Peeps

I'll admit, it is a little late to be writing about Peeps or anything related to Easter for that matter. Let's look at it instead of it being a little early instead, shall we?  It is never too early to plan for a holiday, in my opinion, and I am here to offer a suggestion: Peeps.  Not just any regular ole peeps though, home made peeps. 

I know it may seem a little silly to make your own, but they are a lot of fun and you can control the ingredients (no corn syrup!), colour, shape, size, flavours, etc...

With three or four basic ingredients that are lurking in most kitchens, and a bit of time, you can make some pretty cute Easter or Springtime treats.

I have been making peeps for a couple of years now and have just about perfected my method, but I imagine that you could easily do the same just by making two batches in a relatively small time frame.  The thing that I seemed to get hung up on was shaping the animals to where they actually resembled an animal and not some sort of white sparkly blob thing.  The birds, as simple as they may look, are what I have the most trouble with.  The other thing to keep in mind is that this is a whipped sugar syrup, essentially, which means that as it cools, it hardens.  The gelatin helps to keep it from going completely rock hard but it gets difficult to properly squeeze out of the pastry bag after about 12 minutes, or so.  That being said, it doesn't mean that any remaining marshmallow is inedible, it just won't look very pretty.  That happens to be one of my favourite parts in making these- the cook's treat that they yield. 

My recipe was adapted from Martha Stewart's recipe for "Marshmallow for Piping"

2.5t. gelatin*
1/3c. cool water
1c. sugar
1/4c. water
1 drop of vanilla, almond, or other extract (optional)

-Combine the gelatin and 1/3c. water in a large bowl to soften. (This bowl will later be used to whip air into the simple syrup, so it will need to be something that can either be used with a stand or handheld mixer.  I would not reccommend doing this by hand.)
-In a pot, combine the sugar and 1/4c. water and bring to 238f degrees over medium-high heat, monitoring with a candy thermometer.
-When the syrup has reached the soft ball stage (238f), pour, carefully, into the bowl with the softened gelatin and, once again, carefully, begin to whip air into the mixture.  Start slowly, just to incorporate everything and then you can graduate to high speed.  This will take about ten minutes to get the desired texture.
-Meanwhile, prepare a place to pipe them.  I like to use a parchment lined cookie sheet that has then been dusted with granulated sugar.
-To the marshmallow mixture, add the vanilla and stir to combine, if using.
-Spoon the mixture into a piping bag (you'll probably have to do this in two stages, as there is quite a bit of marshmallow here) and begin to pipe.  I have taken quite a bit of help from the Martha Stewart crew on this, using this method for forming my peeps.  Keep in mind that you will have just 10-15 minutes to pipe these, but don't let that stress you out.  You will sort of get a rhythm for it.  I also like to keep a small dish of water handy for dipping my finger tip in to smooth any errors and soften any points from the piping bag.
-Dust with sugar when you are finished piping, making sure to cover the entire surface so that they won't stick to each other.
-Store in an air tight container if not consuming immediately.


*Use flavoured gelatin, if you would like, but I normally just use the unflavoured variety so that I can control what they are dyed/flavoured with.

Yields: about 16-18 2in. diameter peeps

As you can see, I left my peeps quite plain, but that is just how I like them.  I don't bother with their faces or anything like that.  Occasionally, I will dust them with coloured sugar, but once again, I usually go the simple white granulated route.