Baking Bouchon - Recipe 79: Layered Fruit Marshmallows

I was not excited about making this recipe.  It is essentially vanilla, raspberry and lemon flavored marshmallows layered on top of each other and covered in chocolate.  You have to be pretty precise when making marshmallows to make sure that you don't cook the sugar too much or too little or burn the house down in the process.  Making three kinds of marshmallows seemed like a lot of work and a lot of opportunities for me to set something ablaze.  Plus, I'm weird about fruit flavored things and I was worried that I would spend hours making these treats only to hate the raspberry and lemon marshmallows.

This was quite a bit of work.  I had to measure out three sets of everything and deal with the flavorings. 

• The vanilla marshmallow is flavored with vanilla beans.  
• The raspberry marshmallow is flavored with raspberry powder which I made by grinding up freeze dried raspberries which are weird and remind me of astronaut ice cream.  A long time ago in the 80's the kids in my elementary school class were obsessed with astronaut ice cream but I think the stuff is disgusting.  Food that literally disintegrates while I'm eating it freaks me out.  This is also why I don't like Whoppers.  The marshmallows also have pink food coloring in them.
• The lemon marshmallow is flavored with lemon zest which is not disgusting.  They also have lemon food coloring in them.

I did manage to make all three marshmallows without screwing them up but it took all freakin' day plus I had to wait for them to set up overnight before I could slice them and cover them in chocolate.

The vanilla was up first and got spread onto a half sheet pan and cools for an hour until it's completely set.

The raspberry was next and gets spread on top of the vanilla and cools for another hour.

The lemon goes on last and then you wait overnight so that everything is cool and set up for real before slicing these into squares.

If you're intrigued by how marshmallows are made - you can check out my post on Marshmallow Eggs when I went into more detail.  I will not subject all of you to all of that science again.

Once they rested overnight, I brushed the entire surface with melted chocolate and then I was able to remove them from the pan and reveal the layers.  I have to admit the layered affect is really pretty!

After they all got sliced into squares it was time to cover the other 5 sides in chocolate.  I was supposed to do this by dipping them but I did that with one and was convinced that the chocolate was going to be way too thick so I decided to take a knife and spread the chocolate on the remaining sides of the treat.  I'm glad I did.  While the effect wasn't as smooth and pretty as it would have been if I'd successfully dipped them all, the chocolate was thin enough that you could bite through it without completely mushing the marshmallow which I think was more important.

These guys were a pleasant surprise.  I was even fine with the fruit flavored portion of the marshmallow.  I think that was because I knew there wasn't any fake fruit in there (I'm ignoring the raspberry dehydration process).  The marshmallows had a great texture and weren't crazy sweet so the dessert felt very light.  The one bad thing I have to say about them is that I felt like the lemon marshmallows overpowered the other flavors a little bit.  If I made these again, I'd probably stick with the vanilla marshmallows, but I'd still cover them in chocolate and then I'd stick them in some hot cocoa to stop me from freezing in the polar vortex.

Every morning that I bring treats into my office I send out an email and tell everyone what is available and I think "Chocolate Covered Layered Fruit Marshmallows" scared off a few people.  Honestly, I wouldn't have tried them if I'd received said email.  However, the adventurous ones who did try them had really nice things to say and convinced the more skeptical to dig in.  It's a good thing my coworkers are so open to trying new things because it won't be long until they receive an email announcing Nougat Aux Fruit.  I can hear the stampede now.

Enjoy!
Julie