Quince Sherbert Marshmallows

It's funny how my appetite is nearly completely ruled by the weather. But in weird ways. For some reason I want to eat more ice cream when it gets colder. And salads! On the flip slide, I'm craving all those lovely fuzzy, warm things like soup and hot chocolate that you would expect to crave in winter. This is part of the reason why I had to make some marshmallows at home. I've never made them before, but have always wanted to. The leftover syrup from my slow baked quinces was the perfect flavouring for these marshmallows, as well as the leftover fizzy sherbert powder from my beetroot lollipops. So if you happen to try either of those recipes, here's a great way to use up your leftover stuff.

Consider this post the second part of my magical quince rant. I had a few pieces of leftover quince, enough to puree and add to my marshmallows for a punchier flavour. When I whipped them up in my food processor they turned into a very light, frothy paste, which was kind of perfect for adding to the marshmallows without affecting their texture. You need to take care with the moisture coming out of the marshmallows, as you can guess-any moisture will screw up the fizzy sherbert powder. It's best to only add the sherbert right before you serve it, just in case.

I was surprised by how easy and fun it was to make marshmallows, and they turned out so fluffy and delicious! I adapted the recipe from a Gourmet Traveller recipe, adding the quince puree and the spiced quinced sugar syrup instead of making new sugar syrup. The taste of quince was unmistakable, making these so moreish! The flavour of all the spices gave the marshmallows a lovely fragrance and the sherbert added a great zing. Marshmallows are just so fun!

My one regret is that I was in such a rush to cut these up that I ended up cutting them as cubes and not using a fun cookie cutter to make them even cuter. But I'll just have to save that idea for my next batch ;) Yep I'll definitely be doing more marshmallows from now on...

Quince Sherbert Marshmallows
(adapted from this Gourmet Traveller recipe)
25g gelatine powder
1/2 cup quince puree
200ml spiced quince sugar syrup (substitute with 200ml water, 500g caster sugar + 1 cinnamon stick, 4 star anise, 2 black pepper corns, 1 vanilla bean split and scraped)
1 tbsp liquid glucose
2 large egg whites
Snow sugar or 1/2 cup icing sugar + 2 tbsp corn starch for dusting

For the sherbert powder:
75 g citric acid
95 g pure icing sugar
1 tbsp bicarb soda

Line a 20cm square baking tin. Combine quince puree and gelatine in a small saucepan on low heat and stir until the gelatine dissolves. Set aside. Place sugar syrup and liquid glucose in a medium saucepan and gently heat with a sugar thermometer inserted. Heat until it reaches 125 degrees C.

In the meantime, beat eggwhites in a large mixing bowl to stiff peaks. While continuing to beat, add gelatine mixture and sugar syrup mixture to the eggwhites at the same time, in a steady, thin stream. Place thermometer in bowl, and continue to beat until the mixture cools to 37 degrees C. Pour into lined baking tin and leave to set overnight at room temperature. Remove from tin, cut up and toss snow or icing sugar mixture. To make the sherbert powder, mix all three ingredients together and dust over marshmallows. Serve immediately with lots of extra sherbert. Both marshmallows and sherbert can be stored in separate airtight containers.