How to make blooming marshmallow flower

When I was little I liked goodies a lot, I think like the vast majority of children. But it’s one of those things that, as you grow up, you lose the pleasure for them. You go from loving them to feeling total indifference? Except with marshmallows. I think I’m going to like this for the rest of my life. Today I leave you a very simple preparation that, despite not being children, we can still enjoy a lot. How to make blooming  marshmallow flower.

I’m sure you remember the famous flower that made a few years ago Dominique Ansel for his bakery in Tokyo. It went all over the social networks, several times. And it is completely normal because the idea was very creative and original. A flower made of marshmallow with a chocolate base that holds its petals. When placed over a cup of hot chocolate or even coffee, this flower blooms opening its petals (and thanks to the chocolate that holds it, it melts).

Today I want to recreate that elaboration so you can enjoy it during these cold days. Either by yourselves, to cheer up that inner child inside you, or with your children, nephews, nieces, grandchildren…. And, of course, we can always accompany that cup of hot chocolate. I had this recipe ready to publish it before Epiphany, but due to complicated circumstances that, unfortunately, we cannot avoid, I had to postpone it. Still, I hope you enjoy it.

Marshmallow origin.

The marshmallow candy, although we may think that it is a more or less recent creation, originated in ancient Egypt. It was a sweet treat made with honey and thickened with the sap of the Marshmallow plant, also known as marshmallow, altea, bismalva or hemp grass.

According to the book Viable Herbal Solutions:

“Nineteenth-century physicians extracted the juice from the roots of the marshmallow plant and cooked it with egg whites and sugar, then turned the mixture into a frothy meringue that then hardened, creating a medicinal candy used to soothe children’s sore throats. Eventually, advanced manufacturing processes and improved texturizing agents completely eliminated the need for the sticky root juice. Unfortunately, that eliminated the candy’s healing properties as a cough suppressant, immune system stimulant and wound healer.”

Making marshmallows today.

Until the middle of the 19th century, marshmallow candies were made from the sap of the Marshmallow plant. Today, this sap is replaced by gelatin, resulting in a mixture of corn syrup or sugar, gelatin, gum arabic and flavorings.

Candy and jelly bean manufacturers needed to find a new and faster way to make marshmallows. As a result, the “starch mogul” system was developed in the late 19th century. Instead of making marshmallows by hand, marshmallows were made in molds made from modified corn starch, similar to how jelly beans are made today.

At the same time, the marshmallow root was replaced by gelatin, allowing the marshmallows to maintain a “stable” shape.

In 1948, marshmallow maker Alex Doumak began experimenting with different manufacturing methods to make marshmallows. He was looking for ways to speed up production and discovered the “extrusion process,” which revolutionized marshmallow production. He could make them by channeling the fluffy mixture through long tubes and cutting its tubular shape into equal pieces.

Peeps Marshmellow candies.

In 1953, the Just Born candy company bought the Rodda candy company. The latter, created a handmade marshmallow chick and Bob Born of Just Born loved the look of it. A year later, Bob Born made a machine that mass-produced marshmallow chicks, and registered it as a Peeps.

Soon it became the largest marshmallow candy manufacturer in the world. In the 1960s, it began making Marshmallow Peeps from seasonal products; Christmas trees, gingerbread dolls…. In the early 1980s it launched Marshmallow Peeps Bunny.

Originally, marshmallows were produced in pink, white and yellow. It was in 1995 that the lavender color was introduced. And in 1998, Blue Peeps were created for Easter.

In 1999, vanilla-flavored peppers were produced and a year later, a strawberry flavor was added. In 2002, a chocolate Peep was introduced.

Today, Just Born produces more than one billion individual Peeps per year. In a year, more than 700 million Marshmallow Peeps and Bunnies are consumed by men, women and children across the United States.

Marshmallow Fluff’s origins date back to 1917.

Prior to World War I, a Somerville, MA, man named Archibald Querymanufactured it in his kitchen and sold it door-to-door, but wartime sugar shortages forced him to close. When the war ended, Mr. Query already had another job and was not interested in restarting his former business, but he was willing to sell the formula.

Durkee y Mower pooled their savings and bought it for five hundred dollars. Having just returned from France, they renamed their product ” Toot Sweet Marshmallow Fluff “, but the term ” Toot Sweet ” did not remain on the label for long. The “no customers, but plenty of prospects” situation did not last long either.

An early receipt still on the company’s books records the April 1920 sale of three one-gallon cans to a New Hampshire resort. Price at the time was $1 a gallon. The door-to-door trade gained a reputation and recognition among housewives, a fact that eventually put Fluff on the shelves of local supermarkets.

The retail trade expanded from that time onward to the point where, by 1927, they were advertising prominently in the Boston newspapers. In 1929 they moved to a factory on Brookline Street in East Lynn, tripling their floor space to 10,000 square feet. They also merged with the Cream of Chocolate Company, maker of Rich’s Instant Sweet Milk Cocoa, and Durkee-Mower entered the hot chocolate business.

Although they had done well enough in the depression to buy a two-story factory…

In the year 1934, with World War II came supply shortages. Just like the one that put the original Fluff producer out of business. The existing supply of sugar was rationed to the companies that needed it. Not wanting to stretch their supplies by altering Fluff and Sweeco recipes, which would have diminished their quality, Durkee-Mower was forced to cut production considerably.

When industrial sugar rationing ended in 1947, the company prepared for another expansion. They began by redesigning the product’s packaging. A survey of a large sample of New England housewives told them that the experts, their customers, thought the best jar for Fluff would be short enough to fit easily in the refrigerator for leftovers (Fluff did not need refrigeration), and have an opening wide enough to hold a spoonful.

In addition, the jar was made with a dotted surface above and below the label to make it sturdy and easy to grip. The longevity of the jar in a rapidly changing market is a tribute to its success. This same design for the basic jar is still being manufactured and used today.

We will elaborate the modern recipe, to call it somehow, and we will give it the shape we want. In this case a blooming marshmallow flower, but this same recipe can be used to carry out marshmallows of greater thickness if we use a narrower and taller mold. To serve them we can prepare a hot chocolate, in the blog you have two recipes; this one I made to serve with churros and this other one of gingerbread hot chocolate.