Oh, I Know I'm a Tease!

Last night was perhaps the most glorious night of my pastry school career... We made marshmallows. I have to, perhaps, explain my deep, passionate love of marshmallows. As far as I am concerned, marshmallows are a tangible manifestation of joy, goodness and light. And I'm just talkin' about store-bought Stay-Puft type marshmallows... Homemade marshmallows, I learned last night, will turn your world around and will change your life. Maybe I'm being over-dramatic, maybe I'm speaking the dead-honest truth.

Also as it turns out, marshmallows are pretty easy to make. There's a lot of steps involved, and a bit of patience required, but none of it is difficult. I joked to one of my partners last night that I wanted to make "a hundred marshmallows"- it was a joke, but our chef made it sound like one batch of fluff only made a small amount of marshmallows, so we doubled the recipe. Even accounting for the fluff we ate straight out of the bowl, and the marshmallows that never made it to the final dusting, we still had well over a hundred. Tonight, were going to cover some of them with chocolate! Eeep!


Here's some pictures of me making marshmallows, and one of Alia following good sanitation protocol, of course...







I promise a recipe and a complete marshmallow tutorial soon- I've enlisted Kyle's help this weekend to make a batch at home, so I can photograph the steps. Sorry to be such a tease, but the wait will make the reward that much sweeter!


In the meantime though, I do have a simple recipe for delish homemade hot cocoa. I pilfered a few marshmallows last night, because the thought of a big mug of chocolate chaud for breakfast was just too tempting!

Chocolate Chaud aux Guimauves

(Hot Cocoa with Marshmallows)

Serves 1

• 1Tbsp good quality cocoa powder (preferably dutch process- I buy mine from Penzey's)
• 1/2-1Tbsp sugar, to taste
• 2oz boiling water
• 8oz milk of your choice (I used vanilla soymilk)
• pinch cinnamon (again, I use Penzey's China Cassia)(optional)
• tinsy-weensy pinch cayenne pepper (optional)
• Marshmallows

In a small saucepan, begin heating milk over low med-low heat. In a small, heatproof dish, whisk the cocoa, sugar and, if using, the cinnamon and cayenne. Pour the hot water over the mixture and whisk to remove any lumps. Add the cocoa slurry to the milk and heat to desired temperature. Pour in mug and top with copious quantities of marshmallows.