Sugared Raspberry Lemon Drop Mallows

Happy Marshmallow Monday! For this spring fever, Easter-ish edition, I used raspberry juice and juice from lemons to create double-decker mallows with a Peeps-style sugared finish.

This flavor combo is so bright and juicy—dare I say, thirst-quenching? The tartness of the lemon pairs perfectly with the bold berry punch, making for quite the taste explosion. Just writing this right now is making my mouth water—gonna go get one from my freezer right this second.

These really are super fantastic—you’ll love ’em!
M

Sugared Raspberry Lemon Drop Mallows
Prep time: 1 hr 10 min | Ready in: 7 hours, 10 min

Ingredients:
Cooking spray
6 packages unflavored gelatin
5 cups granulated sugar, divided
4 cups frozen raspberries (or fresh)
6 or 7 lemons (enough to get 1 cup of juice)
Yellow food coloring (optional)

Cooking tools:
A candy thermometer
Tin foil
9×13-inch cake or jelly roll pan

Directions:

1. Heat raspberries in a saucepan on medium heat, mashing them with the back of a fork as you go. Continue this process for a few minutes until berries are completely mashed.
2. Set a fine-mesh strainer in a bowl, and pour mashed raspberries through it. Use the back of a spoon to push the juice through. You’re after 1 cup of juice, but if you’re a little short, just add in a little cold water. Allow to cool before using.
3. Juice lemons until you have 1 cup of juice.
4. Line the inside of the pan with tin foil, then coat well with cooking spray. (You can also skip the tin foil and just coat the pan—I’ve actually been finding this to be an easier method lately.)

Follow the below directions twice—once with raspberry juice, and once with the lemon juice. (It doesn’t matter which one you do first.) NOTE: You can use a few drops yellow food coloring to punch up the color of lemon if you like—if you do, add it in the last minute of beating the batter.

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine a 1/2 of a cup of juice with 3 packets of gelatin and allow to sit until gelatin forms, about 15 minutes.
2. In a medium saucepan on medium heat, combine 2 cups of sugar and 1/2 of a cup of juice, then stir until sugar has dissolved—about 3 to 5 minutes. Increase heat to bring mixture to a low boil, and continue to boil until the temperature reaches 240 degrees F on a candy thermometer—about 12 to 15 minutes. Remove from heat.
3. Slowly pour sugar mixture into the bowl with the gelatin, simultaneously using a mixer on low. Gradually increase speed to high and continue whipping until the mix is very thick, about 10 to 15 minutes—imagine the consistency of pourable taffy.
4. Pour the mixture into the pan (or in the pan on top of the first flavor if this is your second batch), smoothing the surface with a spatula. (Spray spatula with cooking spray as needed to keep it from sticking.) Let the marshmallow sit for about 6 hours, uncovered, until completely set.
5. Cover a surface larger than the marshmallow slab with remaining sugar and flip the cake pan over so that marshmallow lands on the sugared surface.
   
6. Cut marshmallows in whatever shapes you’d like, then press all sides into sugar so marshmallows are completely covered.
   
7. Store in an air-tight container, and I love them the most when they come straight from the freezer. Marshmallows are kind of like alcohol in that they don’t actually freeze, they just get really cold. Mmm…

Check out my post on Marshmallow Tips for a little extra help.