Recipe: Earl grey and salted caramel marshmallows

Salted caramel and earl grey marshmallow. Photo / Michael Craig

Marshmallow
• 17g gelatine
• 125ml boiling water
• 80ml water
• 2 x Earl Grey teabags
• 250g sugar
• 50g liquid honey
• 4 egg whites
• Pinch salt
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 1 C cornflour
• 1 C Icing sugar

Salted Caramel
• ½ C sugar
• 1/8 C water
• ½ tsp lemon juice
• 1/3 C cream
• ½ tsp sea salt

1. Place boiling water (125ml) and teabag in a small bowl and let the tea steep for 5 minutes. Remove teabag and transfer water to fridge to cool.

2. While this is cooling, make caramel. Place sugar, water (80ml) and lemon juice in a saucepan and place over a medium heat. Let the sugar mix come to the boil.

You will need to watch this closely as you are caramelising sugar and it burns easily. Continue to boil sugar mixture until you have reached a golden caramel colour, remove from the heat and slowly add the cream, whisking all the time. Be careful when adding the cream as the mix will bubble up, continue to whisk over low heat until you have a nice smooth sauce. Add the salt and mix in. Set caramel sauce aside to cool.

3. Once tea mix has cooled, sprinkle the gelatine over the top and set aside.

4. In a small saucepan with a candy thermometer (any thermometer that can read up to 150C will be fine) mix sugar (for marshmallow), honey and water. Place over a medium-high heat and allow to come to the boil.

5. Meanwhile, add egg white to the bowl of a standing mixer. Using a whisk attachment, whisk until frothy, add salt and mix again to combine.

6. When the sugar syrup reaches 118-120C remove immediately from heat. Turn the mixer on to a medium-low speed and slowly pour the sugar syrup into the egg white.

7. Scrape the gelatine mix into the saucepan you have just used for the syrup, mix to dissolve the gelatine in the residual heat and add vanilla essence. Pour this mix into the egg white mix slowly.

8. Whisk on medium high speed for 5-8 minutes, or until the side of the bowl feels room temperature.

9. Meanwhile prepare pan - roughly 30cm x 20cm is good, with a height of at least 5cm. Line with cling film and spray lightly with cooking spray.

10. Once marshmallow is ready, pour half of the mix into the prepared pan and smooth out to an even layer, using a spatula. Pour over a layer of the caramel sauce - a thin layer drizzled over makes cutting and eating easier. Pour over the remainder of the marshmallow mix and smooth over. Leave in the fridge for at least four hours to set.

11. Once set, combine cornflour and icing sugar and place in a bowl or directly on the bench. Using a hot knife, cut your marshmallow to the size you want, and roll this in the corn flour/icing sugar mix.