S'mores with Homemade Vanilla Bean Marshmallows

I love s'mores. I mean I guess everyone does, but in december I discovered that making homemade, fluffy marshmallows really isn't that hard. I made the recipe mainly for hot chocolate & coffee for winter-time, but I really wanted to use them for some yummy s'mores. So when my friends and I decided to do this trip to North Carolina, I knew I had to make a fresh batch for our bonfires at night. These marshmallows are way better than the store bought kind, by far. Especially because they toast a lot quicker and they turn into marshmallow fluff in the middle, so that the s'mores are extra gooey & extra messy, which is the exact reason you should eat s'mores. I cut the Vanilla Bean Marshmallows to the size of a graham cracker because I hate when you have to toast two marshmallows to fill up the graham cracker. Enjoy :)

First S'more of the Trip

Oh-So-Gooey

Toastin' the 'Mallow

S'mores with Homemade Vanilla Bean Marshmallows

For the Marshmallows:

1C Confectioners’ Sugar

3 ½C Envelopes of Unflavored Gelatin

1C Cold Water, Divided

2C Sugar

½C Light Corn Syrup

¼t Salt

2 Large Egg Whites

1t Vanilla

1 Vanilla Bean, Split & Scraped for Seeds

Directions:

1. Oil bottom and sides of a 13x9 rectangular metal baking pan and dust bottom and sides with some confectioners’ sugar.

2. In bowl of a standing electric mixer or in a large bowl sprinkle gelatin over ½C cold water, and let stand to soften.

3. In a 3-quart heavy saucepan cook granulated sugar, corn syrup, second ½C of cold water, and salt over low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to moderate and boil mixture, without stirring, until a candy or digital thermometer registers 240°F, about 12 minutes. Remove pan from heat and pour sugar mixture over gelatin mixture, stirring until gelatin is dissolved.

4. With standing or a hand-held electric mixer beat mixture on high speed until white, thick, and nearly tripled in volume, about six minutes if using standing mixer or about 10 minutes if using hand-held mixer.

5. In separate medium bowl with cleaned beaters beat egg whites (or reconstituted powdered whites) until they just hold stiff peaks. Beat whites and vanilla (or your choice of flavoring) into sugar mixture until just combined. Pour mixture into baking pan and don’t fret if you don’t get it all out (learning from my mess of a first round). Sift ¼C confectioners sugar evenly over top. Chill marshmallow, uncovered, until firm, at least three hours, and up to one day.

6. Run a thin knife around edges of pan and invert pan onto a large cutting board. Lifting up one corner of inverted pan, with fingers loosen marshmallow and ease onto cutting board. With a large knife trim edges of marshmallow and cut marshmallow into roughly one-inch cubes. (An oiled pizza cutter works well here too.) Sift remaining confectioners’ sugar back into your now-empty baking pan, and roll the marshmallows through it, on all six sides, before shaking off the excess and packing them away.

source: springy, fluffy marshmallows