Marshmallows for the Marshmallows! I admit, I’m a newbie Marshmallow—i.e. a new fan of Veronica Mars—but if you’ve been following along with me on my blog for the past several years, you know I am no stranger to the edible variety of marshmallows.
But as lame as I feel for not having watched the cult hit while it was on the air, I could not have been happier over the last few months as I binged all three seasons (BTW, seasons were hearty back in the day—23-ish episodes per season!! JEEZE) and the more recent movie. And now that I’m a true fan and a long-time marshmallow fanatic, it’s pretty obvious what next steps would be.
I’d been trying to come up with a special marshmallow recipe for a few months, and only came up with the camera idea on Tuesday (as in four days ago—yikes). I wondered what took me so long. After all, half the time we see Veronica, it’s with a camera in front of her face, snapping pics of the bad guys. And while I thought I had another week to noodle on a few details, someone jumped the gun a bit. Yep, Hulu released all the new episodes TODAY, a week early—surprise! This is great news for anyone who’s excited to dig in (me), but not so great for anyone who’d planned to do something special for the release (also me).
Luckily, I had all the major components ready to go, so at 5:30pm tonight, I just went for it. They’re not perfect, but one point I stress a lot with marshmallows is, they might look a little weird as you get used to making them, but they’re always going to taste amazing. So, I’m taking my own advice and just rolling with it.
These camera marshmallows are simple rectangle chocolate-covered mallows, with a few elements of flair. How much flair you want to add is totally up to you (I opted to have the accompanying cookies made at a local bakery)—and I’ll talk you through those options as we go through the recipe.
Okay, let’s get to it!
Camera Veronica Mars-mallows
Prep time: 35 min | Ready in: 4 hours, 35 min
Ingredients:
- Cooking spray
- 3 packages unflavored gelatin (vegetarian substitutions)
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 3 cups dark chocolate chips (you may not need all of it, but it’s just a bummer to run out if you do)
- About 24 chocolate discs (I found mine at Whole Foods–they are about 3/4 of an inch in diameter—but if you can’t find any, you can just pipe melted chocolate onto parchment paper, then refrigerate for about 15 minutes until they are hard. OR you can pipe them straight onto the marshmallows once the chocolate has hardened.)
- About 4 tablespoons of clear cookie sprinkles
Cooking tools:
- A candy thermometer
- Tin foil
- 9×13-inch cake or jelly roll pan
- Parchment paper
- Plastic squeeze bottles with fine tips for piping melted chocolate
- Square cookie or biscuit cutter
- Icing spatula (not required, but the off-set style is helpful in speading the chocolate)
Directions:
- Line the inside of the pan with tin foil, then coat well with cooking spray.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine a 1/2 of a cup of cold water with the packets of gelatin and allow to sit until gelatin forms, about 15 minutes.
- In a medium saucepan on medium heat, combine the sugar and 1/2 of a cup of water, 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.
- 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.
- Pour the mixture into the pan, smoothing the surface with a spatula. (Spray spatula with cooking spray as needed to keep it from sticking.) Let the marshmallow sit for about 3 to 4 hours, uncovered, until completely set.
- Cover a surface larger than the marshmallow slab with powdered sugar and carefully remove the marshmallow slab from the pan and place on the covered surface.
- Cut marshmallows in rectangles.
- Dust all sides of marshmallow pieces with powdered sugar, then place them on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.
- Melt chocolate in a double-boiler on the stove (I just use a saucepan with about an inch of water on low heat, with a bowl set inside for the chocolate.)
- Pour some of the melted chocolate into the plastic squeeze bottle and, one at a time, cover the tops of the marshmallows with chocolate. Use an icing spatula to push it off the edges and spread over the sides. (It is not crucial that the whole marshmallow be covered–just the tops.)
11. Refrigerate the marshmallows until the chocolate hardens, about 20 minutes, then slice off the excess chocolate surrounding the base.
Making the easy lens: You can simply pipe a dot of melted chocolate on the right side of each marshmallow and place the chocolate disc (or “camera lens”) on top and call it good. You still get a camera vibe and you’re making it super easy on yourself.
BUT, if you want to add flair—in this case, the appearance of a camera lens, let’s keep going…
OPTIONS FOR FLAIR: The fancy lens and the flash.
For the fancy lens: On parchment paper, pipe small dots of melted chocolate and place chocolate discs on top. This is just so they stay put while you work with them. They will peel off easily when you place them on the marshmallow. Put them in the fridge for about five minutes until the chocolate hardens.
Pipe a small amount (smaller than a pea) of melted chocolate on the discs and spread it around (it’s okay if it doesn’t reach the edges–we’re going to cover those up in the next step anyway!), and sprinkle with the clear cookie sprinkles. Most of the sprinkles will sort of melt into the chocolate, but that’s how we want it. It’s meant to give the effect of just seeing slight glints of light you’d see on a real camera lens.
Put the lenses in the fridge for about ten minutes, until chocolate hardens.
Put more melted chocolate into the plastic bottle and pipe a ring around the outside of each disk. Refrigerate until the chocolate has hardened, about ten minutes.
For the fancy flash: On a flat, movable surface (a small platter or cutting board is perfect), place a piece of parchment paper and put the square cutter on top. Fill the square with about a quarter inch of melted chocolate. Refrigerate until it has hardened. (You can also just cut a chocolate bar into small rectangles and be done with it!)
Slice the square chocolate into small rectangles (the exact size will depend on how big your marshmallows are, so just eyeball it based on the proportions of my photo). Once they’re sliced, it’s helpful to put them in the freezer for about 15 minutes. This makes them easier to handle—they won’t melt the second you touch them:).
ASSEMBLING the camera: Add more melted chocolate to your plastic squeeze bottle and first pipe small dots on the right side of the “camera” marshmallow and place the lens on top.
Then pipe a dot onto the “flash” and press to the side of the marshmallow in line with the lens.
Put the assembled marshmallows in the fridge again to be sure the chocolate “glue” hardens.
BONUS OPTION FOR FLAIR: A Veronica Mars cookie/head! As I mentioned before, I had these made by a local bakery, Seatown Sweets. But if you’re game, I say go for making the cookies too! I did try to keep the design super simple, so even if you’re a beginner cookie decorator, it’s totally doable. Mine are 2.5-inch cookies.
To attach the cookie, simply place another generous dollop of chocolate where the other eye would be, place the camera marshmallow on top and hold until it’s secure. And one more time, throw those babies in the fridge to get everything nice and fused.
And now you have some super cute marshmallows to snack on while you binge-watch season four of Veronica Mars! Happy mallowing, Marshmallows!
Pine and Crave 