Marshmallows!

I had never thought about making marshmallows before. Actually, I had never put much thought into them at all. But after reading a recipe online, I really wanted to try my hand at making them.

The directions were easy enough: make a sugar syrup, whip air into it using a mixer, and then gently stir in whipped egg whites.

I made the sugar syrup and then starting beating it with a hand mixer. I was suspicious because the sugar syrup looked kinda gray and thin. Hmmm.. this doesn't look like anything that would turn into marshmallows. But after about 10 minutes of hard work with the hand mixer, POOF! It was like magic-- suddenly the mixture turned bright white and fluffy. Hurrah!

I let the marshmallows set, and then used small cookie cutters to cut them out. I made 3 shapes: squares, circles and stars. I think next time I'll stick with just squares and circles, since the soft texture doesn't hold the star points very well. To be extra fancy I drizzled half with some chocolate. I think they turned out pretty good! These might be good Christmas presents this year. The marshmallows made a sweet treat each day (in the morning AND when I came home from work) for about a week until I had my fill of them.