peppermint & marshmallows

I sort of knew it was a disaster waiting to happen but I just had to try this. Last week Brian and I made some peppermint icicles. They are really yummy but my goodness, Martha is crazy. You have to pull the candy by hand while it's still hot (very, very hot!). I was clever and sprayed my gloved hands with cooking spray so the molten candy wouldn't stick, but Brian didn't take my advice and ended up with it sticking to his hands (ouch!). So, while he was running his burning hands under cool water, I was left to do it all myself! lol And I have blisters to prove it.

I think it has that yellow tinge to it because when I couldn't take the heat any longer I set it down for a second. I think it should have been pulled and twisted constantly to get a nice white color. If Brian had been available to help me I could have handed it to him for a while. :) It's still really tasty though.

The peppermint candy making went a bit faster than we expected, so we made marshmallows as well. These were pretty easy to make (although I think my mixer died in the process, you need to mix it for about 12 minutes and it's thick), but I don't like the way they taste. I used this recipe, and instead of spreading the mixture out on a cookie sheet I put it in a 8x8 baking pan and cut them with a knife sprayed with cooking spray. I found two other recipes, all from Martha, here and here, so if you're going to make them I would use one of those two recipes instead of the one we used. Emily from the black apple made some and used this recipe. Here's her post about them.

I don't know if our candy making is over.. I still want to make these. And these. And I made some peanut butter balls last year that were to die for...