Valentine's Marshmallows: Cinnamon, Rose, and Peppermint

Before February ends, I need to share more Valentine's Day treats for the month of Love. I made cinnamon, rose, and peppermint flavored guimauve (marshmallows) for a Valentine's party; the cinnamon were coated in red sprinkles and dipped in dark chocolate, the rose were tinted pink and drizzled with white chocolate, and the peppermint were layered with purple sprinkles and dipped in dark chocolate. I left a few plain hearts for the hot chocolate, as you see here, and all were a hit.

The cinnamon marshmallows dipped in chocolate are my new favorite: lightly spicy and reminiscent of Mexican hot chocolate. So good!

Cinnamon marshmallows: flavor 1/2 marshmallow recipe with 4 tsp ground cinnamon dissolved in several tsp water.

Rose marshmallows: flavor 1/2 marshmallow recipe with 2 tsp rose water (for a light rose flavor)

Peppermint marshmallows: flavor 1/2 marshmallow recipe with 2-3 tsp peppermint extract (use 2 tsp if the marshmallows are not going to be dipped in chocolate; 3 tsp will stand up better to the chocolate, and the chocolate will take the sharp edge off the stronger peppermint)

Handmade Marzipan

Introducing the recipe that has won me over to the cause of rose water-flavored sweets: Handmade Marzipan.

These pretty almond goodies are not the über-sweet marzipan you buy in a tube in the baking aisle, used to fashion colorful decorations for Yule logs or rolled out thin to cover Princess cakes - they are a fresh, lightly-flavored delicacy of almonds you grind yourself, and simply mix with sugar, water, and rose water to make a mold-able paste. This is a unique dessert that will add great variety to any dessert platter since it's not a cake, not a cookie, not candy...people may not know what it is, and you'll get to tell them the story of how you made it!

I discovered this recipe while helping friends out with a Syrian seder meal (also the inspiration for my kosher marshmallow attempts), and have since made these pastries several more times. My friends had the cookbook Aromas of Aleppo, which produced fabulous dishes of tamarind meatballs and a very cheesy spinach frittata in addition to this marzipan. I love the simplicity of the ingredients and the physicality of rolling them and pressing them into the mold. The one difficulty in preparing for this recipe was finding a good source for blanched almonds and pistachios, so you'll want to search out a store with good Middle Eastern ingredients in stock, or at least a Whole Foods with a good selection of nuts.

I was lucky enough to have a friend who already had an appropriate wooden mold, but I wouldn't be surprised if you could find similar cookie molds in any cooking store. And if you can't, why not just make the balls and flatten them into shapes, even add your own impression on top?

Here we go:

Handmade Marzipan

2 C almonds, blanched, peeled (and finely ground if possible)
1 C sugar (substitute up to half with Splenda if desired)
1 tsp rose water
1 C pistachios, shelled, blanched, peeled, and finely chopped
powdered sugar to dust cookie mold and surfaces

1. Grind almonds in food processor if not already ground.
2. Stir together the ground almonds, sugar, 1/4 C water, and rose water in a medium bowl. Transfer to a food processor and process until the mixture forms a paste.
3. Take one teaspoon of this paste and form into a walnut-sized ball. Repeat with the remainder of the paste, placing each ball on a sheet of parchment paper dusted well with powdered sugar (the paste will be quite sticky; should make about 25 pastries). Press down on the center of each ball with your finger, making a 1/2 inch indentation. Fill the indentations with a pinch of pistachios. Close the pastries with your thumb and forefinger. Dust a fancy cookie mold liberally with powdered sugar and then press a pastry into the mold. Tap it gently out of the mold and set on a baking sheet sprinkled with powdered sugar to dry.

Guimauve Part Deux: Some Kosher Fluff

My foray into the world of guimauve became a lesson in gelling agents when Passover hit this spring, and I had the opportunity to contribute to a Syrian seder meal. The Mediterranean nature of the meal brought to mind the rose water-flavored marshmallows I had read about, and I thought that rose and mint guimauves would be a fun touch to the dessert tray.

I was previously aware that most gelatin (think Jello and Knox gelatin) was made from animal products, but the idea of cooking kosher for this one meal brought me to the point of looking at other gelling options. I learned that agar agar, a gelling agent derived from sea vegetables (seaweed, etc.), was a vegetarian possibility, and therefore a kosher choice. It was difficult to determine through online searches exactly how agar agar might be substituted for Knox gelatin, so I decided to just give it a try and plan back up desserts in case it didn't work out.

My first attempt was not a success (thank goodness for the back up desserts!); I used the amount of water suggested on the agar agar packet to soak the flakes, which ended up being such a large amount of water that it took a long time for the syrup solution to incorporate with the egg whites, and when it finally did, it was a foamy mass in the Kitchen Aid. Needless to say, this concoction did not solidify and ended up in the trash.

I was determined to make the agar agar work, so I went for it again the next week. This time I reduced the water to just enough to cover the flakes in a small bowl, and then heated the flakes and water for 30 seconds at a time in the microwave. After stirring and reheating the flakes and water until the flakes dissolved completely, I subbed them into the recipe I used before, and the result was much better than the fluff I got the first time.

When it came time to divide the mallow into individual servings, it was still quite delicate - it crushed to the touch and was rather wet. I decided to divide it up, but then roll it in a stiffer coating than the non-kosher marshmallows. Half of the recipe was rose, colored lightly with red food coloring, so I rolled these in a combination of powdered sugar, ground almonds, and sliced roasted almonds. The mint half of of the recipe, tinted with blue and green food coloring, I rolled in unsweetened cocoa powder and powdered sugar. The results at this point are pictured above.

I let this form of the marshmallows dry for a day or so, but they weren't firm enough to pick them up and eat them without them falling apart or sticking madly to the fingers, even though they tasted good. After some brainstorming, I decided to give them feet of chocolate: white chocolate for the rose, dark chocolate for the mint. I melted chocolate chips in the microwave (I know this is not considered the best method for melting chocolate, but I find it satisfactory for my purposes) and plopped 1 1/2 inch circles of it on parchment paper, which I topped immediately with the delicate fluff. And voilà, now I had airy bites of sweet delight!

So, agar agar can work, but it does not result in a chewy marshmallow. Instead, it makes a light, fluffy marshmallow that could almost pass as meringue. I would perhaps make it again this way, but I still am on a quest for a chewy kosher marshmallow.

Next step in the guimauve saga: putting into play the gelatin sheets I bought in Paris and the 2 kinds of kosher gelatin powder (fish & bovine) I purchased in Israel.