Hello everyone, and Happy Easter! I’ve already done a number of Easter-themed recipes including my White Chocolate Mousse-Filled Chocolate Easter Eggs, and Easter Mini Egg Coconut Cupcakes, and this time I’ve decided to take a classic Easter treat and recreate it to my liking. I’m taking Peeps — a popular Marshmallow treat in the shape of ducklings or bunnies in a row, that comes in many colours such as bright yellow and pink. I wanted to make a homemade version that could be easily recreated and made with love.
The first thing I decided was that I didn’t want my Peeps to come in flourescent yellow. I wanted it to be more of a pastel soft yellow, so I dyed my own sugar by taking a bowl of sugar and adding a little bit of food colouring.
I then swapped out a portion of the sugar in the actual marshmallow recipe for honey since I had just bought a jar from a bee farmer at the One of a Kind Show here in Toronto — I can’t stop adding honey to everything and anything! I added Mexican vanilla extract to my marshmallows as well, but I would highly recommend using vanilla bean paste or vanilla bean seeds if you can get your hands on it. You’ll get such an amazing vanilla flavour! I happen to have a huge jug of Mexican vanilla extract, so I decided to use that instead. I’m definitely not complaining, I love this stuff way too much.
These marshmallows set fast despite the long curing time, so the piping is the most challenging part. It may get a little messy but it’s definitely a fun challenge. Feel free to watch the full video tutorial below!
Homemade Peeps (Honey Vanilla Marshmallow Recipe
Ingredients
200g (1 cup) granulated sugar
5 drops yellow food colouring (if making coloured sugar)
7g (1 pack) of unflavoured gelatin
50g (1/5 cup) cold water
100g (1/2 cup) sugar
110g (1/3 cup) pure honey
50g (1/5 cup) cold water
Pinch of salt
5g 1 tsp vanilla extract or 3g (1/2 tsp) vanilla bean paste
Method
- If colouring your own sugar, place sugar in a small bowl, and drop in food colouring, then cut through using a fork or whisk to distribute the colour. Sift to isolate the large chunks of food colouring and break them down. Pour the sugar onto a cookie tray in an even layer, this is where you will pipe the peeps onto afterwards.
- In the bottom of a stand mixer bowl pour in the first portion of cold water. Sprinkle the unflavoured gelatin over the water and set aside to bloom/absorb the water.
- In a small saucepan combine in the sugar, honey, water and salt being careful not to splash sugar onto the sides of the pan.
- Place the the bowl with the gelatin into the stand mixer with a whisk attachment and stir on low speed to mix the gelatin.
- Bring to a boil on high heat without stirring the sugar syrup mixture. Once the mixture reaches 117C/243F, take off heat and slowly pour into the side of the stand mixer bowl while it is mixing on low speed.
- Once all the sugar is in, turn the speed up to high and let it whip for 10-14 min or until stiff peaks and fully cooled. Be sure to add in vanilla extract within the last few minutes of mixing.
- Working quickly, scoop the marshmallow mixture into a piping bag with a large plain tip fitted.
- Pipe two mounds, the larger one on the bottom for the body of the peep, then a smaller mound on the top edge of the mound for the head of the peep. Make sure to pull away at opposite ends in order to create a peep tail and beak. Pipe them in rows and work quickly as it will become harder to pipe as the marshmallow sets. Sprinkle the ducklings with more coloured sugar.
- Let the marshmallows cure/set up for 4 hours or overnight, then enjoy!! Feel free to watch the video tutorial below to see more details.
ally bakes 