Home made marshmallows

This is a pretty involved recipe, but the kids and I had alot of fun doing it. Be careful when you pour the gelatin syrup into the sugar mixture, it really bubbles up.

1 cup confectioners' sugar for dusting
2 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1 1/4 cups water, divided
4 tablespoons unflavored gelatin
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


DIRECTIONS
Dust a 9x9 inch square dish generously with confectioners' sugar.

1. In a saucepan over medium-high heat, stir together white sugar, corn syrup and 3/4 cup water. Heat to 250 to 265 degrees F (121 to 129 degrees C), or until a small amount of syrup dropped into cold water forms a rigid ball.
2. While syrup is heating, place remaining water in a metal bowl and sprinkle gelatin over the surface. Place bowl over simmering water until gelatin has dissolved completely. Keep in a warm place until syrup has come to temperature. Remove syrup from heat and whisk gelatin mixture into hot syrup. Set aside.
3.In a separate bowl, whip egg whites to soft peaks. Continue to beat, pouring syrup mixture into egg whites in a thin stream, until the egg whites are very stiff. Stir in vanilla. Spread evenly in prepared pan and let rest 8 hours or overnight before cutting shapes with cookie cutters. Or, using a pastry bag, pipe out desired shapes while the mixture is still warm.

Chocolate Peanut Sweeties

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup butter, softened

3 cups confectioners sugar

5 dozen miniature pretzel twists

1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Beat peanut butter and butter until smooth. Beat in sugar until combined then shape into 1 in. balls and press one on each pretzel. Place on waxed paper lined sheets. Refrigerate 1 hour.

Melt chocolate chips in oil. Dip peanut butter ball into chocolate and return to waxed paper pretzel side down. Refrigerate 30 minutes before serving. Store in the fridge.

"Roca Rocks"

I adapted this recipe from a simple toffee recipe from the "Friend" Magazine years ago. I thought it tasted like Almond Roca, and so I tweaked it and turned it into what I call "Roca Rocks".


1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter-no substitutes
1 cup of chopped almonds (you may chop them up in a blender)
1/2 package of chocolate chips

1.Place the brown sugar, butter and 1/2 of the almonds in a sauce pan. Cook and stir on medium heat until it is at a vigorous boil. Once it is boiling, do not stir, and let it cook until each reaches 250 degrees (hardball stage).
2.Remove from heat and immediately poor the mixture onto a greased, foil lined cookie sheet. Let cool-you can even put it in the refridgerator or freezer to speed it up.
3.While the mixture is cooling, melt the chocolate chips.
4.Once the sugar and butter mixture is completely cool, break it into little peices.
5.Dip the broken peices in the melted chocolate, then roll them in the remaining choped almonds. Allow the chocolate to cool and harden.
Enjoy.
Helpful hints: This works best on a "dry" day. Don't try to make it while it's raining or humid outside, or it might not get crunchy. Store in an airtight container. Do not refridgerate.