Peppermint and Anise Flavored Marshmallows

Normally around this time of year, Tom and I are frantically scrambling to get our holiday card and holiday baking finished. We've been making our Christmas card every year for the last 7 years, a card that for all the bickering and frustration that comes from having two headstrong artists with very different styles working together is actually something we look forward to doing every year. The baking has also been part of that tradition, usually, with me biting off more than I can handle and Tom, rescuing me from a nervous breakdown at the end of a long and tedious marathon baking session. However, this year, after much discussion and many unsuccessful attempts at rearranging an impossibly filled schedule, we decided not to make the card and to cut down on the amount of baking dramatically. Sadly, as much as we hated to, those things had to be let go, we just have too much to do before the baby arrives and are quickly running out of time to do it. So, since I had a little extra time on my hands, I decided to try and make something a little different than just the usual holiday cookie. I attempted holiday marshmallows!

Marshmallows, those unusual confections with the mysterious composition are in fact really quite easy to make, and not all that mysterious once you know what's in them. It's not foam insulation but unflavored gelatin that makes them so fluffy, soft and squishy, sugar and lots of it, is what makes them so sticky. Interestingly enough, it's also sugar that keeps them from sticking together! Who knew!

Many years ago, Fine Cooking magazine ran a feature article on how to make homemade marshmallows. It was because of that story that I decided I would one day try to make them myself. I somehow ended up filing the magazine away in a closet before I had a chance to make the marshmallows and as is typical of my fickle interests, once the article was out of sight, the desire to make the confection was out of mind, until recently.

Unable to locate where the heck I buried the magazine after so many years, I jumped on the internet and found a simple recipe on Martha Stewart's site that I liked, so, with a few of my own modifications, inspired by this festive time of year, I was ready, ready to get in the kitchen and do something fun, I was ready to be LADY WILLY WONKA!. ahem

I decided to use food coloring to give the marshmallows a little holiday color and pure extracts to give them a little more depth of flavor rather than just tasting like plain sugar. I tried to pick 2 flavors that would compliment a mug of hot cocoa or elevate a cup of good coffee to new heights. I thought that peppermint would go nicely with hot cocoa since lots of folks like the combination of mint and chocolate and anise would go well with coffee since lots of folks also enjoy a little Sambuca or Anisette with their after dinner espressos or coffee. They were good choices, although next time I need to experiment further with the amounts of extracts to use. I used way too much peppermint, substituting 1 tablespoon of peppermint extract for 1 of the tablespoons of vanilla, while still quite edible the mint was a little too overpowering. I then compensated by using less anise for the second batch of marshmallows, substituting 1/2 tablespoon of anise and using 1 1/2 tablespoons of vanilla. The result was a lot better but still, a little too overpowering. I did try an anise marshmallow with a cup of coffee and it was quite nice, with the right amount of tweaking next time, I think I might be onto something.

I chose green food coloring for the mint and red for the anise more because they are colors associated with this time of year than anything else, however, they turned out more pastel looking than I would have liked, more like something you see at Easter rather than Christmas and I was a bit disappointed. I'm not complaining too much though, it still helped me tell the marshmallows apart, they just didn't turn out as festive as I had hoped. Once the marshmallow had dried for the 24 hours I was going to cut them out with mini gingerbread boy and girl cutters, I actually started to as you can see in the photo on the right, but abandoned that idea after the fourth one. It was just too hard to cut into the marshmallow and get it to un-stick itself from the rest of the batch AND the cutter. I'm a patient person, but this would have really stretched my limits, and probably would have left my fingers raw and bleeding by the time I was finished. I hope, with practice, I'll find a better way to cut marshmallows, because it's sure not easy with a knife and almost impossible with cookie cutters.

Overall it was a good experiment, a unique take on holiday cooking, fun and simple, and with the addition of extracts and food coloring the possibilities can be endless. I would definitely try this again.

Written by Deb on December 20, 2003 07:25 PM