You need:
21g Gelatine powder (3 packs)

OR
12 sheets gelatine (soak in cold water)
125ml water

syrup
60ml water (1/4 cup)
200g Sugar
160ml Karo (corn syrup)

Salt
Food colouring (optional)

1kg Dessicated coconut (can be re-used)
50g Chocolate (optional)

1 egg (for pressing oval shapes into the coconut)

1 piping bag (optional, but makes it easier)

These are easy!

First things first though.
Get all the ingredients and equipment ready.
We are going to:

• Make “moulds” from coconut in a 1 inch deep (or more) tray
• Make sugar syrup in a pot
• Soak gelatine in a mixer or bowl
• Whisk them together, safely and at speed

1. pour the coconut (or dry, fine coating ingredient of your choice) into a flat bottomed tray or dish so it is at least an inch (2.5cm) deep.

3. Pour the 125ml (half cup) of room temperature water into the bowl (or the bowl of the stand mixer if you have one)

4. Sprinkle the gelatine powder over the water and let it stand for 15 minutes or so. (if using sheet gelatine, soak it in cold water for 5 minutes, then dissolve it in fairly warm water, and let it cool to room temperature in your mixer or bowl)

5. NOW – the possibly tricky part: you need to boil the sugar and water together without forming crystals. There are a couple of ways to do this. One is to add Karo (or any brand of corn syrup) to the sugar and water and then we boil it. Karo helps the structure of the syrup to avoid forming crystals. OR – you can forget the Karo, increase the volume of the sugar & water by and extra 75%, then boil the sugar and water with a thermometer standing in it and DON’T MOVE IT. As it cooks, brush any sugar or crystals back into the syrup with a wet pastry brush.
If you STIR, MOVE, or WHISK the syrup, then it’s all over red rover! You’ll end up with a useless solid crystalline mess!
You are aiming for clear, thick, liquid syrup which is smooth and glossy.
So – BRUSH any sugar from the sides, boil without moving, and DON’T STIR!
Use a thermometer for sugar (or deep frying) that goes to at least 150C. You want to be ready to move fast when it is the right temperature.
You want the syrup to be 120 degrees Celsius ( 248 degrees F)

6. When the syrup gets to 118 degrees C – poise over it, ready to jump! When it gets to 120 degrees C, then remove from heat (without splashing or shaking it), turn on the mixer to slow speed, and dribble it into the gelatine mix. DO NOT pour it in with the blender at high speed, or with kids standing close. Don’t give this printed out to the new apprentice and leave them unsupervised. Someone will get hurt. This is hot stuff, OK? Think about safety.

7. When it is all in, (30 seconds to a minute) add the pinch of salt, and a tiny dash of food colour (if you want). Without colour, you will end up with nice, white fluffy marshmallow.
HINT: NEVER pour colouring straight from the bottle. Potential neon coloured disaster! Pour a few drops into the lid, then into the mix.

8. Increase the speed to FAST and whisk until light and fluffy. That’s it! Finished. You now have marshmallow. Now put it into a piping bag without a nozzle. (If not Easter, you can pour it into a tray or mould to set, or pipe it out without a nozzle, let it set, then cut it and toss with icing sugar / confectioners sugar)

9. Now, pipe the marshmallow into the oval shapes that you pressed into the coconut and let it set.

10. Ahhhhhhh……..the CHOCOLATE! Melt the chocolate with a couple of short bursts in the microwave – OR in a DRY bowl placed in hot water (50 degrees C is fine), and stir till smooth and glossy.

11. Dip the flat side of one “marshmallow half egg” into the melted chocolate, then place another one against it. It will set, and you have a marshmallow and chocolate egg. Pink or white seem to be the most popular colours for marshmallow. If you use blue, I’d kill you myself! Just don’t do it.

VARIABLES:

Once you get this all happening inside your head, and you understand the process, then feel free to get creative.

You don’t HAVE to use coconut. You can use any dry, fine ingredient that tastes good with marshmallow.
Why not try any of the following instead:

Icing sugar
Toasted ground almond
Cocoa Powder
Ground or kibbled nuts (cashew, peanuts, brazil, etc)
Sesame seeds (white or black)
Chocolate flakes
Hundreds and thousands
Powdered dried fruit (chuck it in a blender!)
Your imagination and tastebuds

We are in Thailand, so we decided to use a nice small round bright yellow Thai dessert snack made from sugar, barley and lentils as a “yolk”.

I’ll outline that one when I have a bit more time.

But if that doesn’t float your boat, you could always make little round yellow marshmallows using a circular ice cube tray and some yellow food colouring. You’ll have better texture too!
Necessity is the mother of invention.

BTW – eat straight away, or store air tight and dry – away from humidity.
Don’t store touching one another unless well powdered, or they will stick.
Have fun. Happy Easter.
Let me know how you went in the comments section below.

Culinary First Aid is available if you have any questions, although perhaps not in time.
Bye for now.