Baking Bouchon - Recipe 25: Marshmallow Eggs

It's a wonder I can make actually function as a human being without severely endangering myself.  Seriously, some days I shouldn't be allowed to make adult decisions or be responsible for myself or anyone else.  I'm surprised my dog is still alive.

I've made marshmallows before and it was fine and to be honest, these marshmallows aren't actually bad (weird, but not bad), but the process to get there included a long moment of "really, Julie?  Did you really do that?"

I made these marshmallow eggs much earlier than my normal schedule dictated because Easter is in, like, 3 days and they're very Eastery.

There are a few ingredients in these guys that I had to hunt for.  The first was dehydrated raspberry powder which I never did find but I did find freeze dried raspberries which I ground up in my trusty mini food processor.  They worked pretty well and I was proud of my ingenuity!  I call attention to this because it's the only pride I have about what happened today and I could use a little lift.


 Another ingredient was citric acid (or sour salt) which we already had.  Not from me, but from CA.  He uses it in some random cocktail.  I'm pretty sure he used it once to make gin and tonic jello shots.  They were much classier than they sound.

The most difficult ingredient for me to find was silver leaf gelatin.  I actually didn't think it would be hard to find - gelatin sheets should be pretty easy, but for some reason I couldn't find them.  I called a small local store to see if they had it and they said "yes."  I ran right out to pick some up....

I didn't get silver leaf gelatin.  I got silver leaf.  Not the same.  Silver leaf gelatin is a sheet of gelatin, the "silver" refers to the strength of the gelatin (Olympic style - bronze, silver or gold).  Silver leaf is used to decorate food, it's actually made from silver.  I didn't notice that I bought the wrong thing, I just tried to use it.  I opened the package and thought "huh, silver leaf gelatin is actually silver, that's cool."  I soaked it in water like I was told and put it in a bowl over boiling water to melt.  It didn't melt (obviously, because it's metal, Julie).  I took a full 5 minutes of it being over heat for me to think "maybe there is something wrong here."  I actually tried to melt silver on my stove!  I shouldn't be allowed to drive or do anything a toddler isn't allowed to do.  Truly, it's dangerous for me and for society.

Once I FINALLY realized my mistake, I was well into the process of making these marshmallows and didn't want to waste all the time, ingredients, etc. that I'd put in so I threw caution to the wind and decided to attempt to make the marshmallows using a packet of powdered gelatin in place of the silver leaf gelatin.

I wasn't sure if it would work but thought it was worth a shot.

To make the marshmallows, I put my powdered gelatin in the mixing bowl with some egg whites and whipped those up while heating sugar, water and corn syrup in a pot on the stove to 280 degrees.  Once the sugar is cooked and the eggs are whipped, I poured the sugar into the egg mixture very slowly while still whipping.

I whipped and whipped and whipped and whipped until the mixture cools down and turns into marshmallow.  Ta Dah!

It's not actually that hard and I did end up with marshmallows despite my gelatin debacle.  Unfortunately, the powdered gelatin chunked up a little bit so my marshmallows weren't quite as smooth as I'd like, but I'll take what I can get at this point

To make the marshmallows raspberry, I added the ground up, freeze dried raspberries.  They probably weren't as smooth as true raspberry powder so my marshmallows, again, weren't as smooth as I'd like but they took on a pretty, light pink color and had a subtle raspberry flavor so, again, I'll take what I can get.

At this point the still warm marshmallows get piped into plastic Easter eggs that are sprayed with non-stick spray.

It's tricky to make sure you fill each side enough so that they stick together when you close them but also to not fill them so much that you can't close them.  I definitely overfilled the first one and couldn't shut it, so I ate it.

Once you get them all filled, they sit overnight to harden.

Once of the fun parts of these marshmallow eggs is that they are rolled in sour raspberry sugar.  You use sugar, citric acid diluted in water, raspberry powder and a little food coloring to make a really interesting sugar to decorate them.  The citric acid gives it a great sour taste - kind of like a sour patch kid.  It tastes pretty good.

Unfortunately, I think I used the wrong sugar which did NOT surprise me in the slightest.  It was too big so it didn't really stick to the eggs very well.  But, it still tastes good so I'll take what I can get.

The marshmallows popped right out of the eggs and were, for the most part, egg shaped.  Once last time, I'll take what I can get.

Rolled in the too big sugar, they're not hideous, but they definitely don't look like the picture in the book.  I'd show you, but I'm embarrassed.

As far as taste, CA liked them, but I think he's pretending.  I don't care for them.  They're just weird.  Plus, when I go through a lot of effort and stress to make something it better be damn good.  These are strange.  The marshmallow is ok, the sour raspberry sugar is tasty but together.... meh.  I found myself eating all the sugar off them first and then eating the marshmallow.

I'm not sure what to do with these.  I'll probably just stare at them for a few days while I re-evaluate my status as a responsible adult.

Julie