Sweet treats for Easter feasts
Skip pastels this year with caramel sauce, chocolate log, marshmallows.
Easter candy can be all about pastels. Or … maybe this is the year your Easter baskets and dessert trays will feature a more sophisticated palette.
Jocelyn Gragg, the chef and owner of Atlanta-based Jardi Chocolates, shared three Easter sweets recipes with us. The first is for her Honey Vanilla Marshmallows.
The marshmallows are a creamy white, tinted only slightly by the honey you choose. If you want them in pastel shades, add a little food coloring while you’re whipping them.
She also shared her recipe for white chocolate salami. This classic Italian or Portuguese treat usually combines high-quality chocolate with flavorings such as crumbled cookies, nuts and dried fruit. Gragg makes hers with white chocolate, flavors it with a little passion fruit juice and then combines it with butter, brined almonds and candied ginger. The result is a log from which you cut thin slices in which the chocolate looks as if it’s studded with jewels.
The third option she provided for your Easter consumption is a rich caramel sauce, to be flavored with your favorite whiskey. If a traditional coconut cake is part of your Easter meal, imagine it drizzled with this rich caramel sauce, or pour the sauce over one of those marshmallows for a sticky sweet treat. JARDI CHOCOLATES’ HONEY VANILLA MARSHMALLOWS Makes 81 1-inch marshmallows
These creamy marshmallows will upend every notion you have about how marshmallows should taste.
If, like us, you’re using packaged gelatin, twoand-a-half .25-ounce packets will yield the 2 1/2 tablespoons you need. The marshmallow mixture will become very thick as it whips and at some point may begin to strain the motor of your stand mixer. Stop beating if that happens. The marshmallows will set up fine at that point.
If you want to color your marshmallows, add food coloring when you begin to whip the mixture.
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons
cold water
2 1/2 tablespoons
powdered gelatin
2 1/2 cups granulated
sugar
1 1/2 cups corn syrup
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons
honey
1 tablespoon vanilla
extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup powdered sugar
Liberally oil a 9-by9-inch baking dish. Be sure bottom and sides are covered. Line the baking dish with a piece of parchment paper and oil that well. The parchment paper will help in removing the marshmallows from the dish. Set aside.
Put water in the bowl of a stand mixer and add gelatin. Do not put bowl on mixer yet. Allow to sit while you are making the sugar syrup.
In a heavy medium-size saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup and honey. Bring to a boil over high heat and cook until mixture reaches 252 degrees, up to 15 minutes depending on your pan and the heat. Remove from heat and carefully pour syrup over gelatin.
Move bowl to mixer and let sit 30 seconds. Move bowl onto mixer and fit mixer with whisk attachment. Whisk mixture on high speed until it turns opaque. Carefully add vanilla and salt. Continue to whisk on high speed until medium peaks form. Remove bowl from mixer and scrape mixture into prepared baking dish. Spread to even thickness. Allow to rest overnight.
The next day, stir together cornstarch and powdered sugar and put in a pie plate. Remove large marshmallow square from baking dish and using a warmed, wet knife, cut into desired shapes. Toss marshmallows with cornstarch mixture and shake off extra cornstarch mixture. Keep marshmallows in an airtight container until ready to use. If you want to package them for Easter baskets, put a few in a cellophane bag and seal it tightly.
Per marshmallow: 66 calories (percent of calories from fat, 0), trace protein, 16 grams carbohydrates, trace fiber, trace fat (no saturated fat), no cholesterol, 22 milligrams sodium.