Dear Danielle,

We did it, we found a picture book and food project to collaborate on! I’m so excited we got a match, this really is the perfect fit with the both of us being fans of Rebecca Green and her debut book, How to Make Friends with a Ghost.

Rebecca’s ghost is so heart-achingly cute and you just want to eat it. And now I’ve made it possible. These homemade marshmallows are soft and delicate, but still firm enough for making s’mores or toasting for that lovely burnt flavor.

Dare I say they’re a bit tastier than store-bought ones? My ultimate taste-tester was my husband who loves marshmallows. Trust me when I say he does not give my cooking any bias, so when he said these were better than the ones from the grocery store, I was surprisingly shocked (and feeling pretty rosy inside).

Vanilla Marshmallows
Recipe adapted from Butter Baked Goods
Makes enough to fill an 8 x 12 x 2 inch baking pan

½ cup water
3 envelopes unflavored gelatin
Unsalted butter, melted
2 cups granulated sugar
½ cup golden corn syrup
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup water
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
Icing sugar

1. Using the bowl from your stand mixer, pour in the water and gelatin. Let it sit so that the gelatin can bloom.
2. Brush the melted butter onto the base and side of your baking pan. Set it aside.
3. Add the sugar, corn syrup, salt, and the other half cup of water into a medium saucepan over high heat. Bring it to a rolling boil and let it boil for about a minute. Then remove it from the heat.
4. Fit your stand mixer with the whisk attachment and turn it on low to mix the water and gelatin that’s already in the bowl until it combines. Then very slowly and carefully, add the hot sugar and corn syrup mixture into the bowl.
5. Still mixing on low, add the vanilla extract.
6. When everything is in the bowl, turn the mixer to high and whisk for 10 minutes until the batter turns white and triples in size.
7. Stop the mixer, using a spatula, scrape the marshmallow batter into the baking pan. Spread the batter evenly and do your best to level it. A bench scraper or off-set spatula can help.
8. Cover the pan with aluminum foil, be sure not to touch the batter otherwise it’ll stick. Or use a lid if your baking pan comes with one. Leave the marshmallow to set at room temperature overnight or in the fridge.
9. The next day, take the foil off and sprinkle icing sugar over the top. Cover the surface evenly so that it won’t be too sticky to handle. Run a knife along the edge of the pan to help loosen the marshmallow slab. Then carefully flip the marshmallow out onto a counter. Sprinkle icing sugar all over the marshmallow – don’t forget the sides.
10. Use a knife to cut them into squares or roll a cookie cutter in icing sugar before using it on the marshmallow.

You’re going to get icing sugar everywhere. But if you have a large baking sheet, it’s best to try to contain everything there. No promises of course, I still got sugar on the table, floor, and on my apron.

Use your hands to pat the marshmallow down with icing sugar, it will make it so much easier to work with. This large slab felt like a really nice pillow for sugar fairies to sleep on.

If you have a tulip cookie cutter, upside-down, it looks like Rebecca’s ghost. I tried to get one, but a few of the local shops weren’t carrying it. I ended up using my Totoro cookie cutter. I just had to snip the ears off using kitchen shears.

So excited for how chubby these ghosts are going to turn out.

Using black and red edible markers, I drew on the faces and blush. They actually bleed a lot, so try to use a very fine tip or gently draw the faces on and wait for the lines to thicken.

One trick if you don’t want a solid red blush, I dipped the edible marker in icing sugar first so that the tip would be speckled. Then I gently tapped it onto the ghost’s cheek.

You can sort of see the slight bump where Totoro’s arms/hands would be, but they work as Rebecca’s ghost has a similar look.

“If you’re a person who is sweet, warm and kind, a ghost may come out and find you.”

These little ghosts are pretty darn cute when wrapped up as gifts! If only I had some graham crackers on hand . . .

Play the video to see how soft and squishy the ghost marshmallow is!

Sincerely,
Syl

*Disclaimer: I work at Tundra Books and sent Danielle a copy of How to Make Friends with a Ghost by Rebecca Green for review consideration. All the while, Danielle and I were looking for a side project to collaborate with during the past couple months and it just so happened that I am the publicist for this title.