Photo from original book...in other words what they should look like!
OK, so I've made my first attempt at marshmallows! Not particularly successfully, as usual, my first attempts usually aren't very successful. Some of it may be my fault and some of it may be down to the fact that the book is written in "American" . I don't mean that unkindly, but there are certain things that we don't have over in the UK, or the equivalent is not necessarily the same as that available in the US.
What mine looked like!
To start with Light Corn Syrup is not easily obtainable, and although Golden Syrup works, it does impart it's own flavour to the finished item, espcially as marshmallows are quite a delicate flavour in their plain vanilla state. The other thing I had a problem with was the gelatine....now this may be my problem, but the recipe stated 4 1/2 teaspoons of powdered gelatine, mixed with 1/2 cup (125ml) of water. Now the sachets I had contained 4 1/2 teaspoons but the packet said that a sachet would set 570ml of liquid.
Aaah...I've just re-read the packet and it does say to dissolve the sachet in 120ml of water, so I misunderstood and added extra water because I thought it would be too thick or set too quickly....Oops!
So apologies, the only real problem is the Light Corn Syrup, which probably is available by mail order if necessary. That probably accounts for the fact that I couldn't beat it to what was described as the right consistency, and once left to set, it was still quite sticky in the middle and considerably gooey-er than I expeected them to be. Definitely have to try again now! I did get quite frustrated with the whipping time, as it didn't seem to be going well. The book describes a freestanding mixer with 10 speeds, and I only have a hand mixer with 3 speeds, so after almost 15 minutes you can imagine how my shoulders were aching! All in all not as difficult as I anticipated, and probably a lot easier if I'd got that gelatine thing right! They tasted great though and I took some round to a friend to be guinea pig, and she and her brother said that they tasted brilliant!
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