Christmas is approaching fast and like every year, I'm scrambling to figure out the gift situation. We do focus on food and relaxation with both sides of the family but one must not turn up completely empty handed, my sparkling presence is not present enough. It's a bit boring to always buy a bottle of wine and a box of chocolates, so I'm trying to at least make something myself to show my appreciation to the family. Doing things last minute is my forte as an ADHD individual, so here I am testing the first recipe just a few days prior to Christmas, when I had the initial idea of making candies months ago already.
Since candy making requires patience and precision, neither of which I possess, homemade artisanal candies as gifts sounds like a brilliant endeavour to take on when you only have a few days. I am of course also a perfectionist who would never bring subpar baked good to anyone, let alone as a gift. Baking is mostly chemistry; texture and looks is the hard part, delicious taste is easy as pie. (hi hi)
I want to make a few different candies, some chocolates and then something you can't just buy from every store. The first sweet I'm trialling is marshmallows that actually taste like something other than just sugar, because let's face it, store-bought marshmallows are really not that delicious unless you lit them on fire.
The aesthetically very fitting recipe book is Patisserie - Mastering the Fundamentals of French Pastry, by Christophe Felder. I used the recipe for Raspberry Marshmallows but since I'm physically unable to follow any instructions to the letter, I made some changes. The original recipe is just sugar, raspberry puree and gelatine, but I added other berries and glucose too.
Lingonberries are often used in desserts for Christmas so I'm kind of playing off of that tart taste and pink colour by making a puree from what ever berries I have and see fit. For this first batch I used raspberries, red currants and a little bit of bilberries from the freezer, boiled and mashed through a fine sieve. Then back to the saucepan with sugar and glucose, boil to 105 Centigrade and add in the gelatine. Stand mixer does the heavy lifting for this recipe by turning the syrup into a fluffy sticky mixture within about 10 minutes.
I prepared a pan with a generous dusting of powdered sugar and corn starch to put the mixture in to set. I would have also added freeze dried berry powder if I had any, and citric acid for some extra razzle dazzle. I covered the pan with baking paper and let it sit at room temp for a few hours while I made other goodies.
Once I did a very scientific test of pokey pokey and tastie tastie, I cut the firmed marshmallow sheet into squares. The knife needed to be washed between every cut and all the sticky sides of the mallows powdered before putting the finished candies into a container fast before they dry out.
I am always critically assessing my creations and trying to determine what I can do better next time. These turned out really tasty, sweet but not too sweet, slightly tart, with a fresh and rich taste of Finnish berries. The texture is quite good but a bit too soft and sticky so for the next batch I'm gonna bring the syrup probably up to 110 Centigrade and keep mixing it longer so it thickens more before I pour it onto the pan. I'll see how the marshmallows look and taste after a day in an airtight container to properly see if I need to make some other changes too.
PS. I rarely enjoy eating my own baked goodies by the time I'm done. I get the pleasure from making and tasting while at it but in the end I'm so over it that I hope someone else enjoys them so I don't have to.
Turns out 105 °C is way too low for the sugar suryp; after a bit these just kept soaking the powder but also if left out dried crusty. I consulted my BFF about this and she too thought 105 is definitely not enough and we wondered if there is an error in the print because it’s so low of a temp. I did another test and cooked the suryp up to 115°C and the difference in texture was insane! The syrup turned into glossy fluffy sticky goo in the stand mixture in a matter of minutes and it was actually hard to get it into a pan. 115°C is the correct temperature for homemade marshmallows!
