Homemade Caramel and Coffee Marshmallows for a S'mores Party!

Dulce de leche caramel marshmallow S'more

I have been wanting to make homemade marshmallows for a long while. No, it was not one of those fancy magazine kind of snooty things- "I'm gonna make homemade marshmallows and scratch graham crackers, while grinding my own cocoa beans for the chocolate. Because that's the only way to have really decent S'mores." Nah.

Softening the gelatin

My infatuation started with a yummy marshmallow topping that was to go on a new pie. It turned out delicious tasting, but my little handmixer tried to blow up before I could get it to true marshmallow consistency. Thus, the topping wanted to drool off the pie, but it tasted so good!

Bringing the syrup up to temp

We love to have S'mores when we camp, or for picnics, but I have never been a fan of "raw" marshmallows. You sit the bag out for a second and my Pop will inhale half of them. I need mine roasty-toasty, sometimes even a bit blackened. You know, where you can peel off the crusty outside, and then stick the naked-looking thing back in the fire, repeating until its so limp and sticky that it eventually falls off in the fire? I thought you'd understand.

When you add the hot syrup it looks like it's ruined, but it all comes together...You have to beat it for about 10 minutes on high. My new/old mixer got really hot, but it made it!

I have drooled over all the Pinterest recipes of flavored mallows- rose and raspberry (my next attempt!), chocolate-mint, etc. Maybe they would taste yummy even unroasted. But I kept shoving them from my mind in respect to my sweet little aqua handmixer.

You know that you have beat the marshmallow long enough when it will make a "ribbon" that will sit on the surface for a moment before sinking in

I've never owned a stand mixer, and never really cared. I don't have room for one on my cabinets or under, and I really like being "hands-on" with my hand mixer. Corny, I know, but I like being able to see everything going on in the bowl at every moment and a stand mixer always seemed awkward to me. Hubby offered to get me one of the beautiful ones they trot out around Christmas, looking like a fancy race car and costing almost as much. Nope.

The dollops of dulce de leche caramel, mmmmm

Then my dear mother-in-law offered me hers. I pondered and said no, for the very reason of space. I told her to offer it to the other gals in the family. Months later the pull of the mythical marshmallow got to me. I broke down and called to ask if she still had it. She did! My youngest son and I sped over to retrieve it. Guess what? The handbook was with it and it was from 1973- my birth year- it was meant to be! However, she couldn't remember where the bowls had gone to.

I used a toothpick to swirl in the caramel

That didn't dim my delight and so we headed toward Siloam Springs to drop off some things at Goodwill. I asked very sweetly if I could go inside, and my son said, "You have ten minutes," and actually looked at his watch to gauge it! I ran inside and went straight to the housewares. I nearly always find a sweet vintage saucer or plate to add to my mismatched collection. But that day I found the very set of mixing bowls for the mixer I was just gifted!!!!

Here's what the coffee and gelatin looked like as I added syrup

I ran up the counter beaming, and told the lady there how my mother-in-law had just given me the mixer and that it was a "God-thing" that I walked in and there were the matching bowls. She agreed, saying that she had only put them out five minutes before. Folks, I think the Heavens agreed that marshmallows needed to be made ;).

Pouring the coffee mix into a well dusted pan

I decided on a recipe for mallows swirled with dulce de leche caramel. This is one that a lady adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe. You can find it here https://sweetlifebake.com/2014/12/19/dulce-de-leche-marshmallows/ . The only things I did differently are: I used a 9x13 pan, I used canned dulce de leche instead of squeezable (I thought it would be thicker). And I dusted the top of the mallows with powdered sugar before turning out, instead of dusting the baking sheet. This worked great!

Dusting the top so it can be turned out easily

The recipe for the coffee flavored ones was a bit different. I actually preferred the way these set up, and I got the idea for dusting the top before turning them out from this recipe. You can find it here, http://www.acozykitchen.com/coffee-marshmallows/. I used a 7x11 pan, and I didn't have espresso powder. I used regular instant coffee, but two tablespoons to get the equivalent coffee taste. It was perfect! 

The caramel turned out. It is so firm- squeal!!

I though both of these would be crazy good on chocolate and a graham cracker. And so off I went on a mallow adventure. The recipes were easy to follow and seemed to turn out right. How do you know if you've never made them?! My main fear was that they would not set up and be real, proper, cubes of marshmallow in time for my fireside party that night. Yes, I did buy a bag of regular marshmallows in case mine turned out to be nothing but sticky soup...

Cutting the caramel

Why on earth didn't I make them the day ahead like I normally would, so I wouldn't have to worry? Well, I tried, Dear Reader. And then I found that I had too little corn syrup (note- if you make these get a BIG bottle of syrup). I usually keep spares of everything in the pantry (8 bags of chocolate chips, anyone? How about four bags of sugar? It's a sickness...) But I texted my dear middle son and he picked me up another bottle on the way home from work, By then it was time for me to be a good person and make real food- a.k.a. supper. Marshies would have to wait till morning.

I thought this one looked so delicious I snapped a pic. Then I popped it in my mouth!

I made these in the morning and had them both done by about 9:45. I let them sit until 5:00pm, pausing occasionally to give them an experimental prodding. The party wasn't till 7:00, but I wanted to make sure I could actually cut them and put them on platters before people showed up and I ended up with sticky goo (and tears) all over myself. 

The coffee turned out

I powdered the top of the mallow mixture and tipped the pan over onto a baking sheet. Then I knocked on it. Nothing. I had the panic that they were hermetically sealed to the pan and nothing but fire or a chisel would remove them. Turns out, all I had to do was lift one corner of the pan and get a finger into one of the corners of the marshmallow. It broke the suction and the whole sheet fell right onto the pan! Whew...

Perfect airy texture and a dream to cut! See the cooking burns on my hand? I suffer for my sweets!

I followed the directions and oiled my very sharp knife beforehand. Just press your knife down in one cut as long as the blade, and then lift to make another. No sawing or tiny cuts. The caramel, of course, was more messy to cut because the ooey goodness wanted to leak out and stick to the blade, and itself, and me. But they still cut just fine. The coffee cut like a dream.

I must say these didn't roast entirely well over the fire. The caramel wanted to immediately get soft and drool everywhere. The coffee tried to roast, but it also scorched a bit and I was afraid too much cooking would make it bitter. 

Dulce de leche S'more

I paired my caramel with a plain old Hershey milk chocolate bar and it was delish!! Then I gourmeted up the coffee mallow with a dark chocolate Ghiradelli square. 

coffee S'more

It was also wonderful! It is so weird to describe this way, but the coffee mallow was melting and it tasted like melting coffee ice cream...but hot. Make any sense? It may not, but it was so yummy!

The coffee marshmallow was all melty inside- nom nom !

Of course it ended up being warmer that night than it had been recently; it might have even been a tad hot. But then a light breeze kicked up that made it feel lovely. And directed the smoke right into everyone's faces. Hey, still fun to eat outside under the stars!

Found a pack of these paper leaves for a dollar- perfect name tags!

And everyone ended up eating S'mores until they were sick. 

My dear daughter-in -law, Emiley, took this picture and the one above. That's her sweet little sis grinning and her hubby, my middle son, hiding behind her. My youngest,William Cole, is in front of me giving her the stink eye!

So it turned out perfectly to plan- he  he!

Grabbing S'more ingredients while the menfolk are playing in the fire...The tin canister at the end of the table was filled with warm soapy water so that we could rinse our sticky hands. As the night went on, my son asked why his drink was foamy! Thankfully he hadn't drank the soap water yet :)

The next day I tried one of each in my morning coffee. The coffee one only added creaminess and amped the coffee flavor. The dulce de leche one was so good melted on top of my coffee that I had yet another cup. Talk about being ready to go in the morning, I was thinking, "Just let me at 'em!" Whatever 'em might turn out to be...

Dulce de leche coffee :)

In all, making homemade marshmallows was so easy and so fun that I will be trying it again soon. I have my lovely little stand mixer (thank you, Nana Mary!) and a whole pile of Pinterest recipes. Raspberry-rose mallows sound good to you? 

Nerd Alert- They are called marshmallows because Egyptians created a sticky dessert made from the sap of the mallow plant, which grows naturally in marshes. I actually have some in my garden- they look just like pale yellow hollyhocks. The French took the idea (of course it would be the French- be still my heart) and made marshmallow delights that flew off the shelves, and with the advent of gelatin to replace plant sap, we've been "marshmallowing" ever since!