I don’t know about you, but I am SICK of snow days. I love my kids, but there is such a thing as too much togetherness.
The other night, they were outside for approximately four minutes before coming in because they were “frozen”, demanding hot chocolate. I gladly made it for them, but I had committed a major faux pas in the eyes of my eight year old. I didn’t have enough marshmallows.
I am always desperate for something that will keep the three boys from wrestling or annoying each other to death, or worse still, from whining about the wrestling and annoying. I decided we could make marshmallows at home together. I took care of the dangerous parts and let them man the mixer and spread out the marshmallows once it was done. This could potentially provide me with 15 minutes of near silence. 🙂
Yes, it’s probably more expensive to make these on your own, but it will provide you with an activity for your kids. You’ll need a candy thermometer, light corn syrup and gelatin. Those are the only things that I can think of that you wouldn’t readily have available. You will need a mixer, it would take WAY too long to mix this by hand with a whisk.
So here goes…
3 sheets of plain gelatin (we used Knox)
1/2 cup of ICE cold water, shouldn’t be hard in this arctic climate.
1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar
1 cup of light corn syrup
pinch of salt
1/2 cup of water
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 cup of confectioners (10x) sugar
Place ice cold water in the bowl of your mixer with the three sheets of gelatin. In the meantime, heat the sugar, corn syrup, water, and salt in a saucepan. Clip the candy thermometer to the side and cook until the temperature reads 240 degrees. This took the longest and I did it without the assistance of any minor child.
Once the syrup reaches 240 degrees, slowly pour the syrup over the gelatin. Increase the speed of the mixer until the syrup/ gelatin mixture is three times larger than what you started with. Add the vanilla at the last minute. I had the kids watch the mixture and touch the side of the bowl to tell me when it was lukewarm. This sucked up about 15 more minutes of their time. The marshmallow is super thick and really messy at this point.
Now for the fun part!! I had the kids dust a baking dish with half of the confectioner’s sugar. I sprayed their impeccably clean hands with cooking spray (Pam or something like that) and had them smooth the marshmallows onto the pan. It’s really messy and kids love that so this will buy you about ten more minutes of peace.
We made the hot chocolate, sliced the marshmallows and they went to town. My eight year old was happy, I got half an hour of peace, and redeemed myself to my son. They all had a lot of fun! By the way, when you cut the marshmallows, spray or oil a pizza cutter or bench scraper. This will make it a lot less sticky. I hope you enjoy this one! I know we did!!
theformerlydestitutediva 
Stopping by from the SITS Challenge! First off {hugs} to you for all the snow days.
I have always wanted to try to make my own marshmallows but I can’t get past the clean-up part.
The clean up wasn’t as bad as it could have been! Sugar dissolves in warm water. You should try it!!
What a fun idea to make your own marshmallows, I would’ve never thought to try this. Since I don’t have any little ones yet, I can try this with my niece. Thanks for sharing.
Here for the SITS comment love challenge! I made marshmallows once (on my own) and they really do taste amazing. Might have to try that again with the Crazies!!
Dropping by from SITS! We don’t have snow but this looks like a fun activity! Not to mention sounds very yummy!
Here for the SITS comment love challenge! I love making things like this. I don’t have kids yet, but what an awesome way to get them involved. 🙂
Stopping in from the SITS comment tribe.
First of all, your graphic made me LOL! And two, I can so relate. Unfortunately, I only have teenagers, so your ideas wouldn’t help. I am going to show my SIL because she loves things that could keep students busy. We are going to get slammed on Thursday by another storm, maybe I will use this for myself!
We have winter weather moving in tomorrow so this definitely looks like a fun project to do with my daughter to enjoy with our hot chocolate!
Stopping from the SITS challenge!
How cool! I love marshmallows but I’ve never made them before. I bet it would be fun to make holiday or themed ones with like food coloring or cookie cutters! 🙂
This is a great idea! Perfect timing too…if the weather patterns hold we will probably be out Wednesday for snow. Stopping by from the SITS tribe. Have a great day!
How fun, that is awesome!! I want to try making our own marshmallows someday…if we can ever get around to it, lol I feel you, though – I live near Buffalo and this winter has been so crazy. It’s so cold that the kids can’t even really go outside and enjoy all of the snow! Who would have thought we’d be wishing for it to “warm up” to 20 degrees? lol
I just spoke to a woman in Chicago. It’s going to be 40 degrees there this weekend. I told her she should break out the flip flops!!
I don’t need much reason for a pedicure, if 40 degrees is all I got, I’m going for it!!
I am totally cracking up at this, because you could have been writing about my house! I have 3 boys too, and we too have had a crapload of snow days lately — including 2 last week when my husband was out of town! Fun! 🙂 Love your blog, and I’m a new follower from SITS.
Spreading some comment love! 🙂 I may not have kids, but I totally hear you in going back to school….is winter over yet?! Such a great recipe!
Oh Wow!! That looks even better than marshmallows! And potentially SUPER messy 🙂 So, what you’re telling me is that even when my two boys are a few years older they’re going to wrestle and fight and whine just as much as they do now…? Oy
#sitsblogging
I think the whining and wrestling gets worse. It wasn’t too messy. I sprayed them real good with Pam and we didn’t scrape the mixer. Scraping is what makes the mess.
It’s an easy clean up though. Warm water dissolves sugar. It was a lot of fun and easy!!
Izzi, this is such a fun activity for the family. I’ve made marshmallows once and loved them. Thanks for the reminder to get back into the kitchen and whip up another batch. Glad you got a few minutes of quiet too. There’s not enough of that in most moms’ days! Visiting today from Sits Girls.
Homemade marshmallows sounds like a great snow day project! They look absolutely delicious. I always thought homemade marshmallows were too complicated to try but your directions give me hope to try this myself!
So super easy!! And not as messy as I thought! Give it a try. I know my area is getting snow again Wednesday and Thursday.
Hi, dropping by from SITS! These snow days have been out of control, right?? The children won’t learn a thing this year! Marshmallows look like a fun project. I feel silly for not knowing the ingredients…I’m so used to eating them out of the bag!
Haha. It was super fun! Try it! Thanks for stopping by!
Hi there! Stopping by from SITS and this brought back so many memories of snow days when I was a kid! Of course I never thought about how much of a pain my brother and I must have been for my mom 🙂
The kids aren’t a pain until the fifth snow day. I’m sure you were fine and your parents have fully recovered! Haha. Thanks for stopping by!
Not to make you give me the bird or anything but it’s 70 plus in Phoenix BUT you won’t be jealous when I start crying and whining over the summer. Sorry.. I had to.
I can totally remember snow days from when I was a kid. I loved them (obviously!) but I feel for my mom trying to be creative to deal with a bunch of kids cooped up and needing an outlet and creative ideas. This looks amazing, by the way! I want to try it some day! Way to go, good mama!
#SITSBlogging
Thanks! I’m just glad someone gets to be in 70 degree weather.
I’m moving the kids into our igloo next week!!
Coming by from the SITS challenge! This looks like something we could do, especially since it’s actually winter here in Texas and it looks like school is closed again! Thanks for sharing!
I miss snow days as I am from the Midwest but now live in California where we never have them. The hot chocolate sound delicious:)
I have had this on my bucket list for this LOOONNNGGG winter! My kids love marshmallows and we love to cook so I have to do this! Great idea on spraying your pizza cutter! I literally laughed out loud at the cartoon! HILARIOUS! Thanks for sharing! #SITSblogging
I’ve never made marshmallows, but now, I am truly inspired!!! Thanks for the great idea!
Looks like fun! I’ve made peppermint marshmallows before and remember them being pretty messy…perfect for little boys!
stopping by from SITS. I live in AR and we’ve been slammed with winter weather too! These are great ideas. love the cartoon too!
How awesome is this! Never knew how to make marshmallows! Thanks for the recipe.
Stopping by from the SITS Challenge!
xo
Janelle
Not a fan of marshmallows but my kids are, this is a great idea. #sitsbloggin
Looks like fun! Remember, every time you have a snow day, think of the teachers who have 120X the kids anticipating a day off. 🙂
I’ve been wanting to make marshmallows for a while now – and I found a recipe without the corn syrup (not a fan!) – they looks so beautiful and what fun for the kids!! We’re definitely feeling the cold/being stuck in the house. Again today, its -1F here in Ottawa, Canada and it’s just. too. cold. to go play at the park!! Visiting from our sists facebook thread this morning!
That looks super yummy!
Oh my yummy. Just checked my cupboards and we are sadly out of gelatin. I think I’m going to add it to our shopping list, because now I really want homemade marshmallows with homemade hot chocolate, and it’s not even that cold here! (Stopping by from the SITS group, and I can’t wait read more of your posts!)
What a fun snow day project!
Never tried making marshmallows – looks fun but also you are making memories with the kids. They will be praying for more snow days! (We rarely have them here in N Ireland – rarely enough snow)
Stopping by from SITS
Last week was quiet for us in Northern MI but the two weeks before..Crazy! I think we have 4 days straight without school. If I would have know that, I could have booked a trip to florida! 😉 Found you via SitsGirls and following you now from http://www.dancimoma.com , we are both on wordpress so its easy peasy. 😉 Love your blog!