Last Tuesday in yoga class my teacher and dear friend S told us it was the Buddha's birthday. She led us through a visualization where each of had a luminous pink lotus for a heart, and we were all emanating pink light. Well! That reminded me that I had been wanting to make pink rose flavored marshmallows with sprinkles, so that night I got to work! I adapted the Joy of Cooking's plain vanilla marshmallow recipe and came up with this:
The recipe REQUIRES an electric mixer and a candy thermometer.
put 3 TBSP unflavored gelatin and 1/2 cup cold water in the mixing
bowl and let stand for 30 minutes.
In half an hour start to prepare a syrup:
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp salt
when the mixture starts to boil cover it and let the steam wash down any sugar crystals from the side of the pan. continue to cook uncovered and unstirred over high heat until it reaches the firm ball stage, 244 degrees. Even slight overcooking will make the marshmallows tough. Remove the mixture from the heat and pour slowly over the gelatin, beating constantly. Continue to beat another 15 minutes. When the mixture is thick but still warm, add 2 TBSP rose water and enough red food color to make the mix a pretty (but not vulgar!) pink.
Put the mixture into a 8x12" pan that has been liberally dusted with cornstarch. Shake pastel colored flower sprinkles over the top (I only had a few old sprinkles in an old jar in the pantry, so my marshmallows aren't as pretty as they might be. It's totally worth it to buy a new bottle of sprinkles). When it has dried overnight, remove it from the pan and cut into squares with scissors dusted with cornstarch.
A word about working with a giant extremely sticky wad of marshmallow goo: IT'S STICKY! really really sticky! Sticky beyond your wildest imaginings. Do wear old clothes. When you remove the big flat marshmallow from the pan, dust the surface you put it on with cornstarch, lots of cornstarch. Keep dipping the scissors in cornstarch after each cut. the freshly cut surfaces of each marshmallow will be extremely sticky, so dust them with cornstarch. I used quite a bit of sparkly pink sugar on the fresh cut surfaces to make them extra pretty.
These make everyone so happy! They're so pretty! They taste like roses! A variation I want to try is yellow marshmallows with orange blossom water.
Happy Buddha's Birthday! OM!
--artchef janet
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