One of my favorite things about the Easter holiday is all the candy! I have a huge sweet tooth so naturally Easter is right up my alley. This year I decided to try my hand at an old time favorite and make homemade marshmallow peeps!

What You’ll Need:

Corn Syrup, Gelatin, Sugar, Cold Water, Salt, Vanilla Extract, Corn Starch, Powdered Sugar, Food Coloring and Sanding Sugar

Instructions:

1. Begin with a basic marshmallow recipe, this one from Alton Brown works well. At the end of the recipe when you are adding the vanilla extract also add your food coloring. I ended up making three batches, one for each color, needless to say I have a LOT of peeps now. If you don’t need  that many, think about sticking with one or two colors.

2. Once you’ve poured the mixture into the prepared pan, smoothed it out with a spatula and dusted it; place plastic wrap over the pan and flatten smooth the surface with a rolling pin. Remove the plastic wrap and let set for at least 4 hours.

3. Once the marshmallows are ready, cut them out with a lightly oiled cookie cutter. I used this set from amazon, but feel free to use whatever you like.

4. To get the sanding sugar to stick, I ended up lightly blotting the tops and bottoms of the marshmallows with a damp paper towel before rolling in the sugar.

5. For the “eyes” I put a dab of corn syrup on the back of a black candy button to get them to stick (found at a local cake store). NOTE: Man hands in the photo belong to my husband, not me.

6. For a sweet little present, line the bottom of a clear gift box with parchment paper, I added a little scalloped edge to finish off the look.

This was a fun afternoon project and even more fun to eat! Enjoy!

From Top: Portugese Series, Animal Series by Federico Tranfero, Czech Series “Bobbin Lace”

Two more sets after the break!
From Top: Czech Republic Series, Italian Series “The Strange Story of Signor O”