Gooey Goodness

So why make marshmallows yourself when you can buy them for 99 cents a bag at the store, you ask? Well what if you can't have corn in addition to being gluten free? There are gluten free marshmallows out there but they're still loaded up with corn syrup or corn starch and a friend of mine happens to be allergic to corn so we got a little adventurous and decided to experiment with making Gluten-Free, Corn-Free marshmallows.

The process was interesting. A lot of stirring is involved, and man oh man, I have never seen something go quite so crazy when combining the boiling sugar mixture and the warm gelatin mixture! Make sure you're paying attention and act quickly, and please be careful. The steam alone burned the top of my finger, but hey, it was exciting.

The results of our efforts created the closest substitute for a marshmallow that I think you can get. Only slightly more dense that a store bought mallow, and strictly based on taste and not looks, these are indeed marshmallows. Now we are one step closer to achieving our goal of having gluten free, corn free, and dairy free smores!

Right after pouring batter into dusted pan. They don't look like much here, but wait.

Squares. Perhaps starting to resemble a marshmallow?

All cut up you can see that the outside has I guess what you'd call a crust, like a regular marshmallow, and is more gooey on the inside.

Ingredients
1 cup powdered sugar
2 cups white sugar
1 Tbsp brown rice syrup
1 1/4 cups water, divided
4 Tbsp unflavored gelatin
2 egg whites
1 Tsp vanilla

Directions

1. Dust a 8x8 inch square baking pan with powdered sugar (the pan size and shape will dictate the shape and size of the mallow)
2. In a saucepan over medium-high heat, stir together the sugar, rice syrup and 3/4 cup water.
3. Heat to 265 degrees F (can check with a candy thermometer or by dropping small amount into cold water and it should instantly form a rigid ball).
4. While syrup is heating, place the remaining 1/2 cup of water in a small saucepan and sprinkle gelatin over the surface.
5. Put over low heat and stir frequently to blend.
6. Keep warm until syrup reaches 265 degrees.
7. Then add the gelatin mixture to the syrup whisking fast, but carefully.
8. In a separate bowl, whip egg whites to soft peaks (should do this before syrup reaches 265 degrees so they are ready and waiting.)
9. Slowly incorporate syrup mixture into egg whites mixture.
10. Stir in vanilla.
11. Immediately pour into your prepared pan.
12. Cover and let them rest for 8 hours or overnight before cutting.
13. Store in air tight container.

Recipe tweaked from allrecipes.com