Recipe: Blackberry Marshmallows

Blackberry Marshmallows

January 31, 2011

If you make this recipe at the height of berry season, by all means use fresh fruit. If you're working with off-peak months, however, frozen berries will do just fine. You’ll need two 10-ounce bags to make enough purée. Just whoosh the berries around in a food processor fitted with the metal blade, then pass the purée through a metal sieve in order to remove the seeds. Marshmallows can be made in any sized pan – a 9-by-13-inch pan gives good results. A smaller pan will yield thicker marshmallows, a larger pan will give you thinner ones. Whatever pan you choose, be sure to oil it well or you won’t be able to remove the marshmallows.

Ingredients

Bloom
4 Tbsp. unflavored gelatin
1¼ cups blackberry purée

Base
½ cup water
2/3 cup blackberry purée
1¼ cup light corn syrup
2 cups sugar

Coating
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/3 cup powdered sugar

Preparation

• Prepare the bloom by placing the gelatin in a small bowl. Add the purée and stir well. The mixture will begin to thicken quickly. Set aside.

• Mix all the base ingredients together in a large sauce pan and heat over medium-high heat. Clip a candy thermometer onto the pot and cook until the mixture reaches 250 degrees, about 10 minutes.

• Remove the pan from the heat and quickly stir in the bloom. The mixture will foam up, so stir carefully until the bloom is completely incorporated.

• Pour the batter into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Mix on a low speed then gradually increase the speed to medium-high. Let the mixture whip for between 5 and 10 minutes, or until it is fairly stiff but still spreadable. Immediately pour the mixture into a well-oiled pan.

• Let the pan sit, uncovered, on the counter overnight. This is called curing and reduces some of the stickiness factor.

• Remove the marshmallow slab from the pan and place it on a cutting board. Mix the coating ingredients together and lightly sprinkle some over the uncut marshmallow.

• Use a pizza cutter to cut the slab into bite-sized pieces, then toss the pieces with the remaining coating so they will not stick together.

• Store the coated marshmallows for several days at room temperature.