Cooking

Mixing Your Own Marshmallows: Finding the Right Ratio of Sugar to Corn Syrup

Experimental Procedure

Preparing to Cook

1. Wash your hands.

2. Get out all cooking tools and ingredients, and set them out so they are ready to go and easy to access.

3. Identify the 240°F mark (116°C) on your candy thermometer. This is the traditional temperature used to make marshmallows.

Preparing Your Cake Pans

1. Label the bottoms of three cake pans with masking tape pieces, numbered from 1 to 3. Pan 1 will contain recipe 1, pan 2 will contain recipe 2, and pan 3 will contain recipe 3. Each recipe contains a different ratio of sugar to corn syrup.

2. Pour a small amount of vegetable oil on a paper towel and lightly oil the three cake pans.

3. Pour a small amount of powdered (confectioner's) sugar in the strainer and dust the inside of the cake pans.

a. If you get too much powdered sugar in the pan, hold the pan upside-down over a sink, and gently tap out the excess.

Preparing Your Gelatin

1. Pour 1/6 cup of cold water into the large mixing bowl

a. To get 1/6 cup, just fill the 1/3 measuring cup up halfway with water.

2. Sprinkle one ¼-ounce (oz) envelope of plain, unflavored gelatin over the cold water.

3. Mix the gelatin and water together for about 5 seconds (sec.) with a fork and set the bowl aside. This will give the gelatin time to "soften" or "bloom," as shown in Figure 2 below.

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Figure 2. This photo shows the gelatin "blooming" in a small amount of water. |

Preparing Your Syrup

1. Add ¼ cup of cold water to the saucepan.

2. Using Table 1 below as a guide, add granulated sugar and corn syrup to the water in the saucepan, according to which recipe you are currently making. This step is shown in Figure 3 below.

Ingredients | Recipe 1 | Recipe 2 | Recipe 3 |

Sugar | 1/2 cup | 2/3 cup | 3/4 cup |

Corn syrup | 1/3 cup | 1/4 cup | 1/6 cup |

Ratio of sugar to corn syrup | 1/2:1/3 | 2/3:1/4 | 3/4:1/6 |...