Vanilla Marshmallow with Strawberry Swirl (gluten, dairy and nut free)

We’re half-way through January and I’m wondering how many of us are sticking to our healthy eating intentions and exercise boost?

Actually, I’m doing pretty well with sticking to an increased exercise regime………… Okay…… ‘regime’ may be a little strong…… but I am managing to do more than the recommended 10,000 steps most days (except when work ties me to my desk for an excess of hours due to report deadlines), have managed a fair few gym sessions and have stuck (almost) rigidly to the 5:2 for a good couple of weeks. I’m not seeing much of a difference on the scales, but am working on the theory that muscle weighs more than fat and that this increase compensates the flab that (must be) dropping off!!! No? Oh well…… I feel better and far more energised, so that’s good enough for me!

I know I should be posting lots of healthy stuff at the start of the year, but I made this lovely marshmallow a little while before Christmas for a friend’s birthday (as well as to put my new Thermapen food thermometer through its paces) and it has been sitting around in my drafts box, waiting for an appropriate moment ever since.

I considered not posting it at all on account of being less than happy with some of the photos, but then decided on balance, that since they are way better than the photos I took in my early days of blogging and the recipe is too good to keep to myself, I should go ahead anyway.

Besides…… Valentines is round the corner and it seems a good time to get it ‘out there’ ready for the lovey-dovey sweetie celebrations! If you are thinking ahead on the gift front, you can do a lot worse than home-made marshmallow (and you can prepare it way in advance of the big day……).

The last time I made marshmallow was when I was a child. It was a very different recipe to this and (if I remember rightly) didn’t contain any egg white. The recipe that I have concocted here is way better than my childhood efforts……. It is light and airy and very very squidgy! It also has added yumminess (and prettiness) from the fruity swirl running through it, which you may choose to ‘alcoholise’ or not.

Marshmallow may not be your ‘thing’, but I have a serious weakness for the stuff and consider myself to be quite a conosieur…….. If I see a mallow that I have not spotted before, it is more than I can do to avoid it leaping into my basket (once I have checked it is also gluten free)……. Often snaffled from secret supplies after hubbie has gone to bed (do I need to join ‘Marshmallows Anonymous’??), I mostly eat it ‘neat’, but it also finds its way into cakes, biscuits, toasted on the barbie, or used as cake decoration. One of my favourite-decorated cakes used a whole load of them to make a surface of spring flowers!

I digress and distract…….. This recipe makes darn good mallow and is really not that tricky either, providing you have a decent sugar/food thermometer. The Thermapen came good on this one!

Although you can eat it freshly-made, it tastes best when it has been coated in a cornflour-icing sugar mix and then left to dry for a couple of days so that it is less sticky to handle with a slightly firm outer-crust, yet still has a soft, fluffy, squashy, pillowy middle……. Just as it should be!

I am sharing a handful with the following linkies this month :

Tea Time Treats with Janie over at The Hedge Combers (and Karen at Lavender & Lovage)

Gluten Free Fridays with Vegetarian Mamma

Free From Fridays with Emma at the Free From Farmhouse

Vanilla Marshmallow with Strawberry Swirl (makes about 20 marshmallows)

Ingredients

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