Thursday, December 8, 2011

Oatmeal Stout Marshmallows - Take 2!

Brilliant idea with poor execution = sadness.  Brilliant idea with perfected execution = redemption!

I love making marshmallows and am always looking for new and fun flavors to try out.  The boyfriend had a brilliant suggestion - oatmeal stout flavored.   Sure, sounds great!  The first attempt was ill-fated, and they failed to set up leaving me with a sticky, overly malleable mess with lots of curses hanging in the air.  However, I was determined because the flavor was great, even if the texture wasn't.  Take two, however, was a glowing success and they set up perfectly.  (If you want to know what the fix was - it was actually following my recipe and adding the correct amount of gelatin.  Oops.)

Perhaps I was distracted by adorable curiosity of my sous chefs?


It was fun to bring them in to work and watch people's faces as they considered tasting the marshmallow.  "Uh, stout, you say?  Hm..."  But anyone who was bold enough to try it, loved it!  It reminds you of the creamy head of a lovely, poured stout (and the bit of booze included is a lovely perk).  Yum!


Oatmeal Stout Marshmallow
(adapted from my friend Chut's recipe and technique!)

1/2 cup oatmeal stout (oops, guess you'll have to drink the rest!)
2 packets of gelatin
Pour stout in stand mixer bowl, and sprinkle the 2 packets of gelatin on top and let sit while you work on the syrup.

1 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup hot water
Combine into saucepan over medium-high heat.  Cook until it reaches 240 degrees (soft-ball stage).  Remove from heat and pour slowly into stand mixer, with whisk attachment, and whip at high speed until it's opaque,  no longer runny, and at least doubled in volume, and is much stiffer, about 10-15 minutes.  You can't really over-beat them - a relief!

 While it's whipping, put parchment paper on a cookie sheet, and lightly spray with cooking spray, and lightly sprinkle cornstarch on it.  After marshmallow is done whipping, spread on prepared parchment (as much as possible, it WILL be sticky), and sprinkle cornstarch over it and let sit for at least and hour or two to completely set (overnight is great, especially when you decide to make them late at night like me).  There will be some sticking in the bowl and on the spatula - but you need to try it out for quality assurance, right?!

A pizza cutter works GREAT to cut the mallows, and coat all sides of mallows with cornstarch to keep from sticking all over everything.

Enjoy!

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