This year for Christmas we gave everyone homemade marshmallows. They were easier than I thought they'd be to make, and super fun. Seriously, if you have kids you should make this right away. The way Rob's eyes widened as the marshmallow fluff tripled in size in the mixer...I can only imagine his excitement if he'd been 5 years old.

There are lots of recipes online, and this one does a good job borrowing the best wisdom from many of them. My version is below.

2 1/2 packets of gelatin (about 2.5 tbsp)
1 cup water
1 cup corn syrup
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 tsp salt
peppermint extract (or vanilla for plain marshmallows)
red food coloring or gel icing (optional)
corn starch and powdered sugar, combined into a mixture of equal parts
cooking spray

You also should have on hand a stand mixer with whisk attachment, wax paper, and a candy thermometer. You can use a 9x13 pan, or a smaller one for thicker marshmallows.

1. Put 1/2 cup water in stand mixer bowl and sprinkle gelatin on top.  Let sit while you do the next steps.

2. In a saucepan, add 1/2 cup water, corn syrup, sugar and salt.  Over low heat, stir until sugar dissolves.

3. Turn heat to high and let boil until candy thermometer reaches about 250 degrees. Use a fairly large pan because the sugar mixture bubbles up a lot as it’s cooking.

4. While that’s cooking, prepare the pan.  Line the bottom and sides with wax paper, then brush on a generous amount of oil and coat with corn starch/powdered sugar mixture.

5. Once sugar mixture on stove has reached 250, carefully pour into mixing bowl with gelatin and water in it while mixer is on medium speed.  Whisk until sugar mixture is completely incorporated.  

6. Turn mixer to high speed.  Mixture will start to get light and fluffy and will expand a lot.  It starts to look like marshmallow creme.  It’ll get about 3 times more voluminous.  Keep mixing until it doesn’t get any puffier (between 5-10 minutes). Right at the end, add a little peppermint extract. Use your judgment on amount as a little goes a long way.

7. Pour into prepared pan. Squeeze red food coloring/gel icing on top over top and swirl with a knife. Smooth top with oiled spatula, if necessary.

8. Let sit overnight.

9. The next day, lift entire marshmallow block out of the pan, and flip it onto an oiled surface dusted with corn starch/powdered sugar mixture. Peel off wax paper and cut into squares with powdered scissors. Dust each marshmallow in corn starch/powdered sugar mixture.

Makes 2-3 dozen. Store in an airtight container.

(I got the candy boxes and decorative wax paper at Williams-Sonoma. They made for a classy gift package, but I couldn't order the boxes without a monogram and so our marshmallows were a bit more pretentious than intended.)