Showing posts with label hot cocoa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hot cocoa. Show all posts

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Marshmallows!

well, this post is coming a day too late, but here is the culmination of the hot cocoa series! Homemade marshmallows- the perfect topping for your homemade hot cocoa, no matter what flavor you choose to make, you can mix up a quick batch of any flavor marshmallow to go with it. Personally I love marshmallows, i love them in cocoa, smores, cookies, in my mouth....basically whenever, wherever. And honestly, although they seem complicated, marshmallows are really very simple!  Now, be careful who you give these marshmallows to, they are made with gelatin [which all marshmallows are] and many vegans [and some vegetarians] do not eat gelatin, so make sure to not put them in their drinks. You can substitute any flavoring for the vanilla that I used, and you can add food coloring if you like!

Homemade Marshmallows
adapted from Chocolates & Confections by Peter Greweling
 
Gelatin: 10g
Water [cold]: 57g

Sugar: 170g
Glucose Syrup: 112g
Honey: 27g
Water: 42g

Vanilla: 5g

1. Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and allow it to sit while you prepare the sugar syrup.
2. Combine the sugar, glucose syrup, honey, and water in a small sauce pan and begin to cook over high heat.
3. Cook the sugar to 252 F, then pour into your mixing bowl and allow it to cool UNDISTURBED until it reached 212 F [this actually wont take too long, as the syrup will loose most heat when you pour it out]
4. Pop the gelatin into the microwave for 15 seconds and melt it down [careful to NOT BURN it]
5. Pour the melted gelatin into the sugar mixture now add the vanilla extract.
6. Whip the mixture for 8 minutes
7. Pour the mixture out onto an oiled parchment paper and then press down with another oiled parchment paper with your hands.
Allow the marshmallows to sit overnight, then  remove the parchment and cut them into whatever shape you like, and sift them into a mixture of 1/2 cup powdered sugar and 1/2 cup corn starch now eat them!!

Cook the sugar, glucose, honey, and water and then  pour into your mixing bowl
Add in the melted gelatin
whip the mixture for 8 minutes and it will look like....

THIS!

oiled parchment
plop out marshmallows!


place parchment ontop...
press down with your hands
after setting overnight, cut into whatever shape/size you like!


toss in the powdered sugar/corn starch mixture and then sift out
now eat them!






Thursday, December 1, 2011

12 Days of Hot Chocolate

Sometimes I wonder how quirky national days come to be...for example, national hot dog day [July 23], national coffee day [September 29]. Who decides what day a singular food gets to be celebrated by everyone? Whoever he is..I want his job. It turns out that December 13 is National [hot] Cocoa Day. So, in leading up to this DELICIOUS celebration, I am going to be doing a twelve days of hot chocolates!

Day One: Peppermint Dark Chocolate
makes 3-4 cups
Dark Chocolate: 3 oz
Milk: 6 oz
Peppermint leaves: 3g [OR 1 peppermint tea bag]
Hot Water: 15-20 oz [as needed]

1. place peppermint and milk in a microwave safe container or microwave on high until begins to boil [2 minutes]
2. strain off peppermint leaves [or remove tea bag] and pour the hot milk over the chocolate
3. stir until the mixture is homogenous [if it looks like there are just big speckles of chocolate, you need to heat it and stir more]
4. Divide equally into cups [will fill about 1/3 of the way] and top with hot water - you can use hot milk at this point, but the ganache that you just made is very thick and plenty rich without any more milk being added.
5. Stir and enjoy!

steep peppermint in hot milk

Pour over chocolate


If the chocolate looks separated, you need to heat it more

Fill 1/3 of the way with ganache and then....

Top off with hot water and mix well <3
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...