Homemade Marshmallows

Hi Blog Readers!!!

This is a guest post from the "Whenever-I-Feel-Like-It Baker", the sister of the Monday Morning Baker. (You won't find me waking up at 4 am on a Monday morning, that's for sure.) I also am a little less interested in bread and more interested in sweets and desserts like cakes, pies, and cookies. So while I was in town for Christmas, Dennis and I did a LOT of baking for our friends and family for the holiday. We also had a great time sharing recipes and trying out a few new tricks. Some of the highlights included: molasses spice cookies (a sweet and spicy chewy cookie), sugar cookies with royal icing, sea salt caramels, homemade marshmallows, homemade hot chocolate mix, and a pumpkin pie. Today I'm going to share the recipe for the homemade marshmallows because I had a lot of fun trying this out.

Homemade Marshmallows (adapted from smitten kitchen)

We halved the recipe from the website because we thought that 96 marshmallows was probably overkill.

1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 3/4 envelopes (1 Tbsp. + 1 1/4 tsp.) unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup cold water, divided
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/8 tsp. salt
1 large egg white
1/2 Tbsp. vanilla extract

Oil the bottom and sides of an 8 inch square baking pan and dust with powdered sugar, shaking the powdered sugar around the pan to coat evenly. We also lined the bottom of the pan with a square of parchment paper and proceeded to oil and dust that as well.

In the bowl of a standing mixer, sprinkle the gelatin over 1/4 cup cold water and let stand to soften while you boil the sugar syrup. We used the stand mixer for this, but the original recipe states you could also use a handheld mixer. (I haven't tested that, so if you try it, leave a comment to tell everyone how it worked!)

Boil the sugar syrup. In a large heavy sauce pan, cook the sugar, corn syrup, the remaining 1/4 cup of water, and salt over low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon until the sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat to medium or medium high and boil without stirring until the mixture reaches 240 degrees F on a candy thermometer, approximately 10-12 minutes.

Here I will digress slightly to discuss some principles of candy making. These days I know many of us are concerned about health and are generally averse to the dreaded HFCS (or high fructose corn syrup). It is called for in this recipe for a specific reason: Sugar dissolves into water to make the syrup for candy. As the mixture boils, the water evaporates as steam, allowing the temperature of the mixture to rise beyond the boiling point of water. As this process occurs, the sugar crystals also have a tendency to reform and precipitate out of the solution (think rock candy). The corn syrup helps prevent this from happening, as does boiling the mixture without stirring.

When the mixture has reached 240 degrees, remove the pan from the heat and CAREFULLY pour the sugar over the gelatin stirring to dissolve. I found that the mixture bubbled up as I poured it, so make sure you are very careful. The sugar is extremely hot and sticky (a bad combination). If you are making this with children, obviously don't let them anywhere near this step of the process. With the standing mixer, beat on high until white, thick, and almost tripled in volume, around 8 minutes.

In a separate bowl with clean beaters, whip the egg white to stiff peaks. Beat the egg white and vanilla into the sugar until combined. This step really seemed to change the texture of the mixture and make it somewhat less sticky. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and sift 1/4 cup of powdered sugar over the top. Chill until firm, 3 hours to overnight.

Run a knife around the edge and invert the pan on a cutting board. Lifting up one corner, loosen the marshmallows and ease out onto the cutting board. Trim the edges and cut into 1 in. cubes. Roll in powdered sugar to prevent sticking. I was nervous that these would stick to the pan, but we really had no problem getting them out. We used a lightly oiled board scraper to cut them neatly into squares.

Variations: We made the recipe as stated above, but I've already come up with some great ideas for variations. These marshmallows have a fantastic, strong vanilla flavor. You could substitute peppermint extract for a peppermint marshmallows. A bit of food coloring added to the mixer could also make these colorful and cute. We used the marshmallows for snacking and in hot chocolate, but I'm already excited to make them next summer and use them around a campfire for some wicked s'mores! Finally, I'm pretty sure you could use the mixture without spreading it into the pan the same way you would use a jar of marshmallow fluff. (Homemade marshmallow rice krispie treats, anyone?? Or cream cheese marshmallow fluff fruit dip? The possibilities here are very exciting.) Of course, I haven't tested any of these ideas, so if you do, or if you come up with something else, leave a comment to let us know how it worked!

I really enjoyed writing this guest post and I hope you enjoy this recipe!

One in the Oven

So my sister went to a Baby Shower a few weeks ago and the party favor was a recipe and packaged mix for Honey Buns. They were called "Hunny Buns from the Oven" - get it? - like when you're preggers and they say you have "one in the oven." I thought it was a cute idea.

But they turned out to taste more like "Crappy Buns from the Oven!" Check out the recipe and then I will tell you why they turned out so poorly:

• 1/2 Cup Butter
• 1/2 Cup Packed Brown Sugar
• Chopped Pecans or Walnuts
• 2 Tablespoons Ground Cinnamon
• 2 Cup Bisquick Mix
• 1/3 Cup Applesauce
• 1/3 Cup Milk

Spray a Muffin Pan with Cooking Spray and sprinkle some of the chopped nuts in each of the 12 cups. Then place 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 teaspoons of brown sugar in each muffin cup. (Two tablespoons of butter seemed like an awful lot so I cut it down to one or one and a half) In a mixing bowl, mix the Bisquick, applesauce, ground cinnamon, and milk together to form and concoction that is somewhere between a dough and batter. Not so wet that you could make pancakes with it, but not so doughy that you could make bread - basically it needs to be spoonable, not pourable. Then spoon the mix into the muffin pan and bake for about 10 minutes at 450 F.

So why did mine turn out so bad? Well, even though I knew this was going to happen, I was still too lazy to take the proper precautions - When the butter and brown sugar melted at the bottom of the muffin pans, it was pretty much the same as the slurry from the pecan rolls, which has the tendency to boil over and out of the pans. And if you don't put a cookie sheet underneath to catch the over boiling slurry, it has nowhere to go but the bottom of your oven. Where of course it turns into a smokey burning mess. So while that was happening I rushed to take the Hunny Buns out at their prescribed 10 minutes, which wasn't quite enough time to finish them. It seems that they could have used a little more time to firm up. And even though the slurry was boiling over on some, it seemed to still be strongly buttery on others. So that could have used a few more minutes. They were edible, but not the best.

Definitely a cool idea for a party favor though, it all came in a brown bag with a nice little card with the recipe on it. They even mixed the cinnamon and bisquick and put it in a little baggy. The chopped nuts and brown sugar were in little cups. And the applesauce was in one of those little single serve cups all ready to go. The only thing you had to provide was the butter and milk.

The Christmas Baking Extravaganza will be on Thursday so there should be material for like ten posts coming up soon.

Really Getting Comfortable with Cinnamon Rolls and Sticky Buns

My laziness has kind of taken over lately and resulted in me falling back on the Cinnamon Rolls and Sticky Buns. So last week's absence of posting was just because I made the rolls again and there really wasn't much new to talk about. Although I did try a different recipe for the slurry for the Sticky Buns. This one used heavy whipping cream, which I thought was interesting. The result was a fluffier slurry and not-so-sticky Sticky Buns. Still tasted great, but didn't have that caramelized pull out your fillings stickiness that I like.
Tomorrow I am going to cheat and make some honey buns from a mix so I will have a post on that later this week.
And then next week, I will have a special guest to post on the blog: my sister!
We have about 10 different ideas for an all day baking session so you can look forward to that.

Maple Brown Sugar Bread

Took last week off because of Thanksgiving. I figured everyone else could do the baking for the weekend. So in my free time, I decided to attempt my own recipe and see how it might turn out. So here it goes.
Ingredients:

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup warm water
• 1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoon dry active yeast
• 1 1/2 tablespoon sugar
• 1/4 cup milk

Steps:

1. Combine the flour and cinnamon in a mixing bowl.
2. Heat the water to 100F and whisk in the yeast, salt, and sugar.
3. Add the water mixture to the flour and cinnamon and then mix on low/medium for about 1 to 2 minutes.
4. Add in the milk as necessary to create a smooth, slightly sticky ball of dough while mixing for another 2 to 3 minutes.
   
5. Continue mixing until dough is only sticky like gum you have been chewing for a really long time - by that I mean, it will stick to your hands a little bit when you pick it up, but it will easily come off.
6. Knead the dough for 10 minutes on a lightly floured surface.
7. Place the dough in a lightly oiled mixing bowl and cover with a towel. Let dough rise in the covered bowl for 1 hour. It will rise a little bit, but mine have not doubled in size.
8. Roll out the dough to be as wide as the length of your bread pan and as long as about 1.5 times the length of your bread pan. Then make the maple syrup and brown sugar spread.

• For the maple syrup and brown sugar spread you will need about 1/4 cup maple syrup and 3/4 cup of brown sugar. Mix them together until you get a thick paste. In the two test loaves I have made so far, the spread has "leaked" out of the bread and created a sort of glaze like feature as in the sticky buns which has been great, but I've been hoping to make it more like a swirl on the inside like a loaf of cinnamon bread. So this step might need some playing with in terms of the ratio of maple syrup to brown sugar.

After making the maple syrup and brown sugar mix, spread it all over the rolled out dough leaving a bit of a border so it won't all squeeze out when you roll the dough into a log. Place the rolled up loaf in a lightly oiled bread pan and let rise for another hour.
Bake at 350 F for about 35 minutes or until golden brown. I like to check and rotate the loaf after about 20 minutes or so.
Let me know if you try it and how it works for you! Enjoy!

Easiest Bread You Will Ever Make

One of the best memories I have from the bakery was grabbing a Ciabatta roll as I walked out the door and then eating it on my bike ride home. The best thing about the Ciabatta was that it was so chewy that it would actually hurt my jaw by the time I was done with it - which was the entire 15 minute bike ride back to my apartment. So I have been super excited to try out Ciabatta for some time now. But I'm kind of a lazy guy and all the Ciabatta recipes I have found have been too involved for me to get motivated to try them out. Until I stumbled upon this one: One Minute Ciabatta Bread.
It is simply the easiest bread you will ever make. Which begs the question, "Why are so many people turned off from making their own bread?" When I first read this recipe (1/4 tspn yeast, 1 tspn salt, 2 cups warm water, 4 cups flour) I thought it was too simple to turn into anything resembling bread. Mostly because all the other recipes I've been reading have been so technical and precise. But then I realized, like most anything else around the kitchen, bread was kind of just discovered by trail and error - and it was a basic staple that even the simplest folks in history could make.
Most breads are derived from simple recipes that were created by people just trying to combine some yeast, flour, and water - and salt usually helped too. So this recipe, although seemingly too simple, turns out to be a great easy-to-make bread.
I don't need to repeat the recipe here, but the process is basically, mix the yeast and water, then add the salt and flour to make a wet batter. Then let it sit for about 8 to 12 hours. I've been using an oiled parchment lined cookie sheet to bake mine. Cover the dough/batter with your favorite herbs or cheese. I've been using some Rosemary that I scored from work and some Asiago cheese left over from the bagels. (The first-try loaves shown here resulted in a momma loaf and baby loaf because it is a little tricky to get the wet dough out of the mixing bowl and onto the cookie sheet - try your best with shaping the loaves, but be careful not to "deflate" the loaves because you want that open crumb for a true Ciabatta) Then pop it all in the oven at 400F for about 25 minutes - mine have been taking a little longer and have been a little doughy/wet for my taste in the center so I think I might crank the temp up a little bit on my next try.
Give it a shot and let me know how it works for you!

Cinnamon Rolls and Sticky Buns

Forgive the late entry this week. We had Monday off and I was too lazy to post day one for the Cinnamon Rolls and Sticky Buns, but you didn't miss much. Day one is pretty simple. As simple as just mixing up the dough and then throwing it in the fridge and letting is rise. As I mentioned before, that's what I like so much about the recipes in Artisan Breads Everyday - they are simple and broken apart so that it never seems like too much work.
Day two is a little more involved and time consuming. And when I am waking up in the middle of the night to do the baking, let's just say my attention to detail isn't always as sharp as it should be. This morning I woke up around 2:45 because the dough needs to be shaped and left to proof for two hours before baking. And the slurry for the Sticky Buns needs to be made before the proofing stage. So if you are slow on shaping and making the slurry, you need to add two more hours before you are even going to get it in the oven which can end up making you late to work - especially if you have a 7:30 meeting. For shaping for both, you roll out the dough, cover it with cinnamon sugar, and roll it up into a tight log. Then cut into about 1 inch pieces and either put some in the pan with slurry or to make some fantastically large Cinnamon Rolls, just place the pieces on a cookie sheet to let them expand.
But waking up early is all worth it when the smell of Cinnamon Rolls and Sticky Buns fills the house! My favorite thing about working at the bakery in Chicago was riding my bike in for the opening shift and being able to smell the Cinnamon Rolls about a block away and knowing that was the first thing I was going to eat that morning. So it's pretty awesome to recreate that experience - I just need to leave the windows open and ride around the block I guess.
The only difference between the Cinnamon Rolls and the Sticky Buns is the slurry which the Sticky Buns are baked in. When baking, the slurry caramelizes and creates that fantastic toffee sticky-ness that defines the Sticky Bun. For the Cinnamon Rolls, you just make a simple fondant glaze with
some confectioners sugar and milk. Enjoy!

Bagels - Day 2

So ever since I worked at the bakery I have been on a somewhat weird sleeping pattern, never being able to really sleep past 4 or 5 am. Some people think it's crazy, but one of my favorite things is being up in the middle of the night when everything is quite and still. So this morning I was up at 4:15 to pull the bagels out of the fridge to proof - and when I say proof, I basically mean the final resting/rising period for the dough in the fermentation process. This recipe called for the bagels to proof until they pass the float test which you can try after 60 or 90 minutes or so.
The float test is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: when the bagel floats in in cold water, it is ready for poaching and then baking. And as I said before, if you can mix some dough up and boil some water then you can make bagels. The poaching process is boiling up some water and adding honey, salt, and baking soda and then taking the water down to a simmer. After that, you poach the shaped bagels in the simmering water for about a minute on each side. Then place on an oiled parchment lined cookie sheet and bake according to the recipe - here it is about 8 minutes, rotate, another 8 minutes.
Once you get a solid recipe down for your basic plain bagel, have at it in terms of experimenting with different flavors. I've winged it on all the times I've made the Cinnamon Raisin and Asiago Cheese bagels in terms of adding the cinnamon, raisins, and cheese. I've found that the more liberal you are, the better. For Cinnamon Raisin, you add the cinnamon at the first step with the flour and then mix in the raisins as you are mixing the dough until you get a what you are looking for. For Asiago Cheese, you load on the cheese as soon as the bagels are done poaching.
I'll be playing with this recipe over the next couple of weeks and hope to post my own modified recipe for Chocolate Chip Bagels by the end of the month - probably for a batch of 12.

Monday, November 1st: Bagels

I'll admit, I have been trying out some of these recipes for a few weeks now so the first few posts here will hopefully all go over well. Today, I decided to go with bagels, a batch of Cinnamon Raisin and a batch of Asiago Cheese. At first I was intimidated by the idea of making bagels, but if you can make a simple loaf of bread and boil water, then you can make bagels my friend.
Out of respect for Peter Reinhart (and copyright laws), I obviously won't be posting the details of the recipe, but you should seriously consider picking up Peter's books Artisan Breads Everyday or The Bread Baker's Apprentice, both of which are excellent sources of knowledge and tips for making some amazingly awesome breads. I liked the opening of The Bread Baker's Apprentice a bit more, but Artisan Breads Everyday really gets down to brass tacks and give simple to follow directions and explains some basic skills needed for making artisan quality breads in a way that most anyone can understand.
Another great thing about Artisan Breads Everyday is that most of the recipes use slow fermentation or cold fermentation, so almost all the recipes I have made so far have a been a two day process. For me, this has been great because I get all the mixing a prep done on day one, and then on day two I have the fun of waking up early and proofing the dough and then enjoying the great smells and satisfaction that comes from fresh baked breads and pastries.
So today's post is about bagels and how easy they are. Besides the simple ingredients of flour, salt, and yeast, bagels include either honey or malt syrup. I have been using honey and they have turned out great for me. And the simplicity of hydrating the yeast with the salt and honey and then just adding to the flour makes the whole process a breeze.

Side note: anytime I have ever heard of KitchenAid mixers being brought up in conversation, I never hear people say, "Oh, I like my mixer," or "It's okay." They always say, "I LOVE my KitchenAid mixer, I absolutely LOVE it." Seriously, that exact quote like every time. So I finally broke down and bought one and used it for the first time tonight. And holy crap, I LOVE my KitchenAid mixer.

Back to the bagels. Shaping is easily the best part. Reinhart describes two methods, one method is to poke a hole in each divided piece of dough and the other method is to roll out the divided pieces of dough and then wrap them around your hand. Of the two, I have found that the second method produces a bagel with a smooth crust and perfect shape. After shaping, the bagels go in the fridge for up to two days to enjoy the cold fermentation process.
Come back on Wednesday to see day two of bagel making which is when we get to have some real fun and poach them!