Chocolate Dipped Marshmallow Eggs

Easter is my second favorite holiday.  It has a lot to do with the promise of spring after a long cold winter.  Being able to wear sundresses, and sandals again.  And of course the candy, Easter candy is, well, YUM!  I remember making marshmallow eggs as far back as I can actually remember.  It is one  tradition that I had to carry on with my own family.  It is sticky, and really messy, but oh so worth it.

How to Create the Molds
Fill 3 9x13 pans with an inch and a half to two inches of flour.  Level it off with a knife, chopstick, spatula, or even a drinking straw.  Take an egg, real or plastic and press it into the flour to make indentations.  You'll get about 12 per pan.  Be careful to not bump the pans and loosen the molds.  Set them aside until they are needed later.

Marshmallow Eggs
2 Envelopes of Unflavored Gelatin (Knox Gelatin)
1/2 cup Cold Water
3/4 cup Hot Water
1 cup Corn Syrup, divided
2 cups Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla

Mix together the unflavored gelatin and cold water until gelatin has dissolved.  Let it stand for 5 minutes.

In a large heavy saucepan combine the hot water, 1/2 cup corn syrup, and sugar.  Bring to a rolling boil.  Cook until it reaches soft ball stage using water test method. Remove pan from the heat and add the remaining corn syrup and gelatin/water mixture.  Pour into a stand mixer or using a hand mixer beat on high for 10 minutes (it must be 10 minutes!  Trust me on this one.  It will not set up correctly if you don't beat it for the full 10 minutes.  And you'll end up with marshmallow sludge).  Stir in the vanilla.

Pour into prepared molds. Makes about 36 marshmallow eggs.  Let them sit overnight to fully set, then tap the excess flour off (and trim some of the excess off, I use scissors or kitchen shears for this part, super fast and easy and a bit more control) and dip into melted chocolate.  Place them on wax paper or parchment paper until chocolate has set. You can also decorate them using sprinkles (applied before the chocolate has set) or colored chocolate piped on using cake decorating bags.  Enjoy, and hope that there are some left to stick in the Easter baskets.

Home made Salt Water Taffy

Sunday night is our "treat night". We don't do many desserts during the week, but Sunday is our day to splurge. Tonight we decided to do something really fun and "pull" taffy with the girls. This is something I remember doing a lot as a kid. And after tonight I have to give my mom a lot of credit for keeping 6 kids (and sometimes friends too) all pulling taffy without getting it everywhere. My girls gave up after a few minutes, and just ate the taffy that had stuck to their fingers. The hubs did pretty well, but had me finish it off when my portion was pulled and done. Taffy is so easy to make, pretty quick too, but the most time is spent pulling,and pulling, and pulling to get the air into the taffy and change it from clear to opaque. Just make sure you have plenty of butter on your hands, and some extra to replace it as you go, get comfy and pull :)

Home Made Salt Water Taffy
2 cups sugar
2 tbsp corn syrup
2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup white vinegar*
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp salt
In a heavy saucepan (I use a 4 quart saucepan) combine all six ingredients. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Cook it on medium high heat  until it reaches hard ball stage (determined with the water test*).  Remove from heat and stir in flavoring of choice, we used 1/2 tbsp root beer extract and it was so yummy!.  Pour it onto a well buttered cookie sheet and let it cool until it is luke warm, or cool enough to handle.  Divide the taffy into 4 pieces and stretch/pull until taffy turns from dark and clear to light and opaque (it will still be a bit shiny).  Form it into ropes and cut into pieces with scissors.  Wrap in wax paper squares or caramel wraps.  Enjoy!

*for a less strong vinegar bite use 1/4 cup vinegar and 1/4 cup water.