Marshmallows

This is a recipe I have been wanting to tackle for a while now. I had been hesitating because in my head, I thought it must be too complicated (and messy from what I'd heard!) But yesterday I decided "what the heck," and in to the kitchen I went! The really great thing about this recipe, is that that the colour and flavor combinations are endless! There are a whole bunch of really great, good quality candy and confectionery flavorings available these days. I recently picked up a bunch of fun flavours and had been itching to use them in something. I had 3 in mind for these marshmallows, but settled on cherry. If you do not have any of these flavorings, you can just use good old vanilla and get a great, original tasting marshmallow!
Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup icing (powdered) sugar
• 3 1/2 envelopes (3 tablespoons) unflavored gelatin
• 1 cup cold water
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup corn syrup (or glucose syrup if you're in Australia)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 egg whites
• 1 Tbs of your choice of flavor (vanilla, peppermint, almond, hazelnut, cherry, blackberry, etc...)
• a couple of drops of coordinating food coloring.

1. Oil a 9x13 baking dish. (I used cooking spray.) Dust bottom and sides generously with icing sugar.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup of the cold water and let stand for at least 5 minutes.
3. In a heavy 3 quart pan, combine sugar, corn syrup, 1/2 cup cold water, and salt. On low heat, stir until the sugar is dissolved. Insert candy thermometer and increase heat to med-high until mixture starts to boil. Without stirring, leave to boil until mixture reaches 240 F (soft ball stage.) This should take 10-12 minutes.
4. Pour sugar mixture over gelatin mixture. With mixer on high speed, beat until thick and white and tripled in volume. This should take about 8 to 10 minutes.
5. In a separate mixing bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Add whipped egg whites with flavoring and color in to the sugar mixture until just combined.
6. Pour mixture in to prepared dish. Spread evenly and wiggle dish until level. Dust the top with more icing sugar. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours, uncovered.
7. Now it's time to cut them in to what ever shape you choose! I went with basic 1 in squares, but you could use any small shaped cookie cutter. What ever you use to cut them, a knife or a cutter, will need to be well oiled. To cut mine, I turned the slab of marshmallow on a large cutting board and with a large knife, cut it in to squares, rinsing and spraying my knife with cooking spray when the knife started to get sticky.
8. In a large bowl, put about 1/2 cup icing sugar. Once marshmallows have been cut, toss them in icing sugar until evenly coated. Marshmallows should be kept in an air tight container to prevent moisture making them sticky!