Homemade Hot Chocolate and Marshmallows

Home­made Hot Choco­late and Marsh­mal­lows from my MIC friends
Home­made Marsh­mal­lows
Ingre­di­ents needed:
3 pkgs unfla­vored gelatin
1 1/2 c gran­u­lated sugar
1 c light corn syrup
1/4 t kosher salt
1 T pure vanilla extract
Con­fec­tion­ers’ sugar for dust­ing
Com­bine the gelatin and 1/2 c of cold water in the bowl of an elec­tric mixer fit­ted
with the whisk attach­ment and allow to sit while you make the syrup.
Mean­while, com­bine the sugar, corn syrup, salt, and 1/2 c water in a small
saucepan and cook over medium heat until the sugar dis­solves. Raise the heat
to high and cook until the syrup reaches 240 degrees on a candy ther­mome­ter.
Remove from the heat.
With mixer on low speed, slowly pour the sugar syrup into the dis­solved gelatin.
Put the mixer on high speed and whip until the mix­ture is very thick, about 15
min­utes. Add the vanilla and mix thor­oughly.
With a sieve, gen­er­ously dust an 8x12-inch non-metal bak­ing dish with
confectioner’s sugar. Pour the marsh­mal­low mix­ture into the pan, smooth the
top, and dust with more con­fec­tion­ers’ sugar. Allow to stand uncov­ered
overnight until it dries out.
Turn the marsh­mal­lows onto a board and cut into squares. Dust them with more
con­fec­tion­ers’ sugar.

Whipped Hot Choco­late
Ingre­di­ents needed:
2 1/2 c whole milk
2 c half-and-half
4 oz semi­sweet choco­late chips
4 oz milk choco­late, chopped
1 T sugar
1 t pure vanilla extract
1 t decaf­feinated instant cof­fee powder

Home­made marsh­mal­lows
Heat the milk and half-and-half in a large saucepan over medium heat to just
below the sim­mer­ing point. Remove the pan from the heat and add both
choco­lates. When the choco­lates are melted, stir in the sugar, vanilla, and cof­fee
pow­der. Reheat gen­tly.
To froth the hot choco­late, whip it in the saucepan with an immer­sion blender. If
you’re very care­ful, you can also pour it into the jar of a blender with a tight seal
and blend on high speed for high speed for about 30 sec­onds. Pour into cups
and serve as is or with home­made marshmallows.

Hot Cocoa Mix

Another Hot Cocoa Recipe

The secret ingre­di­ent in this mix is the mini choco­late chips, which melt when com­bined with the boil­ing water and give the cocoa an extra-rich fla­vor. The recipe makes enough for four gift-size por­tions, each of which can be mea­sured into a small plas­tic bag and tucked into a cup or mug filled with mini marsh­mal­lows, candy stick stir­rers, and a spoon. Wrap each filled gift cup in cel­lo­phane and don’t for­get to include a tag with the fol­low­ing instruc­tions: “Spoon 3 or 4 gen­er­ous table­spoons of cocoa mix into your cup (depend­ing on the size), add boil­ing water, and stir well.”

Ingre­di­ents

2 cups non­fat dry milk powder

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup unsweet­ened cocoa

1/2 cup mini semi­sweet choco­late chips

1/2 cup pow­dered nondairy creamer

1/8 tea­spoon salt

Direc­tions

Mea­sure all of the ingre­di­ents into a mix­ing bowl and whisk them until they are evenly blended.  Store the mix in a tightly cov­ered con­tainer at room tem­per­a­ture until you’re ready to pack­age it. Makes about 4 cups of mix.