Marshmallow Peeps

Last week my daughter and her husband celebrated their upcoming anniversary by taking a trip to Cancun.  The plan was for me to have the grandkids for 4 days.  I would then take them to their other grandma’s house where they would stay for another 4 days.

After dinner:  Emi starts cleaning the floor with Clorox wipes.
Emi:  Grandma, look and this huge mess Luke made with his food.
Grandma:  Wow!  That is a mess.
Emi:  He (Luke) eats like a beaver…a dam beaver (I’m in trouble)…you know like the beaver’s that build a dam. (Whew, saved)

Tiffany comes home from Rexburg, Idaho to see the grandkids…with a boy…a boyfriend?
Prepare 4 different meals. One for Luke, one for Emi, one for Cosette, one for everyone else.

Husband that never reads this blog:  (home from work)  What can I do to help?
Grandma:   Take me out to the backyard and shoot me!

Dishwasher still spewing water.

Tiffany wants to create a treasure hunt for the kids.
Tiffany is taking way too long.  Emi is getting impatient.

Emi:  (yelling up the stairs impatiently)  Tiffany!  What is taking so long?
Tiffany: (sweetly) We’re almost done.
Emi:  I am tired of waiting.  You are ruining MY LIFE.  MY PERFECT LIFE!  (she’s 4)

11:45 p.m.  Finally everyone is in bed.

Day 4:  Today we are going to pack up ALL of your clothes and toys and go stay with your other Grandma.
Won’t that be fun?

Today I’m going to make some marshmallow peeps.  Won’t that be fun?

Homemade marshmallow is really simple to make.

You will need sugar, light corn syrup, 3 pkg. powdered gelatin, water and salt.

A close up of the gelatin packages.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, add 1/2 cup of the water.  Sprinkle the gelatin over the water.

Let this mixture sit while preparing the syrup.

In a medium size sauce pan, pour in remaining 1/2 cup of water.

Add the sugar.

The corn syrup.

Stir mixture together and place over medium-high heat.

Cover the pan with a lid and simmer for 4 minutes.

Remove the lid.  The mixture will be boiling rapidly.

Attach a candy thermometer to the side of the pan and cook the mixture to 240 degrees.

Using the whisk attachment, turn the mixer on and pour the hot syrup down the sides of the bowl.

Let the mixture to continue to beat for 13-14 minutes.

Meanwhile.

You will need 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and 2 tablespoons of confectioners (powdered) sugar.

Mix the cornstarch and powdered sugar together in a small bowl.

You will need to spray a baking sheet with a non-stick spray.  I used a 12 x 17-inch baking pan.

Sprinkle some of the cornstarch mixture over the non-stick spray.  Be sure to cover the sides of the pan.

Feel the bottom of the bowl.  It should be barely warm.  At this point add the vanilla.  Beat for another minute.

The marshmallow will be very thick.

The marshmallow will ribbon off of the beaters.  It sets up very fast so now you have to work quickly.

I drop a couple of drops of oil into my hands and oil every utensil that touches the marshmallow because it is very sticky.  Oil a rubber spatula to scrape the marshmallow out of the bowl.

I lightly oiled the metal spatula also.

Obviously you can see how quickly the marshmallow set up and you can see that I had a difficult time getting the marshmallow to be smooth on top.  I’m sure your marshmallow will look prettier than mine.

Let set for at least 4 hours or over night.

NOTE:  I used a 12 x 17-inch baking sheet.  I wish I would have used a jelly roll size pan so that the marshmallow would have been thicker…next time.

Wouldn’t you know that I just happen to have these cute little cookie cutters.  I purchased them from “Martha  by mail” pre-prison.  I’ve had them for years.  I’m going to use the bunny and the little chick.

lightly oil your cookie cutters because this stuff sticks to EVERYTHING.

I like to take the marshmallow out of the pan and place on my counter or a cutting board.  It’s just a little easier to cut out the shapes.

Now the bunnies.

The marshmallow is no longer sticky, which makes it necessary to lightly brush the tops, sides, and bottoms of the cut outs with with a small amount of water.

Sprinkle the marshmallow cut out with sugar.

Don’t forget the sides.

Place the peeps on a wire rack to set.  The sugar will harden a bit onto the marshmallow.  I let these little guys sit for about an hour.

I’m doing pink and lavender bunnies.  I don’t know how the red sugar got into the pink sugar??
Oh well.

Let the bunnies set for an hour as well.

The little critters need eyes.  I just used some mini chocolate chips.  I turned on my burner and let the plate get warm.  Then I held the bottom of the chocolate chip on the hot burner to melt it a bit.  It worked the eyes stuck.

I packaged up the little peeps in a small cellophane bag with a little Easter basket grass then tied with with a bow.  Not too bad.  They’re kind of cute.

They were very easy to make.  I have no idea why I could not pull this off with 3 darling little angels.  I think parenting is for those in their 20’s & 30’s.

I did succeed at teaching the kiddies to do some awesome “head banging” in the car to Usher, Flo Rida, Bieber and more…is that bad?

I think this could be a fun Easter activity with your family.  If you’re not a looser grandma like me, you could probably have a fun day with your grandkids making Easter Marshmallow Peeps…won’t that be fun?