Tag Archives: homesteading

Pear and Ricotta Tart

Posted on by
6

Creamy, sweetened homemade ricotta cheese makes for a lighter, healthier delicious alternative to cream cheese in this cheesecake-like tart. In this version, slices of pears have been brushed with peach preserves prior to baking.

I was surprised how easy it was to make a ricotta-style cheese at home. My first batch of ricotta went into Jack’s moose cannelloni. A second batch was split between blintzes and a pear and ricotta tart. Infused with vanilla, the beaten egg and ricotta base was smooth, creamy and light. The sliced pears were brushed with a vanilla peach jam which added another subtle layer of flavor.

Pear and Ricotta Tart

Ingredients

  • pie crust
  • 2 cups ricotta cheese
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 d’Anjou pears, halved, cored and sliced
  • 1 heaping tbsp of peach preserves

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
  2. Press pie dough into a 9-inch springform pan and bake for 5 minutes then remove from oven.
  3. Reduce oven heat to 350 degrees F.
  4. Beat together ricotta, eggs, sugar and vanilla.
  5. Pour ricotta mixture into pre-baked pie shell.
  6. Arrange sliced pears on top of ricotta mixture.
  7. Brush pears with preserves.
  8. Bake for 50 minutes, or until tart no longer jiggles in the center.
  9. Let cool. Cover and place in refrigerator until ready to serve. Remove from springform pan just before serving.

Hearty Bean, Roasted Squash and Sausage Soup

Posted on by
6

Hunks of crusty, toasted baguette and parmesan cheese accompany one of our favorite wintertime soups.

We don’t get many fresh vegetables up here in Arctic Alaska. Squash really shines. It ships well and keeps for months, so every August we fill a tub with an assortment of acorn, butternut and spaghetti squash, put in in the mail, and use them in pies, soups and entrées over the following months. Puréed butternut squash is a terrific way to thicken hearty soups. I do a version of bean and sausage soup every winter in my big soup kettle. This year’s was our favorite to date, and although ingredients on hand will always necessitate minor changes, we’ve now got a base recipe that’s a keeper.

Although ingredients can be freely substituted, the combination of smoked chipotle peppers and star anise is especially nice. Make this dish even tastier by roasting the squash and the tomatoes on a charcoal grill.

Hearty Bean, Roasted Squash and Sausage Soup

Ingredients:  Makes about 2 gallons. If you do not have whole peppers, substitute powdered cayenne or similar pepper, or use a good chili or Thai blend.

  • 1 medium butternut squash
  • 1o cups black and pinto beans (or use all black beans), soaked, tender and ready for cooking
  • 3 stars of star anise
  • 8 cloves garlic, chopped coarse or sliced
  • 3 smoked chipotle peppers, ground fine (use a food processor)
  • 1 ancho pepper, ground fine
  • 1 tbs oregano
  • 1/2 tbs thyme
  • 1 bay leave
  • two sweet onions, chopped coarse
  • several grinds black pepper
  • 1 1/2 pounds sweet corn
  • 1 pound sausage, sliced (I used chicken sausage.)
  • olive oil
  • chicken broth – enough to cover beans plus some additional broth to use when puréeing the squash. (I use Better Than Bouillon to make the broth.)
  • 2 pounds diced tomatoes, canned or fresh, seeds removed
  • smoked sea salt, to taste

Directions:

  1. Place a cooking sheet in an oven and preheat to 400 degrees F.
  2. Squash: Cut away the stem and slice into discs approximately one inch thick. Quarter these slices. Remove seeds and stringy flesh. Leave the skin on.
  3. Place the squash in a large pan, add olive oil, and toss till all pieces are well coated.
  4. Lightly oil the heated baking sheet in the oven and place the oiled squash pieces on the pan. Roast until thoroughly cooked through and soft – about 20 minutes.
  5. Place cooked squash on a large cutting board. When cool enough to work with, use a knife to remove the skin.
  6. Use a stick blender or food processor to purée the squash a few chunks at a time. Keep the mixture fairly thick.
  7. When all the squash has been puréed, place in a container and set aside.
  8. Meanwhile, in a large soup kettle combine the beans, star anise, garlic, chipotles, anchos, oregano, thyme, black pepper, bay leave, enough chicken broth to cover all the ingredients, and 2 tablespoons olive oil. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally, and continue cooking on a low simmer for about 20 minutes.
  9. Stir in the puréed squash.
  10. Add the tomatoes, corn and sausage. Add smoked sea salt, if needed.
  11. The soup is ready to serve, but will be even better if it rests for an hour or more.

Serve with freshly baked French baguettes. 

White Chocolate Chip Cherry Pecan Chunk Cookies

Posted on by
5

Cookies bursting with chewy cherry chunks, white chocolate chips and delicious pecans are so good straight from the oven and even better a couple of days later… if they make it that long! 

It was a cold, overcast afternoon 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle. After two late nights of work in a row, we  were rewarded with a two-hour head start on our weekend. All we needed was a cup of hot tea and some warm cookies to go with. What? No cookies? A quick perusal of the pantry revealed a bag of white chocolate chips, dried cherries, and pecan halves. Don’t worry, Jack, fresh warm cookies are on the way!

White Chocolate Chip Cherry Pecan Chunk Cookies

Ingredients

  • 12 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 2 tbsp milk
  • 1 cup chopped pecans
  • 1/2 cup dried cherries, chopped
  • 1 cup white chocolate chips

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Cream together butter and sugars.
  3. Mix in eggs, one at a time.
  4. Mix in vanilla.
  5. Mix in milk.
  6. In a separate bowl, combine flour and baking soda.
  7. Stir flour into butter mixture until just combined.
  8. Use same bowl as flour to mix together nuts, cherries, and chocolate chips.
  9. Stir nut mixture into dough, until just combined.
  10. Drop by tablespoons onto parchment-covered baking sheets.
  11. Bake for 11 minutes.
  12. Let cool on wire racks.

Recipe adapted from food network.com.

Moose and Spinach Cannelloni with Homemade Ricotta and Homemade Pasta

Posted on by
9

New Traditions. Smothered in mozzarella and parmesan and topped with Kalamata olives, 10 individual cannelloni pastas stuffed with homemade ricotta cheese, ground moose, and spinach await dinner guests.

Cooking in bush Alaska requires a certain amount of ingenuity and flexibility. Last year when I made a couple of pans of moose lasagna, with no ricotta cheese on hand I substituted mozzarella and called it lasagna anyway. It was excellent. The hot, stringy mozzarella was reminiscent of a deep dish Margherita pizza.

When a friend gave me a few pounds of moose again this year, Barbra said, “I’ll make you ricotta cheese for your lasagna.” She also made the pasta – 20 five-inch-by five-inch squares, ready to be rolled around ricotta cheese, spinach, sautéed  moose burger and tomato sauce. This is not traditional cannelloni, but, like last year’s lasagna, has twin roots in Italy and Alaska.

A serving of two moose, spinach and ricotta cannelloni fresh out of the oven. Each cannelloni (literal translation, “big reed”) is a five-inch-long cylinder of fresh pasta wrapped around ricotta cheese and other ingredients. 

Moose and Spinach Cannelloni

Ingredients for one 13 x 9 inch baking dish:

  • 1/2 pound ground moose, sautéed in olive oil till browned
  • pasta to make ten 5 x 5 inch tubes (cannelloni). (Or substitute store-bought manicotti.)
  • three 6-oz. cans tomato paste with enough water to thin the sauce to the thickness of marinara sauce
  • fresh spinach, cut so that the leaves will easily fit into cannelloni tubes (or substitute frozen spinach)
  • 1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
  • 1/4 pound mozzarella cheese grated (about 1 cup)
  • 1/4 cup parmesan cheese grated fine
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons Italian herbs, separated into 2 equal parts
  • 1 tsp ground fennel (optional)
  • 2 or 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • several grinds of black pepper
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • salt (optional)
  • additional mozzarella and parmesan cheese to top cannelloni before baking (optional)
  • Kalamata olives, sliced in half lengthwise (optional)

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Place tomato paste, garlic, olive oil, black pepper, half the Italian herbs, fennel (and salt, if desired) in a nonreactive bowl and mix together, adding water to thin till sauce is just pourable.
  3. Cover a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with a layer of tomato sauce. Set aside remaining sauce.
  4. Place ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan into a large bowl. Add remaining Italian seasoning, a few grinds of pepper and mix together well by hand.
  5. Shape a piece of ricotta blend so that it lays end-to-end across one of the pasta squares. Position a few pieces of spinach leaves next to the ricotta. Use a spoon to lay down a thin bed of tomato sauce Add moose meat. Roll the pasta into a tube, pinch/press closed and position the tube seam side down atop the tomato sauce in the baking dish.
  6. Repeat till all the pasta squares have been filled and placed in the baking dish. Cover the cannelloni with the remaining sauce.
  7. (Optional). If desired, sprinkle grated mozzarella and parmesan atop the sauce-covered cannelloni. Top with Kalamata olives.
  8. Cover baking dish with aluminum foil and place on center rack of oven. Bake for 30 minutes.
  9. Remove foil and finish baking for an additional 5 to 10 minutes – to melt and lightly brown the cheese.

Homemade “Ricotta” – A Successful Experiment with Powdered Milk and Powdered Cream

Posted on by
11

Simple, delicious cheese you can make at home without any additives or preservatives. What a revelation! Perfect for cannelloni, lasagna, cannoli, ravioli, calzone or the Indian dessert Ras Malai.

A culinary goal for my Arctic kitchen this year was to experiment with cheese-making. I’m all for anything we can make at home in order to reduce our consumption of chemicals, stabilizers, and other weird junk. In addition to the drawbacks of processed foods, our Native Store here in Point Hope isn’t much larger than a typical quick-shop convenience store, and often doesn’t have items we need. Last year, a friend brought up ricotta cheese for us. This year, I decided to make my own.

Our store does not sell cream or whole milk, so my experiment with homemade cheese had one unusual ingredient – dried milk and cream. The only powdered milk I could find during our annual summer shopping in Anchorage was non-fat. Yuck. Thank goodness for the Internet! And especially thank goodness for Amazon’s free shipping. I bought two large cans of powdered whole milk (apparently abundant in Mexico!) and a can of powdered 72% butterfat cream. These would be the main ingredients for my “ricotta.” And by the way, the end product – made with powdered ingredients – was delicious.

The cheese that resulted is not a true ricotta, but is more like an unpressed paneer – with a slightly tangy, lighter taste than ricotta. In any case, it’s going into Jack’s moose cannelloni later today, rolled into homemade cannelloni tubes. Yum!

Homemade “Ricotta” – Perfect for Sweet or Savory Dishes

Ingredients

  • 2 cups whole milk powder
  • 1 cup powdered cream
  • 8 cups of water
  • 4 tbsp distilled white vinegar
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Directions

  1. Place powdered milk and cream into a large pot. Add water. Whisk until incorporated.
  2. Heat mixture until it steams but doesn’t boil (between 165 and 180 degrees F using an instant read or candy thermometer).
  3. Remove from heat.
  4. Slowly stir in vinegar. Milk should curdle.
  5. Stir in salt.
  6. Cover pot with clean cloth and let sit for 2 hours.
  7. Line colander with cheesecloth. I read paper towels or a kitchen towel will also work.
  8. Scoop curds out of pot and into lined colander.
  9. Let whey (watery substance) drain out of curds. I let it drain overnight in the refrigerator because I wanted a less watery product for the lasagna.

The Darker the Syrup… Part II, Maple Walnut Fudge

Posted on by
3

These maple walnut fudge squares were made from an especially rich, dark grade-A syrup.

The fall season and homemade candy seem to go together, and with an unexpected extra half-gallon of maple syrup in our pantry, our thoughts went straight to maple fudge. I love how food can take you home, and the maple candy Barbra created took me all the way to Pennsylvania. (Click here for more on Maple Syrup.)

Maple Walnut Fudge

Ingredients

  • 1  1/2 cups real maple syrup
  • 1  3/4 cups granulated sugar
  • 2/3 cup heavy cream
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

  1. Line an 8 inch square pan with nonstick foil and spray with cooking spray.
  2. Combine syrup, sugar, heavy cream and salt in a medium saucepan, preferably a non stick one; bring to boiling over medium high heat, stirring constantly. Once boiling, cook 7 to 8 minutes or until mixture registers 238 degrees F on a candy thermometer.
  3. Remove pan from heat. With an electric mixer, beat in butter and vanilla.
  4. Continue to beat on high power for 8 to 9 minutes, or until thickened, light in color and fudge loses its glossy finish. Stir in nuts and spread in prepared pan. Let stand until firm about 25 minutes, then cut into squares.

Recipe adapted from food.com.

North of the Arctic Meets the Middle East

Posted on by
7

Crispy fried falafel – fragrant with cumin-, freshly baked pita pocket bread, garlicky tzatziki sauce, homemade hummus, honey-orange spritzers and Basbousa cake for dessert made for an eclectic gustatory tour of the Middle East. 

Last night’s meal was a self-imposed culinary challenge: Everything was created from scratch (right down to soaking dried garbanzo beans) in our little kitchen 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle. Jack is usually the chef, but on this night I wanted him to relax, sit back and let me take over. A date.

The menu included homemade pita bread stuffed with slices of cucumber, tomato and falafel drizzled with tzatziki sauce. A bowl of garlicky hummus was available to spread on extra pieces of pita. Orange honey spritzers, made with our SodaStream, provided a sweet balance to the spices and garlic. The candlelit meal was capped off with Basbousa cake and mugs of steamy-hot rooibos almond tea.

In preparation for this meal, I soaked two cups of dried garbanzo beans the previous night. The falafel mixture and the tzatziki sauce were made Saturday morning in order to let the flavors meld together.

Following are the recipes made in the order I used.

Falafel

Ingredients

  • 1 cup dried chickpeas
  • 1 tbsp water
  • 1 1/3 tbsp sesame seeds
  • 2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp red chili powder
  • 1/2 tsp white sugar
  • 1/4 tsp ground turmeric
  • 1 pinch ground fennel powder
  • vegetable oil for frying

Directions

  1. Place dried chickpeas in a bowl. Fill with water to cover. Soak at least 8 hours or overnight in refrigerator. Drain.
  2. Place soaked and drained chickpeas in a blender or food processor; blend to a paste.
  3. Pour water into chickpea paste and blend until smooth. Scrape down sides of blender with spatula if needed.
  4. Place sesame seeds, cumin, salt, baking powder, coriander, black pepper, red chili powder, sugar, turmeric, and fennel powder in blender with chickpea paste; blend until well mixed. Transfer chickpea mixture to a bowl.
  5. Chill chickpea mixture in refrigerator to allow flavors to blend, at least 1 hour and up to two days.
  6. Cover bottom of skillet with vegetable oil and and heat to 370 degrees F over medium heat (188 degrees C).
  7. Scoop up chickpea mixture by heaping tablespoons and form into balls the size of ping pong balls and flatten slightly.
  8. Fry balls in hot oil until golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes on each side.

Recipe adapted from allrecipes.com

Tzatziki Sauce

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cucumber, seeded, peeled and cut into small cubes
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 tsp dried dill
  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions

  1. Mix ingredients together.
  2. Blend or food process until well combined.
  3. Chill in refrigerator until you are ready to use.

Pita Bread

Ingredients

  • 1  1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1  1/2 tsp white sugar
  • 1  1/2 tsp active dry yeast

Directions

  1. Place all ingredients in bread pan of your bread machine, select Dough setting and start.
  2. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Gently roll and stretch dough into a 12 inch rope. With a sharp knife, divide dough into 8 pieces. Roll each into a smooth ball. With a rolling pin, roll each ball into a 6 to 7 inch circle. Set aside on a lightly floured countertop. cover with a towel. Let pitas rise about 30 minutes until slightly puffy.
  3. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C). Place 2 or 3 pitas on a wire cake rack. Place cake rack directly on oven rack. Bake pitas 4 to 5 minutes until puffed and tops begin to brown. Remove from oven and immediately place pitas in a sealed brown paper bag or cover them with a damp kitchen towel until soft. Once pitas are softened, either cut in half or split top edge for half or whole pitas. They can be stored in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for several days or in the freezer for 1 or 2 months.

Recipe adapted from allrecipes.com.

Click here for our post about basbousa cake.

So, Jack, what did you think about your Middle Eastern feast?

Tastes of Fall – Hot Apple Crisp with Homemade Butter Pecan Ice Cream

Posted on by
6

Welcome in autumn with hot cinnamon-spiced apples under a crisp brown sugar topping served with rich butter pecan ice cream.

Colored leaves, clear blue skies and crisp evenings – some of them already laced with a hint of snow – are among the harbingers of fall we love most as the days grow shorter and the nights grow longer. This is our favorite time of year, and our favorite season to bring into the kitchen. Almost anywhere one lives in North America, freshly made pumpkin pies, squash soups, and dishes and desserts featuring the year’s bounty of pecans, apples, grapes and other crops are part of  fall traditions.

Although Point Hope has no trees and has been crispy cool for some time (the autumn crunch under our feet is  snow rather than fallen leaves), we are inspired by the calendar and the full stocks of Granny Smith apples at our Native Store as well as our own memories of picking apples and gathering nuts in the lower 48.

Hot Apple Crisp

Ingredients

  • 2 Granny Smith apples, sliced fairly thin (We prefer skins intact.)
  • 1/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tbsp caramel sauce
  • 1/2 cup quick-cooking oats
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. In a medium bowl, toss white sugar, tablespoon of flour, and cinnamon with apple slices.
  3. Mix in caramel topping.
  4. Pour apple mixture into a 8″ x 8″ pyrex-type baking dish.
  5. Combine oats, flour, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and melted butter.
  6. Crumble oat mixture and sprinkle on top of apples.
  7. Bake for 45 minutes.

Butter Pecan Ice Cream

Ingredients

  • 1/3 cup chopped pecans
  • 1 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 3 cups heavy cream
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 egg yolks

Directions

  1. In a small skillet, saute pecans in butter until lightly browned. Set aside.
  2. Heat cream and milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
  3. Add vanilla extract and heat until mixture almost boils, about 5 – 8 minutes.
  4. Reduce heat to low.
  5. Meanwhile, beat yolks and sugar until the mixture is smooth.
  6. Add 4 tbsp on hot cream mixture to egg mixture and stir until combined. This will temper the eggs.
  7. Slowly add warmed yolk mixture to warm cream. Stir continuously in order to not cook/curdle eggs.
  8. Cook entire mixture over low heat until slightly thickened and mixture coats the back of a spoon.
  9.  Cool completely. I put the mixture in the refrigerator overnight before I use it.
  10. Pour into freezer bowl of ice cream machine. Turn machine on and mix until mixture thickens, about 20 minutes. During the last 5 minutes of mixing, add buttered pecans.
  11. Transfer to airtight container and place in freezer until firm, about 2 hours.

Dutched Hot Cocoa

Posted on by
7

Rich, creamy and with a wicked cocoa flavor you can almost sink your teeth into, Dutched cocoa and homemade marshmallows make the perfect after dinner or home movie hot beverage.

Homemade Hot Cocoa with Homemade Marshmallows

Every great food has “secret ingredients.” Here, they are Dutch process high fat cocoa and homemade marshmallows. Also known as “Dutched” cocoa, this cocoa is made from the richest grade of cocoa available and is processed for an especially smooth flavor. As for the marshmallows… As sticky and messy as these are to make from scratch, having experienced how flavorful and wonderfully gooey a melted marshmallow can be, it’s going to be hard to go back to store-bought.

Ingredients (2 cups)

  • 2 cups milk or soy milk
  • 1 tbs Dutch Process High Fat Cocoa (available from Penzeys Spices)
  • 1 1/2 tbs sugar
  • dash of cinnamon
  • dash of vanilla
  • a couple of homemade marshmallows cut into chunks

Directions: Heat milk, cocoa, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla in a heavy pot (to prevent scorching) over medium low heat. A whisk works well for mixing in the cocoa. Do not boil. When steam develops and liquid is hot to the touch, pour into mugs and top with marshmallows.

Sweet, Sticky, Delicious Fun: Marshmallows from Scratch!

Posted on by
9

From-scratch always seems to taste better than store-bought. Marshmallows are a sticky but fun example.

An early Saturday morning and terrific step-by-step instructions, including helpful photographs, were the ingredients I needed to check something off my “try-to-make-from-scratch” list – marshmallows. Holy cow, these are messy and delicious! It took almost two hours to make them and about a half an hour to clean up, but there are no complaints from me. I think a stand mixer and candy thermometer are non-negotiable for this project. Normally, I play around with a few recipes and try to come up with something on my own. This time, I followed the Hungry Mouse’s instructions to the tee. What delicious fun for a Saturday morning!

Homemade Marshmallows

Ingredients

  • 5 tbsp unflavored gelatin
  • 2 cups cold water (1 cup for the gelatin and 1 cup for the sugar syrup)
  • 3 cups granulated sugar
  • 2 cups light corn syrup
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 4 tbsp vanilla extract
  • Powdered sugar, for dusting

Directions

  1. Put 1 cup of cold water in the bowl of your mixer.
  2. Add the gelatin to the water.
  3. It will immediately absorb the water and turn into a kind of sandy mass.
  4. Give it a stir to combine the gelatin and water well.
  5. It will have the consistency of soft, wet sand.
  6. Let the gelatin sit uncovered, for about 30 minutes.
  7. Secure your mixing bowl onto your stand mixer.
  8. Fit the mixer with the whisk attachment so it’s ready to go when your sugar is hot..
  9. With a strainer, dust a 13″ x 9″ glass baking pan with a thick layer powdered sugar. This will keep the marshmallows from sticking to the bottom.
  10. Set your pan aside so it is ready when your marshmallow fluff is done.
  11. Once your gelatin is ready and your pans are dusted, put 1 cup of water in a large-­sized pot on the stove over high heat. Use a pot that’s deep enough so that the sugar will have plenty of room to boil without boiling over, like a 5-quart pot.
  12. Add in the sugar and salt.
  13. Pour in the corn syrup.
  14. Whisk the mixture together to combine well and melt the sugar. This will take a minute or two, since the corn syrup is so thick. Keep whisking ’til the mixture is even and easy to stir.
  15. With any candy making, it’s important to dissolve all the sugar even the little bits stuck to the side of the pot.
  16. Sugar is finicky and wants to clump together and re­crystalize when it’s in a supersaturated solution like this. (Which will screw up the consistency of your marshmallow.
  17. As the mixture is coming up to a boil, wash down the sides of the pot with a brush dipped in cold water. Keep dipping and brushing ’til you can’t see any sugar crystals. This won’t take long, but it’s important to do.
  18. Clip your candy thermometer onto the side of the pot. The end of the thermometer should be submerged, but not touching the bottom of the pot.
  19. Keep the heat on high to bring the mixture to a boil. When it boils, it will rise up a few inches rapidly, then stop. It’s kind of alarming the first time you see it, but if your pot is deep enough, you shouldn’t have any problems.
  20. Keep a close eye on your pot and have a pair of potholders handy. (If it boils over, turn the heat off and fan the surface of the sugar to cool it. It should recede rapidly. Hot sugar is nasty stuff, so keep your hands and face clear. Better to have a mess on your stove than get burned.)
  21. Boil the sugar (keep the heat on high) until it reaches Firm Ball stage at 244 degrees F.
  22. When the sugar reaches 244 degrees F, take the pot off the heat.
  23. Turn the mixer on low speed. The whisk will start to chunk up the gelatin.
  24. With the mixer running on low, slowly (and carefully!!) pour the hot sugar mixture into the gelatin.
  25. Now, at this point, it’s going to smell kind of awful. That’s just fine. Unflavored gelatin is kind of stinky business. It will be fine with a little vanilla extract at the end.
  26. When all the sugar is in the bowl, fit your mixer with a splash guard, if you have one. Turn the speed up to medium­high (do this slowly if you don’t have a guard on, to avoid splashes) and whip the mixture for 20 minutes.
  27. As you whip the mixture, it will gradually increase in volume and turn an opaque white.
  28. After about 20 minutes, you’ll have a bowl of bona fide marshmallow fluff.
  29. After 20 minutes of whipping, pour in the vanilla extract.
  30. Beat to combine for another 5 minutes.
  31. After 5 minutes, stop the mixer, and remove the bowl and whisk. Your marshmallow fluff should be thick and white.
  32. Pour the fluff into your prepared pan.
  33. Dust the tops of the marshmallow with more powdered sugar.
  34. Leave the pans uncovered on the counter overnight to set up.
  35. The next day unmold and cut your marshmallows.
  36. Put a cup or two of powdered sugar in a gallon­size zip­top bag. (This is for rolling the cut marshmallows.)
  37. Dip a thin, sharp knife in a glass of hot water, then run the knife around the inside edge of each pan until the marshmallow loosens.
  38. If the knife starts to stick, just dip it back into the hot water.
  39. When the marshmallow is loose, lift it out and set it on a board.
  40. With a large, sharp knife, cut the marshmallow into cubes (or any other shape you like).
  41. Roll the cut marshmallows in the bag of powdered sugar to coat each side.
  42. Knock the excess sugar off and…voila! Marshmallow!
  43. Repeat with the rest of the marshmallows. Store them in an airtight container or zip­top bag. Enjoy!

Thank you to The Hungry Mouse for the recipe and terrific instructions! And click here for a great cup of