
Instructions
- Put the sugar in a pot and cover it with half the water.
- Bring it to medium-high heat until the syrup reaches the thread stage, which is when a spoonful lifted out falls back in a thin thread rather than in drops. Stir and watch it, because sugar goes from ready to burnt quickly.
- While the syrup cooks, put the unflavored gelatin in a bowl with the vanilla, the salt and the rest of the water, and beat it with an electric mixer.
- When the syrup is ready, pour it into the bowl in a thin stream while beating, and keep beating until the mixture turns white and thick.
- Dust a mould or a tray with powdered sugar and pour the mixture into it.
- Level the top with a spatula and dust it with a little more powdered sugar.
- Leave it to cool to room temperature, then turn it out and cut it into cubes or squares.
Notes
The thread stage is the whole recipe. Lift a little syrup on a spoon and let it fall: while it is still just sugar water it drops off, and at the right moment it stretches into a thin thread as it falls. That is the point to stop. Past it the syrup goes to caramel and the marshmallows set hard. Pour the syrup into the gelatine slowly, in a thin stream down the side of the bowl, with the mixer running. Tipping it all in at once cooks the gelatine where it lands and leaves lumps that never beat out. Then keep beating, longer than feels necessary: the mixture has to go from clear amber to opaque white and hold its shape. It also has to set properly before it is cut, and that takes hours rather than minutes, whatever the total time on the card says. The recipe does not give a number, so judge it by touch: when the surface no longer sticks to a clean finger, it is ready. Powdered sugar goes on the tray before the mixture and on the top after, and on the cut faces too, or the squares stick to each other in the box.
Nutrition
Calories: 505kcal | Carbohydrates: 126g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 593mg | Potassium: 6mg | Sugar: 126g | Calcium: 6mg | Iron: 1mg