Dusting powder

• Sieve the confectioner's sugar and cornstarch together until well combined. Set aside until needed.
  180 g cornstarch, 90 g confectioner’s sugar

Prepping the pan

• Line multiple half sheet pans with parchment paper or silpat and generously dust the surface with the dusting powder. Set aside until needed. (I use 3 half sheet pans per batch.)

Base marshmallow mix

Blooming the gelatin

• First weigh the empty mixer bowl and write it down. This is so you can calculate how to split the marshmallow mixture if you want to make multiple flavors with one batch.
• Place the water in the mixer bowl. Sprinkle the gelatin over the water and stir to saturate the gelatin in the water. Set it aside for at least 10 minutes while you get the syrup and the pan ready.
  120 mL water , 18 g gelatin powder

Making the sugar syrup

• Place the sugar and water in a pot. Add the corn syrup or honey (or other invert sugar substitute). Stir very gently until the sugar is moistened and mixed with the water.
  400 g white sugar, 120 mL water, 100 g corn syrup or honey
• Heat over medium / medium high heat until the sugar syrup starts to simmer. Gently swirl the pan to evenly distribute the heat, and to help dissolve the sugar.
• When the syrup comes to a boil, cover the saucepan with a lid and lower the heat to medium / medium low to simmer the syrup. Let the syrup simmer for about 2 minutes, without lifting the lid off the saucepan.
• After 2 minutes, remove the lid and check to make sure there are no sugar crystals on the sides of the saucepan. If there are crystals on the sides, then cover the saucepan for a further minute to allow the condensation to wash down the sugar crystals into the syrup.
• Clip the sugar thermometer to the side of the saucepan to monitor the temperature, or if you have an instant read thermometer, check the sugar syrup temperature every few minutes.
• Continue to cook the sugar syrup on medium / medium high heat until it reaches the correct temperature. Gently and frequently swirl the pan to ensure the syrup is cooking evenly.

Heating the syrup to the correct temperature

• The sugar syrup must be heated to between 240 - 245°F.
• For most climates, around 242 - 243°F works great.
• If you don't have a sugar thermometer, please check the sugar stage every 5 minutes with the cold water test until it reaches the firm-ball stage. (Please read the notes in my basic marshmallows post to learn how to do this.)
• When the sugar syrup reaches the correct temperature, remove it from the heat and let the bubbles subside for a few seconds.

Making the marshmallow mix

• Place the bowl with the bloomed gelatin in the mixer with a whisk attachment. Whisk the gelatin on medium speed for a few seconds to break it up. Add the salt to the gelatin as well.
  ⅛ tsp kosher salt / sea salt
• While the mixer is running on medium / medium low speed, carefully stream in the sugar syrup. Do not dump it all at once.
• Do not pour the syrup directly on the whisk to avoid splash back, and instead pour it along the wall of the bowl. Pour in all of the sugar syrup and the heat should dissolve all of the gelatin.
• Increase the speed gradually to high (9 or 10), and whisk the mixture for at least 5 - 6 minutes. The marshmallow base should increase about 3 times in size and become white, fluffy, and smooth. It should look like a very fine, glossy, thick meringue.
• Once the mixture has tripled in volume (minimum of 5 minutes of whisking), lower the whisking speed to medium and add the vanilla extract. After adding the vanilla, increase the speed again and whisk for a further 1 - 2 minutes until it's mixed through.
  2 tsp vanilla extract
• The total whisking time can be between 5 - 8 minutes.
• Since it’s easier to mix and scrape the marshmallow mixture into piping bags while it’s warm, stop whisking the marshmallow mix while the bowl is still warm to the touch.
• Making only one flavor - If you're only making vanilla mini marshmallows, scrape the mixture into piping bags and twist the open end to close. Set it aside.

Making multiple flavors

• Weigh the mixer bowl with the marshmallow mixture. Deduct the weight of the empty bowl to get the total weight of the marshmallow mixture. Then calculate how much each portion would weigh depending on how many flavors you want.

  I evenly split 1 batch into 3 portions here (for 3 flavors).
• Weigh out equal amounts of the marshmallow mixture into 3 bowls. Vanilla mixture can go straight into the piping bag.
• Add the strawberry extract and red food coloring into one portion and fold it in to evenly mix in the flavor and color.
  1 tsp strawberry extract, 2-3 drops red gel food coloring
• Add the lemon extract and yellow coloring into the second portion and fold it in to evenly mix in the flavor and color.
  1 tsp lemon extract, 2-3 drops egg yellow gel food coloring
• Put each flavor into piping bags and twist to close the bags (to keep air out).

Piping marshmallows

• In a separate piping bag, place the round pastry tip (about 1 cm opening). Cut the tip off of one of the marshmallow bags and place it inside the pastry bag with the piping tip.
• The marshmallow mixture should still be warm when you pipe it onto the dusting powder on the sheet pan. If the mixture cools down too much, it'll be hard to pipe the marshmallow smoothly.
• Hold the piping bag with the tip about 1 - 2 inches above the sheet pan. With consistent pressure, gently squeeze the marshmallow mixture out of the piping tip while moving along the length or width of the pan (either direction is fine) to allow the marshmallow tube to "lay down" on the dusting powder lined sheet pan. The pressure and how fast you need to move will vary depending on the thickness you want AND the consistency of the mixture.
• Snip the marshmallow tube with scissors when you reach the edge of the pan (or use the edge of the pan itself to cut the marshmallow tube). Pipe marshmallow tubes fairly close together, but making sure that they do not stick together. The further apart you pipe the marshmallow tubes, the more space you'll need (and more sheet pans).
• Dust the tops of the marshmallow tubes with the dusting powder and let it set for about 30 - 40 minutes.
• After 30 - 40 minutes, the marshmallows will still be sticky, but you should still be able to gently move the marshmallows around if you dust your fingers with dusting powder. Gently lift and roll the marshmallow ropes to coat all sides in the dusting powder.
• Cover the marshmallows with a lid or plastic wrap and let them set for about 4 - 5 hours or overnight at room temperature.

Cutting the marshmallows

• After the marshmallows have set, gently lift the marshmallow tubes off of the half sheet pans. Coat them in the dusting powder to make sure they don't stick together.
• Either cut the tubes with scissors into mini marshmallows, or use a knife / blade to cut multiple tubes at once. If the marshmallows ropes are too thick, cut them lengthwise first to make them smaller.
• Toss the cut marshmallows in the dusting powder and store in an airtight container with some extra dusting powder. You can keep the flavors separate, or mix them all together.