Rose and Raspberry Marshmallows

 Easter is the time of year where devout christians and those of us who are feeling a bit guilty decide to give up delicious treats, unfortunately i have never felt that guilty when it comes to food! I am very much an advocate of enjoying food, and it does not come much better than these tiny morsels of marshmallows. When i think of marshmallows, i think of the cheap british 'Flumps', they come in scarily bright colours for 12 pence each and where pure sugar.

 It appears that these once cheap children confectionaries are now very much a fashionable delicacy, sitting alongside macarons and petit fours in pattisseries. As an ode to my favourite raspberry marshmallows when i was tiny, i have pimped them up with rose water making them perfect for gifts, an after dinner treat, or if you are like me just something you shamelessly eat in an afternoon! They are relatively easy to make, but some stages are a little fiddly, but completely worth it.

For (approx. 30 marshmallows)

You will need:

20x 30 shallow baking tin,

300g Fresh raspberries,

1/2 tsp Rose water,

400g Caster sugar,

2 tbsp Golden syrup,

3x 12g Sachets of powdered gelatin, 

2 Large free range egg whites,

2 tsp Vanilla extract,

A few edible flowers to decorate

Icing sugar to powder the marshmallows

1.Line your tin with baking parchment and set aside ready for later. Place your fresh raspberries in a

pan on a low heat with your icing sugar and 3 tbsp of cold water. Bring this to a simmer and leave until the raspberries have broken down and the mixture is nice and pulpy. 

2. Once this has happened sieve your raspberry mixture into a heat proof bowl. This may take a little

while but be persistent and make sure you have sieved through as much of the pulp as possible, the more raspberry flavour the better! Now stir in the rose water and try to keep the mixture nice and warm before using it again in the next stage.

3. Heat the caster sugar and golden syrup in a small saucepan with 150ml of cold water to a soft ball

(120C on a sugar thermometer for about 10 minutes). Be careful not to over stir your mixture as this will cause the sugar to begin to crystalize, if you leave the mixture it will not come to any harm. I would  recommend wearing something with long sleeves whilst cooking this as the mixture occasionally has the tendancy to spit, and trust me, boiling hot sugar syrup and skin do not mix well.




4. Place the bowl of raspberry puree over a pan of simmering water and sprinkle over the gelatin and

heat until completely dissolved. This will be easy to see as the mixture will no longer be grainy, this is also an important stage as by correctly dissolving the gelatin the marshmallows will be lovely and springy as they should be.

5. When the sugar syrup has reached the correct temperature, remove from the heat and whisk in the raspberry gelatin mixture, once again take care as the mixture will bubble and spit. Now add your vanilla essence.





6. In a seperate bowl, whisk the egg whites with an electric whisker until they form soft peaks.

Although some of you lucky lot will own a free standing electric whisker (has been on my christmas list for many years!), for the rest of us paupersyou can just as easily use a hand held electric whisk. Slowly add the hot raspberry vanilla mixture whilst continuously whisking. Do this until the mixture is glossy and thick. By now the mixture should have tripled in size, this can take about  5 minutes.

7. Pour into the prepared tin and scatter with flower petals and leave to set. When using flowers it is incredibly important that you know where/how they have been grown and if they are edible. Pansies and

rose petals are good ones but only if you know they have not been grown using pesticides or any other harmful chemicals. Some flowers will not  be edible so make sure you do your research first. Your mixture will be a very light baby pink colour so throw in some other colours to brighten it up a bit!

Once set cut into squares with a wet or oiled knife. I dusted the bottom and sides of my marshmallows with icing sugar as they seem to stick to everything! The basic principle of marshmallow making is relatively easy, meaning you can adapt this recipe to make different flavours. A rhubarb and ginger marshmallow is on my list of things to do as it is one of my favourite things and is now in season. Would love to hear from anyone who gives these a go, so please get in touch if you have any questions or suggestions, happy baking!