depressoboy Industries

June 10, 2009

Adventures in candymaking

So last night I tried another new marshmallow recipie. I used the one found in the book Homemade Gourmet Marshmallows by Eileen Talanian. I should talk about the book later.

As for the marshmallows, boy, did I screw them up.

I followed the instructions and ended up with marshmallows that are more like taffy than marshmallows. Not that it's really a bad thing, just not what I was aiming for.

I think I lnow what I screwed up, and it's kind of basic. In the beginning, the author has you make a something she calls "marshmallow syrup" (better than light corn syrup, because you know, no corn). You are supposed to cook it to 240 degrees. My guess is that I over cooked it. I base this idea on Alton Brown's show on candy making. If you over cook the sugar syrup, it becomes crystallized. As the "syrup" I made continued to cool, it became more and more like rock candy. Again, not a bad thing, just not what I was going for.

The mashmallows made from the "syrup" taste good, but they are not marshmallows per se.

So I'll try again. I'll cook the syrup to a lower temp (the recommended fix for this sort of issue) and try again.

Posted by Matt at 2:23 PM

April 2, 2009

marshmallows

when making them with simple syrup, use a lot more vanilla.

the recipie looks right, but the flavor is all sugar, no vanilla. very sad.

Posted by Matt at 11:49 PM

February 11, 2009

Foods

So I finally got around to trying making myself lunch foods to take during the day.
My requiements are cheap, flavorful, and high in protine. Shauna and I were talking the other day and Lentils came up as a possible solution. she gave me some ideas and I googled for a few variations on a theme. (lentils and rice)

A bunch of the recipies wanted lots of time and I was in a hurry this morning, so I went with a drastically simplified version.

It is as follows:

1 cup lentils
1 cup rice
2 1/2 cups water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 cup lentils

this looked bland so i added the following:

1 tbsp garlic
1/4 tsp allspice
/2 tsp lemon juice

Threw the whole lot in a pot and cooked for 20 minutes or so. During the cooking, I noticed that the water was dissappearing faster than the lentils and rice were cooking, so I added more. It smelled great when it was done, but the flavors turned out a bit subtle for my taste.

This bears more experimentation. Or, I could just try one of the other recipies I found.

Over all, not bad though.