For my first attempt at making marshmallows, I have to say these turned out very well. I did however learn 2 important lessons, one of which wasn’t alluded to at all in the recipe.

The first is to really go over board with oiling the baking tray, and then likewise with the cornflour/icing sugar sprinkling over the oil (also make sure there’s plenty up the sides) – otherwise you will spend a long time with a pallette knife and spatula working the mallow free of the tray. You won’t lose any mallow if you haven’t oiled/sugared enough, but it will be 10 minutes of your life you won’t get back.

The second, and probably most important lesson is that when adding the liquid gelatine mix to the hard ball syrup mix, do it off the heat and slowly, otherwise you will end up with a good approximation of Mount Vesuvius on your hob. There’s so many better things to do than clean a hardened sugar mix up off an electric hob plate!

Recipe

Whilst this may look like a lot, it’s not really, just I find it easier to follow broken down into a method and recipes for the constituent parts. For the final mixing you need 4 different aspects combined together quite quickly, so read through it a couple of times to familiarise yourself.

Method

1. Make the sugar mix (see recipe below) for dusting, grease (with vegetable oil) and dust the baking tray. Be generous with both and make sure you go up the sides of the baking tray. Save the remaining sugar mix for later.
2. Make the purée (see recipe below)
3. Set up 2 saucepans, one with a jam thermometer (make sure the one for the syrup is medium to large in size), and one large mixing bowl.
4. Measure out your ingredients, put 100ml of water and 4tbsp powdered gelatine in the small pan. Put 75ml of water, 400g caster sugar and 1tbsp liquid glucose in the large pan.
5. Whisk 2 egg whites in the large bowl until stiff.
6. Heat the syrup mixture to Hard Ball (~130°C) – whilst this is happening, gently heat the liquid gelatine mix in the other pan until it’s fully dissolved.
7. Carefully (off the heat) pour the gelatine into the Hard Ball syrup mix and whisk in the puree
8. Re-whisk the egg whites and slowly pour in the puree/syrup mixture, whilst whisking. Whisk for a further 7-10 minutes until the mixture starts to stiffen.
9. Pour into the prepared baking tray and leave to set for at least 5 hours.
10. Sprinkle a work surface with the sugar mix and invert the mallow out of the baking tray on to it.
11. Dust the top of the mallow and then cut out your shapes

 Strawberry Purée

• 1 punnet strawberries
• 50ml water
• 2tsp vanilla extract

1. Remove the stalks/leaves from the strawberries, and quarter them.
2. Put them with the water in a saucepan over a low-medium heat and cook for about 10 minutes until juicy.
3. Push the liquid/strawberries through a sieve into a bowl.
4. Mix in the vanilla extract and set aside for later.

Sugar Mix for Dusting

• 50g Icing Sugar
• 50g Cornflour

Just sieve the 2 together.

 Liquid Gelatine Mix

• 100ml cold water
• 4tbsp gelatine

Stir the gelatine into the water in a pan. Heat gently prior to adding to the syrup

Syrup Mix

• 75ml water
• 400g caster sugar
• 1tbsp glucose syrup

1. Combine in a large pan.
2. Heat gently until sugar has dissolved
3. Increase heat to ~130°C (Hard Ball)