Lemon and Ginger Marshmallows

Prior to my last post, I had an entire weekend of baking fails.  Macarons that formed a giant sticky sheet of macaron.  Sticky ‘moist’ ginger muffins that would have been suitable substitutes for clay pigeons and I don’t want to talk about the lemon ‘cake’…

So I decided to have a go at marshmallows.  I’ve been itching to dust off my sugar thermometer and play with some hot sugar… That sounded crazy, but I’m waiting for this to turn up and I am overly excited…

Basic marshmallow recipe from Delicious Magazine

Ingredients

120ml boiling water

Grated zest of one lemon

1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger, grated finely

1tsp honey

160ml golden syrup

440gr golden caster sugar

23gr powdered gelatine

Yellow food colouring

Vegetable oil for greasing

Couple of tablespoons of cornflour and icing sugar mixed together. 

Method

1, Put the lemon zest, grated ginger and honey into a jug.  Pour on the boiling water and leave to cool.  When this is cold, sieve out the zest and ginger so you are left with a ginger and lemon cold infusion.  Put this into the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a whisk attachment, and add in the gelatine to the cold infusion and leave it to sponge.

2, Add the sugar and golden syrup into a medium sized saucepan and add enough cold water to cover it.

3, Turn the heat to low and stir until the sugar melts.

4, Using a damp pastry brush remove any rogue sugar crystals from the edge of the pan.  You don’t want these falling in as it might trigger the syrup to crystallise.  Turn the heat up high

5, Bring the syrup to a boil and continue to heat it until it reaches 130o/c on a sugar thermometer.  Remove from the heat and leave to one side for a minute. 

6, Turn your stand mixer on and slowly pour the hot sugar syrup into the bowl.  Be careful not to hit the spinning whisk. 

7, Beat until it goes white and fluffy and add in a couple of drops of yellow food colouring.

8, Whilst its beating, line an 8 inch square cake tin with greaseproof paper.  Brush that lightly with vegetable oil and then dust with a little cornflour and icing sugar.  Make sure you oil up the sides and dust those also.

9, When the marshmallow is ready, it will take on the consistency of really sticky bubblegum, carefully pour it into the prepared tin.  Using a tablespoon dipped in water smooth the top out and then dust the top with some more of the cornflour/icing sugar mixture.

10, Leave in a cool place for a couple of hours until it has set.

11, Cut into squares and roll in more of the cornflour/icing sugar mixture.  These will keep for around 2 weeks in an airtight container.