This is Halloween, Halloween! Halloween!

One of my favorite candies of all time is the See's Scotchmallow, A layer of caramel with a layer of honey marshmallow covered in chocolate. As a kid my Great Uncle would give out 1 pound gift certificates to See's, and I would get an entire pound of Scotchmallows.

For Halloween I made my own candies that I call Carmallows. And then to really show off I wrapped them in Fanci-Foil (paper foil for cake boards found at Walmart) and decorated them with jack-o-lantern stickers. A perfect candy for a Halloween Party.

The recipe I used came from the Chocolates and Confections book from The Culinary Institute of America, but this recipe is very similar.


Carmallows
Caramel
Adapted from Allrecipes
1 cup Butter
1 pound Sugar
1 (14 ounce) can Sweetened condensed milk
1 cup Light corn syrup
1 pinch Salt
1 1/2 teaspoons Vanilla extract

Marshmallow
From Hutchinson News
3 envelopes Gelatin
1/2 cup Cold water
1 1/2 cups Sugar
3/4 cup Light corn syrup
1/4 cup Honey
1/2 cup Water
1 tablespoon Vanilla extract

3 cups chocolate, melted, tempered (Callebaut Couverture Callets)


Directions:
Set aside a silicone 9x13 pan
In a heavy bottom saucepan, combine the butter, sugar, condensed milk, and corn syrup. Stirring constantly bring to a boil over medium heat, until the syrup reaches 240 degrees.
Remove from heat and carefully stir in the vanilla and salt.
Pour into the silicone pan and let cool while you make the marshmallow.

To make the marshmallow, stir the gelatin and cold water in a small bowl. Set aside.
In a 2-quart saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup, honey, and water. Cook to 250 degrees.
Remove from heat and pour into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Allow to cool undisturbed until syrup reaches 210 degrees, about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, melt the gelatin over a hot water bath. 
When the syrup reaches 210 degrees add the melted gelatin and mix on high speed for 6 minutes, until light and fluffy. 
Add the vanilla and mix until incorporated.
Pour over the top of the caramel and spread evenly.
Allow to cool to room temperature for at least 2 hours.

Chill slightly before cutting into bars.
Using an oiled knife, cut around the edges of the pan to loosen the marshmallow. Remove the entire slab from the pan and place on a silpat, caramel side down.
Cut slab down the middle lenghtwise. Cut each half slab into 1 inch bars, then cut each bar in half. (Be careful not to cut the silpat. I used my bench knife.)

Dip each bar into tempered chocolate and place on baking rack, allowing excess chocolate to drip off. Remove from rack before chocolate sets and place on a piece of parchment paper to set completely.

Chocolate Dipped Marshmallows.....Take Two

The thought of making marshmallows tends to really impress people, if only they knew how easy it really was. Every time I make them I picture the old Rice Krispie Treat commercial with the mom throwing flour on her face and water from the fish bowl. Dipping them in chocolate on the other hand can be tricky.

I have been making marshmallows for a couple of years using a recipe from Food Network, but then I found a Thomas Keller recipe and it turned out to be even easier. This batch of marshmallows I wanted to make more "holiday", so I added peppermint extract and red food coloring.  Everything went well until it came time to temper the chocolate for dipping. The tempering just wasn't working right, but instead of stopping and starting over like I knew I should I continued on and ruined the two batches of marshmallows. In the trash they went, and I started all over again.

 
The second time I wasn't going to risk ruining another batch of marshmallows so I bought chocolate candy melts instead of real chocolate, removing the need to fuss with tempering. After dipping the marshmallows I called in for some reinforcements to help sprinkle white dragees on the regular marshmallows, and peppermint sprinkles on the peppermint marshmallows.

Marshmallows
Adapted from Thomas Keller's French Laundry

3 envelopes unflavored Knox gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
2 cups sugar
2/3 cups corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1/4 tsp salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (add 2 tsp peppermint extract if making peppermint marshmallows)
red food coloring (if making peppermint)
powdered sugar

Lightly oil 13x9 pan.

In a bowl of a stand mixer, mix 3 envelopes of gelatin and 1/2 cup cold water. Let stand for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, combine 2 cups sugar, 2/3 cups corn syrup, and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil hard for 1 minute. 
with mixer turned on low speed add the boiling syrup, carefully increasing the speed to high. Add 1/4 tsp salt and beat for 10 minutes. durring last 30 seconds add 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract (if peppermint add 2 tsp extract and red food coloring)
Pour into prepared pan and let sit overnight.

If not dipping in chocolate - cut marshmallows with knife and dredge in powdered sugar.

To cover in chocolate - Cut marshmallows and set aside. Lay out waxed paper for marshmallows to dry on. Melt candy melts according to the package. use you left hand to remove marshmallows from the pan and your right hand to dip in chocolate. If you want to put sprinkles on top it is best to recruit help with hands that aren't sticky or chocolatey.

The marshmallows were fabulous, so much better than store bought, even people who don't like marshmallows will like these. Dipping them in chocolate just adds another dimension of decadence.
These definitely will add a WOW factor to your holiday dessert trays.

About Time

OK, so I have been back for a week now, but I have just been really busy. There has been hundreds of loads of laundry, trying to get the smell of campfire out. Of coarse this time of year also means back to school shopping, and not like I am complaining, but we just finished booking a trip to the Riviera Maya.

Now I will try to update you as quickly as I can on our wonderful trip to the Oregon Coast. We spend 11 days camping at the Oregon Dunes, and it's never enough time. We ride sandrails and quads, walk on the beach collecting shells, visit the tiny towns nearby, and I bake of coarse.

This year on one of our trips into town we stopped in at a very promising bakery. (Promising because the sign and name were so cute.) Inside was just a basic coffee shop, but what should I expect in such a small town. I ordered a box of random treats that looked good, but again looks were deceiving. The best were the donuts, which were light and airy.(I think it might have something to do with trans fat, maybe Oregon can still use it.) One of the worst things were the meringues. I have never had a meringue before, but they are so darn cute, unfortunately they taste like chalk.(I don't think that was the bakeries fault, I think that's just how they taste.)

We also stopped at an ice cream parlor, where we bought ice cream, salt water taffy, and a cupcake. I have had these cupcakes before and they aren't anything to rave about, but they look so pretty. (Note to self: freeze the cupcake before eating it, it might make the frosting better.)

I have been learning how to bake using a dutch oven for the last 2 years and it is not easy.  I was using the oven in our camper, which is still not easy to control, but I wanted to be more camper like and use the dutch oven.(It's the least I can do considering we have hot showers, a refrigerator, and heaters, we aren't exactly roughing it.)

I made brownies, chocolate camping cake, cornbread, and fresh huckleberry/black berry muffins. I remeasured the dry ingredients at home to make it a little easier to make at the campsite. It was hard to bake at the right temperature using the dutch oven, but everything I baked was devoured. The berries I used in the muffins I gathered from around our campground and immediately put in the muffin batter so you couldn't really get more fresh than that. I swear this year I am going to practice so I will be a Betty Crocker Camper next year.

I also have to quickly review my homemade marshmallow s'mores. They all turned out really good, if I do say so myself. My favorite was the caramel, how can you go wrong with caramel, marshmallow, and chocolate. The mint was good sparingly meaning you couldn't eat one right after the other, but they did taste a lot like chocolate mint ice cream. The real surprise was the fresh blackberry, when pared with Lindt coconut white chocolate it was delicious, just like a blackberry cobbler.

This week I am going to be continuing the back to school thing, but next week I will be showing off a special back to school treat I am making for my kids.

Strawberry Marshmallows

 

"Just imagine a big cool bowl of strawberry ice cream." - Strawberry Shortcake

Yep, these marshmallows taste like the strawberry ice cream in Neapolitan. I have said before, I am not a huge fruit in my dessert fan, but these are pretty darn good, http://candy.about.com/od/marshmallowrecipes/r/sberry_mallows.htm

I am always making marshmallows for our camping trips, and with our big yearly trip coming soon I thought I should start experimenting now. In the past I have used extract and made mint(toothpaste tasting), coconut(my favorite), and peanut butter(bad consistency). This new recipe opens a lot of  possibilities. Taking into account that when you make s'mores the marshmallow will be warm and combined with chocolate and graham crackers, some fruit flavors might not work well. So here are some of my thoughts on flavors.

Blackberry Pie S'more- blackberry marshmallow with white chocolate

Peach Pie S'more - white peach marshmallow with white chocolate

Pineapple Lump S'more - pineapple marshmallow with milk chocolate (Pineapple Lumps are candies from New Zealand.)

Turtle S'more - caramel marshmallow with milk chocolate with almonds

Mint Chocolate S'more - Mint marshmallow with milk chocolate 

I have less than a month, so hopefully I can get them all made before we go. I better get busy.

Strawberry Marshmallows

4 envelopes  Gelatin

1/2 cup         Strawberry puree

1 1/4 cups    Water

3 cups          Sugar

1 1/4 cups    Light corn syrup

1/4 tsp         Salt

                    Powder sugar

• Lightly oil 13x9 pan
• In the bowl of a stand mixer combine gelatin, strawberry puree, and 1/2 cup of water. Let stand.

 

• In a heavy sauce pan combine 3/4 cup water, sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil and continue cooking until it reaches 240 degrees.
• With the mixer on medium pour in hot syrup slowly. When all syrup is added turn mixer on high and whip about 10 minutes.

• Pour into prepared pan and let sit overnight before cutting.
• In a large Ziploc bag add about 1/4 cup of powder sugar. Cut marshmallows and place in bag, shaking to coat each marshmallow.