Warms You Up on the Inside!

Since January was/is soooo cold here, we thought that it would be a good idea to warm some people up on the inside! We made home-made marshmallows and our tasty recipe for thick and creamy hot cocoa! mmmmmm I even had a cup myself and it was delicious!

Last spring, on Facebook, I signed a pledge saying that the first 5 people to leave a comment would, within a year, receive something completely homemade by me. This is what we did. I made the little tags too. I wish that I wold have gotten some better pictures of the the marshmallow, but I marbleized them with blue and, to me, the finished product looked a little like dishwasher tablets. . . they didn't taste like them though ; )

Recipe for marshmallows:

3 packets of unflavored gelatin

1 C ice water

1 1/2 C sugar

1 C light corn syrup

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp vanilla, or any other flavoring of your choice

1/4c powdered sugar

1. Put gelatin in a bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer (trust me, you'll want to use the heaviest one you have) and and 1/2 C ice water, stir gently to combine and set aside

2. In a saucepan, combine 1/2c water, corn syrup, granulated sugar and salt; stir and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until it reaches 245F (about 20 minutes of so), stir occasionally.

3. Remove from heat and SLOWLY pour into gelatin mixture in small incraments by scooping up first with glass measuring cup.

4. Whip on high speed 12 - 15 minutes adding vanilla during last few minutes. Mixture will be thick, white and luke warm.

5. While whipping, combine cornstarch, and powdered sugar in a small bowl. Spray a 9x13 pan with non-stick spray then coat bottoms and sides with powdered sugar/cornstarch mixture.

6. Quickly, spread mixture onto prepared pan and cool overnight.

7. Cut into desired shapes and toss to coat with remaining powdered sugar mixture.

ENJOY!

Recipe for cocoa . . . shhhhh, secret recipe ; )