Recipes for Homemade Marshmallows & Hot Chocolate

*Combine the powdered sugar and cornstarch in small bowl. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 x 13 baking or jelly roll pan very lightly with Crisco. Also grease a spatula. Add the powdered sugar/cornstarch mix to a sifter and sift to coat the bottom and sides of the pan (this is best done over the sink!) and the spatula. Keep the remaining mix to use later. 

*In a small saucepan, mix the remaining 1/2 c. water, sugar, corn syrup, and salt. Place over medium high heat, cover and cook for 3-4 minutes. Uncover, clip a candy thermometer onto the side of the pan, turn down to medium heat, and continue cooking, mixing occasionally, until the mixture reaches 240 degrees F. It will take about 7-8 minutes. 

*Once the syrup mixture reaches the 240 degrees, remove it from the heat.

*Turn the mixer on low speed and, while mixing, very slowly pour the hot syrup mixture down the side of the bowl into the gelatin mixture. Once you have added all of the syrup mixture, increase the mixer speed to high. Whip until it becomes very thick, about 12-15 minutes. During the last minute of whipping, add the vanilla. When you’re done it will look a lot like marshmallow fluff:

*Immediately after finishing mixing, pour the marshmallow mixture into your pan, using your coated spatula to spread it evenly. Use your sifter to dust the top with the sugar and cornstarch mixture until it’s lightly covered. Keep the remainder of the sugar/cornstarch mix to use later.

*Lightly grease a pizza wheel with Crisco and sprinkle with the sugar/cornstarch mixture. Use the pizza wheel to cut the marshmallows into 1 inch squares. 

*Once cut, generously dust all sides of each marshmallow with the sugar/cornstarch mixture. (I do this by sifting a layer of the mixture onto a cutting board and rolling the marshmallows in it). You’ll end up with 8-9 dozen of these fluffy, scrumptious beauties:

*Let the cut marshmallows sit uncovered for about an hour so that they develop a bit of a skin (this helps keep them from sticking to each other). Store in an airtight container – if you are going to be eating them in just a few days they are fine to keep at room temp but otherwise, keep them in the fridge to keep them fresh longer. They. Are. Delicious.

And now the hot chocolate mix – super, super simple:

Ingredients: 
5 c. instant milk powder
3 c. powdered sugar
1 1/4 c. Hershey’s cocoa powder
1 c. powdered creamer

Directions:
*Put milk powder in a a food processor or blender and blend until it’s a fine powder.
*In a large mixing bowl, combine the milk powder, powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and powdered creamer. Stir to combine all ingredients.
*Store mixture in an airtight container. 
*To make a cup of hot chocolate, pour 3/4 c. water into a mug with 1/3 c. mix. The recipe makes enough mix for about 30 servings.

For our teacher gifts, I found these galvanized bins at Michaels and simply wrapped a ribbon around them, using a few glue dots to hold the ribbon in place. 

Since the bins are curved, you’ll have to angle your ribbon up in the back:

Along with one mason jar filled with marshmallows and another filled with hot chocolate mix, I added a bundle of edible candy cane spoons. Is it just me or are they beyond cute? 

They come individually wrapped and are peppermint flavored. Love them. You can get them on Amazon {here} (affiliate link).

I finished off each teacher gift with a tag that has the recipe for the perfect cup of hot cocoa – you can download the tag that I made in two sizes {here}.

I bought an extra galvanized bin to keep and set up a little hot chocolate bar in the kitchen that you’ll see more of on my Christmas home tour this Sunday.

Now go get mixing… and enjoy!!!!