One of the most enjoyable things about all of the work I’ve been putting in to the marshmallows is the chance to take some time and work on new ideas. A couple of friends from the city came out on Saturday to give me a hand with some “marshmallow prototypes” and we had a great time. Now, before you read any further in to this post, keep in mind that nothing created in my kitchen was meant for the public. This means that absolutely no time was taken on presentation and most procedures that I have put in to place for the sake of efficiency and cleanliness weren’t exactly followed. This was about fun and trying out some new things, not business.
In other words, there was a lot of beer involved.
Ok, first things first. We need some fuel to power us through the day. What’s better than wings and beer?
Absolutely nothing. Word on the street is that Julia Child ate the same thing before filming each episode of her cooking show. Ok, not really. But probably. Check out the recipe for my apricot glazed wings. You’ll love them.
Patrick had a little too much to eat and needed to take a time out.
Elgin and I got all of the marshmallow batches together and by the time everything was set, about 3 hours later, Patrick woke up and gave us a hand in cutting and dusting everything.
Marshmallows and neon yellow skulls compliment each other perfectly. It’s the official uniform.
It took about an hour for us to work our way through all 6 trays of marshmallows, at which point Elgin and I began working with the 2 flavors that were going to involve chocolate. Patrick, fully rested and awake, went ahead and packaged all of the other marshmallows in to containers.
The cotton candy marshmallows didn’t come out as good as they did during my first test of the flavor. We figured out the problem and I documented it and the solution, so all future batches will come out perfectly. Adding red coloring to the top, in addition to the blue, looked great! We were a bit worried that the two colors would mix and turn purple, but it never happened.
The blueberry flavored marshmallows taste a lot like fresh blueberries, minus the tartness. They are flavored with a natural blueberry extract and their blue color is from regular blue food coloring – nothing special. They are great on their own, but I decided to roll with an idea a friend gave me a few weeks ago and covered them in white chocolate.
The white chocolate overpowered the blueberry flavor, but this combination certainly has a lot of potential. I’ll be making another batch very soon and will be sure to double the amount of blueberry extract in the marshmallows. These will be incredible once the blueberry and white chocolate compliment each other properly. I might even try using freeze dried or fresh blueberries in a future batch.
Black raspberry marshmallow coated in dark chocolate is one of the first flavor combination I ever tried to make. They are a favorite of most, including the majority of my coworkers. I wanted to make sure that Patrick and Elgin got the chance to try them, so we made a batch but drizzled the dark chocolate on top instead. We added a small amount of red coloring to the dark chocolate, and while it can’t be seen in this photo, the color of the chocolate and the marshmallow looked really nice together.
It’s been a while since I tried combining two marshmallow flavors together, so we tried making a lemon-lime marshmallow. These are amazing. The lime is very tart, while the lemon is much sweeter and the two balance out nicely. Either flavor on its own is good, but putting the two together creates a totally different experience.
We headed out east, once everything was packaged, to meet up with my friend Kat’s brother, George. He’s a regular “taste tester” for the marshmallows, and always provides me with honest feedback. There’s nothing I hate more than someone eating a marshmallow, with the understanding that I’m looking for feedback, and hearing, “this is good!” George will tell me exactly what he thinks about each marshmallow, and what would make them better to him. His sister does the same as well, but I’ve managed to create some sort of mental filter for her over the years, so I rarely remember any of her suggestions.
I know that I’m going to end up with a bruise for that last sentence.
Once the marshmallows were delivered, we headed out for a celebratory dinner… of more wings!
After dinner, we headed out to play a true man’s sport. Mini golf.
All in all it was a good day. I got to work on some new ideas and had a lot of help in doing so, and got out and wore off the major sugar high a bit. I’m not going to get the chance to work on any more test batches for at least a week as all of my extra time will have to go in to producing some items for my high school 10-year reunion, but I already have a list of what I’ll be working on next. Stay tuned!
