I’ve just been playing around in the kitchen and whipped these up.. because.. well I could and because I wanted to make something delicious, sweet and would support me whilst being indulgent during this time of year.
This recipe works with the winter element of WATER because it’s boosted with black sesame seeds ( full of Jing essence) and also gelatine, which much as we dont want to think about it, is derived from animal bones.
The recipe is very similar to making a meringue but you need to make a sugar syrup and heat up the gelatine slowly whilst adding them to the whisked up egg whites. Its really fun and you can of course adapt the flavours to be anything you might like – rose, elderflower, orange, coffee, toffee, salted caramel… go for it.
Delicious in a warm cup of ritual cacao and you know how much I love Ritual Cacao. If you’d like to buy some head here and use the CODE LITTLEPLOUGH10
Black Tahini Marshmallows
Ingredients
- 250g caster sugar
- 170ml warm water
- 110ml warm water
- 3 egg whites
- 30g organic gelatine (I use Ossa as I think they are very good)
- 1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I use an expensive good quality one as I hate the taste of the cheap stuff)
- 2 large tablespoons black tahini paste (Biona do a great one)
- icing sugar and cornflour
Instructions
- Prepare an oiled baking sheet/dish/plate for you to pour your marshmallow onto later, as well a sieve with a mixture of icing sugar and cornflour - this will coat the marshmallows later and make them non stick.
- Place the 250g sugar and 170ml warm water into a small saucepan and gently heat to dissolve the sugar. When the sugar has dissolved turn up the heat and begin to reduce the sugar syrup so that it begins to go through the different stages of sugar formation.
- It will start off looking like water and then the bubbles will begin to change gradually getting more noticeable and thicker... this takes a bit of time, at least 3-5 minutes, but will depend on the heat of your flame/hob /aga.
- If you have a thermometer you apparently want to take the sugar syrup to 242-245 firm ball stage, however I don't bother getting too techy with it all and just have a glass of cold water by the stove and every so often will take a small teaspoon of the syrup and place into the cold water. If it disappears its not ready yet, but eventually it will form a little soft ball - then into a firm ball - then its ready (although I've defo done this at soft ball stage and its still worked fine FYI)
- Whilst this is heating get on with whisking up your egg whites to medium peak (I do this in a stand mixer as I find it easier than a manual electric whisk, as later it gets a bit tricky when adding your syrup).
- In another small saucepan add your 110ml water and sprinkle over your 30g of gelatine and allow it to sponge. This simply means allow it to firm up and soak up the water (approx 5 mins).
- Then take this saucepan and place on a very low heat (you dont want this to boil or it will change the structure of the gelatine). Gently heating it will begin to melt into a liquid.
- So now you are at the final stages.
- Have everything ready to go. Pour your warmed gelatine into the sugar syrup and gently swirl together (it may bubble a bit but this is fine) then gradually add slowly your sugar syrup into your egg whites - basically creating a meringue but with gelatine in it.
- Whisk until it's all added, then add in your vanilla paste. If you have ever tired Fluff... this is basically what it tastes like at this stage.
- Turn off your mixer and by hand I gently fold through the black tahini paste (I try and disperse it a bit as it can be very thick, by mixing it with a small amount of egg white mix first and then stir that through the rest of the mix - I do this so I keep the original volume in the egg whites, rather than trying to stir the very thick tahini paste straight into the egg whites and getting no where, other than deflating them).
- Pour onto your oiled baking sheet or prepared oiled dish.
- Let cool for up to 6 hours - although mine normally sets in less than 1!
- Then get a large piece of non stick greaseproof or silicone paper and sieve over the icing sugar and corn flour mix. Sprinkle a bit on top of your marshmallow and turn it out onto your powdered paper. Then with an oiled large chefs knife cut into pieces (I like squares) and gently tussle in the snow like power to cover.
- Store in an airtight container.
- Apparently egg white marshmallows can last 5-7 days like this but for more in depth info head to www.theflavorblender.com where she has a wealth of info I found very interesting
Leave a Reply