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!

Cappuccino Bonbons

 This is the recipe that started it all- all of this. I entered a recipe contest with this recipe, and ended up winning. it was the most amazing thing to ever happen to me, and was the best experience. It made me want to make more and more chocolate, and try new recipes and see if I could start to develop a whole collection of original recipes, so here we go :]
These "bonbons" have a bottom layer of dark chocolate espresso ganache and a top layer of white chocolate vanilla ganache. I specifically didn't call them "truffles" because from what I have been taught, you can only call it a truffle if it is round, because the original chocolate truffles were covered in chocolate and then dusted with cocoa powder, resembling truffles [like the earthy/mushroom truffles that cost a ridiculous amount of money and taste like dirt]. So since these weren't round, they became bonbons....the end.

White Chocolate Vanilla Ganache
Heavy Cream - 58g
Vanilla Bean - 2 ea
Coffee (whole beans) - 5g
Butter - 6g
White Chocolate (melted, tempered) - 158g
Method:
Bring cream, vanilla, and coffee beans to a boil, cover and steep for 5 minutes. Strain out the vanilla and coffee. Re-weigh the remaining cream, add more if there is not enough left.
Boil cream. Allow to cool to 105 F.
Pour over melted, tempered chocolate, mix slowly until homogonous.
Stir in softened butter.
Spread ganache onto a deep dish paper plate [or into an 8" cake pan that is lined with parchment paper]

Dark Chocolate Espresso Ganache
Heavy Cream - 58g
Coffee(coarsely ground) - 30g
Butter - 10g
Dark Chocolate (melted, tempered) - 135g
Method:
Bring cream and coffee to a boil, cover and steep for 5 minutes. Strain out the coffee grinds, and replace any evaporated cream with milk.
Boil cream. Allow to cool to 105 F.
Pour over melted tempered chocolate, mix slowly until homogenous.
Stir in softened butter.
Spread ganache on top of set white chocolate ganache.

Finishing:
Temper Dark Chocolate.
Spread a think, even layer over top of the Dark Chocolate Espresso Ganache.
Once set, flip the slab of ganache so the white chocolate is on top. Cut the ganache into  1/2" squares.
Using a dipping fork, dip the ganache centers in tempered Dark Chocolate. Once set, pipe diagonal stripes of tempered  White Chocolate across the chocolates.

bring cream to full boil

melted tempered chocolate and butter, read to stir in

finished, cappuccino bon bons :]

looking forward to working on some halloween [i.e. pumpkin] confections!