For this week’s Gastro Friday, I’d like to chat a bit about marshmallow week in my food studies class. If you read this week’s Leena Eats post, you’ll remember that I don’t have the best history with making marshmallows from scratch. Thankfully, I did not try to make marshmallows with my class. The stress alone would shut me down for the rest of the year. It is interesting to note how many different ways Americans commonly eat marshmallows–roasted over campfires and shoved into s’mores, browned on top of sweet potatoes, spread on a sandwich with some peanut butter, mixed with puffed rice cereal to make the most awesome snack of all time, no matter what country you live in (like I pointed out in this old post). We roll them in sugar and shape them like bunnies and chicks for Easter…Americans love marshmallows so much, it has been said that we purchase 90 millions pound of marshmallows annually! I love researching food that seems impossible to make, like puff pastry or marshmallows. Originally, marshmallow was made by cooking an extract of the plant, the marsh mallow, with sugar, and was often used as medicine. Today, marsh mallow extract is replaced with gelatin, and is combined with sugar, corn syrup, water and occasionally, egg whites. The process is simple–heat the sugar, part of the water, and corn syrup to 240 F, then use a mixer to whip the syrup into a mixture of gelatin and water. The mix fluffs up like heavy cream when you whip it. Then you put it in pan coated in nonstick spray, cornstarch and powdered sugar, let it dry for four hours, and cut into mallow cubes. By the early 20th century, marshmallows were being mass produced and were mainly sold as penny candy for children. But it soon became a staple ingredient at U.S. dinner parties, pot lucks, and family functions thanks to some smart marketing. Oh yes, my friend, this was the rise of the infamous Jello mold and marshmallow-induced salads. Cookbooks of the 1920s & 30s managed to get marshmallows on the ingredient list of every page, every recipe. Decorating cakes, melted and swirled into candies, you name it, they found a way to shove marshmallows in it. Here are a few things with marshmallows I would like to share with you: Cooking with Peeps Japanese Marshmallow Game Build your own Marshmallow gun After a riveting lecture on all things marshmallow, I decided to teach the students how to make their own rice krispy treats and s’mores. Since we were only rock out on two electric burners, not gas ones, we had to make s’mores bars instead of traditional s’mores which sucks, but then again, we were going to be eating rice kripy treats and s’mores. In school. So all was not lost. And I am still asking myself why I decided to do yet another cooking lab with my students, especially after the flour fight during the pizza lab, and the general mayhem that seems ensure any cooking labs in my class. I think I am partly crazy and partly trying to offer the students what they really enjoy doing, which is cooking. But definitely crazy. Because something the students do not like to do? LISTEN. Which makes for trying times… After teaching the class on the first day, I realized what I already knew but forgot–make the cooking and directions as simple and easy as possible. And that means anticipating what issues or questions the students might have, and then providing them with those answers BEFORE they ask those questions. It is amazing how students will interrupt what I am telling them to ask a question…about what I was already telling them! Was I really that a.d.d. as a high school student?! Usually, I have to alter my food and cooking labs from one class to the next because I learn so much about what did and didn’t work, but I suppose that is to be expected. I thought this week’s lab was simple enough: I broke the students up into four groups, two for rice krispies and two for s’mores. A few students were in charge of melting the mallows, a few more would stir the melted mallow in with the cereal, and a few more would butter their hands and press the mixture into pans, where they would cool.
My mistake with my first class this week was not explaining how important it was 1) not have the heat on high so the marshmallows don’t burn and stick to the bottom of the pan, 2)to spread the rice krispy treat or s’mores mixture EVENLY in the pan (Mrs. TG, how come my rice krispy is skinny in the middle and fat on one end?!) 3) to press both mixtures into the pan tightly so there would be bars when we cut them, not floppy thin pieces of melted stuff stuck together. It sounds obvious now, but you’d be surprised what you forget when you are writing a lecture.
However, I am proud to say that after tweaking my directions, the next class did the cooking lab with flying colors. Their bars were uniformly shaped, they tasted great, and no one burned their marshmallows. The students also seemed to pay attention more, but maybe that was because every five seconds I said, pay attention or your food will suck. Threat a teen’s food and they will hang on to your every word! Next week is exciting–hot dog week, which means Hot Doug’s for all! I cannot wait! ~LTG!
