We can has marshmallows!
Feb. 4th, 2008 07:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rikibethSo, yesterday I bought myself a copy of Elizabeth Falkner's Demolition Desserts: Recipes from Citizen Cake. This was a direct result of looking through ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tamidon's copy while she was cooking breakfast on Sunday morning. (Side note: goddessfarmer, your bacon is the best I have EVER tasted.) I got home from work today and was reading through it, mostly for entertainment, although also with an eye towards things I could do at work, even though the book is heavily focused on plated desserts and that's not what I'm doing, I'm doing bakery cafe stuff for the most part.
But then I got to the S'mores Brownies. With handmade marshmallows, of course. Yeah. I did handmade marshmallows at school, and it pretty much cured me of enjoying them -- because when you add the gelatin to the hot sugar syrup, it smells NASTY BEYOND BELIEF. They taste good when they're done, but the preparation just grosses me out. Andeternaleponine, since she went vegetarian and realized that gelatin was made of hooves, has also been grossed out by marshmallows.
But what was that? In the sidebar, it said that the marshmallows could be made with gelatin (p. 212) or xanthan gum(p. 213). Well! I turned right to page 213 to see if this could be true. A vegetarian marshmallow?
YES! Direct substitution. No weird technique or anything. Just the usual Italian meringue, plus the gum, whip and chill.
I was so excited, I went right out to Whole Foods to buy xanthan gum. Came home and got right to it.
The pan of marshmallow is chilling in the refrigerator right now. The stuff on the beaters definitely tasted and felt like fluff.
And it didn't smell nasty!
I am looking forward to getting creative with flavorings. Cinnamon, of course, and I'm also thinking of bergamot, for an Earl Grey dessert theme, but I am more than willing to entertain suggestions. You can flavor a marshmallow with just about ANYTHING.
Whee!
tamidon's copy while she was cooking breakfast on Sunday morning. (Side note: goddessfarmer, your bacon is the best I have EVER tasted.) I got home from work today and was reading through it, mostly for entertainment, although also with an eye towards things I could do at work, even though the book is heavily focused on plated desserts and that's not what I'm doing, I'm doing bakery cafe stuff for the most part.But then I got to the S'mores Brownies. With handmade marshmallows, of course. Yeah. I did handmade marshmallows at school, and it pretty much cured me of enjoying them -- because when you add the gelatin to the hot sugar syrup, it smells NASTY BEYOND BELIEF. They taste good when they're done, but the preparation just grosses me out. And
eternaleponine, since she went vegetarian and realized that gelatin was made of hooves, has also been grossed out by marshmallows.But what was that? In the sidebar, it said that the marshmallows could be made with gelatin (p. 212) or xanthan gum(p. 213). Well! I turned right to page 213 to see if this could be true. A vegetarian marshmallow?
YES! Direct substitution. No weird technique or anything. Just the usual Italian meringue, plus the gum, whip and chill.
I was so excited, I went right out to Whole Foods to buy xanthan gum. Came home and got right to it.
The pan of marshmallow is chilling in the refrigerator right now. The stuff on the beaters definitely tasted and felt like fluff.
And it didn't smell nasty!
I am looking forward to getting creative with flavorings. Cinnamon, of course, and I'm also thinking of bergamot, for an Earl Grey dessert theme, but I am more than willing to entertain suggestions. You can flavor a marshmallow with just about ANYTHING.
Whee!
