Well, I've been home sick, 4 days and decided that I should try to make marshmallows seeing as I had so much time on my hands.
I found a nice recipe
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/marshmallow
Seemed to be a hell lot of sugar in there. Must be a way to get less sugar in there?
I looked some more, I found Heidi, a glutten free mom. Just like me!
http://www.adventuresofaglutenfreemom.com/2010/12/homemade-marshmallows-corn-free-and-egg-free/
Sadly she made her own syrup, which would probably better than the chemical glucose fuctose high corn syrup that they add to everything. I realised it seemed literally impossible to make marshmallows without a ridiculous amount of sugar. I don't want that much sugar rolling around in my system to be honest so I figured there must be something else I can have instead.
I knew from wandering into Jewish shops there was there was a kind of sweet made with pistachios and tahini. A bit of googling taught me this was called Havla.
See the entry from wikipedia
Halva
Halva
Balkan style tahini-based halva with pistachios
Balkan style tahini-based halva with pistachios
Origin
Alternative name(s)
halawa, xalwo, haleweh, ħelwa, halvah, halava, helava, helva, halwa, halua, aluva, chalva, chałwa
Details
Type
Confectionery
Main ingredient(s)
Flour base: grain flour
Nut base: nut butter and sugar
Halva (or halawa, xalwo, haleweh, ħelwa, halvah, halava, helava, helva, halwa, halua, aluva, chalva, chałwa) refers to many types of dense, sweet confections, served across the Middle East, South Asia, Central Asia, West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Malta and the Jewish world.
The term halva (Arabic: حلوى / ALA-LC: ḥalwà), meaning "sweet", is used to describe two types of desserts:
• Flour-based – This type of halva is slightly gelatinous and made from grain flour, typically semolina. The primary ingredients are clarified butter, flour, and sugar.
• Nut-butter-based – This type of halva is crumbly and usually made from tahini (sesame paste) or other nut butters, such as sunflower seed butter. The primary ingredients are nut butter and sugar.
Halva may also be based on numerous other ingredients, including sunflower seeds, various nuts, beans, lentils, and vegetables such as carrots, pumpkins, yams, and squashes.
And here is a recipe of how to make this dessert
http://homemade-recipes.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/sesame-or-tahini-halva-recipe-how-to.html
Havla comes up as a confectionary along with along list of other things you can make by adding something to boiled sugar
* Hard sweets. Based on sugars cooked to the hard-crack stage: adding colouring and flavouring.Examples include suckers (known as boiled sweets in British English), lollipops, jawbreakers (or gobstoppers), lemon drops, peppermint drops and disks, candy canes, rock candy, etc. These also include types often mixed with nuts such as brittle.
* Fondant.
* Taffy. These are related to hard candy that is folded many times above 50 °C. Toffee, in British English, can also refer to a harder substance also made from cooked sugars which resembles toffee.
* Fudge: A confection of milk and sugar boiled to the soft-ball stage.
* Caramels. These are derived from mixtures of sucrose, glucose syrup, and milk products.
* Tablet. A crumbly milk-based soft and hard candy, based on sugars cooked to the soft-ball stage. Comes in several forms, such as wafers and heart shapes
* Liquorice: Containing extract of the liquorice root. Chewier and more resilient than gum/gelatin candies.
* Chocolates are bite-sized confectioneries generally made with chocolate.
* Jelly candies: Including those based on sugar and starch, pectin, gum, or gelatin such as Lokum / Turkish Delight, jelly beans, gumdrops, jujubes, cola bottles gummies, etc.
* Marshmallow: "Peeps" (a trade name), circus peanuts, fluffy puff, etc.
* Marzipan: An almond-based confection, doughy in consistency, served in several different ways. It is often formed into shapes mimicking (for example) fruits or animals.
* Divinity: A nougat-like confectionery based on egg whites with chopped nuts.
* Dodol: A toffee-like food delicacy popular in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines
* Mithai: A generic term for confectionery in India, typically made from dairy products and/or some form of flour. Sugar or molases are used as sweeteners.
* Pastry: A baked confection whose dough is rich in butter, which was dispersed through the pastry prior to baking, resulting in a light, flaky texture; this dough might be used in pies and tarts.
* Chewing gum: Uniquely made to be chewed, not swallowed. However, some people believe that at least some types of chewing gum, such as certain bubble gums, are indeed candy.
* Ice cream: Frozen flavoured cream, often containing small pieces of chocolate, fruits and/or nuts.
* Halvah: Confectionery based on tahini, a paste made from ground sesame seeds.
* Alfajor: a traditional South American cookie typically consisting of two round sweet biscuits joined together with a sweet jam, generally dulce de leche (milk jam), and sometimes covered in chocolate.
* Dragée - Coated almonds and other types of coated candy.
Such a huge list. Covers almost everything. It also includes chocloate which means I now know how to make my own chocolate. I think boiling some kind of sugar syrrup and adding chocolate powder. However, I knew from my early rummaging around on the internet that, if I did that it would make a fudge. See this recipe from joy of baking
http://www.joyofbaking.com/chocolatefudge.html
So what was the missing ingredient? What did I need to add or leave out? So went back to the drawing board and looked for a recipe for making chocolate from scratch.
I found this convient recipe on instructables
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-Chocolate-From-Scratch/
However, I am just not in possession of that much time and and specialist euiptment. It was really good to know, if I ever again get several weeks spare, I may try. However, in the comments daintytweety asked exactly the question I would have asked if I joined the site and if the original poster was still bothered to answer something on such an old post.
So looking at the comments you need a fat stays solid at room temperature like butter or cocoa butter. The original poster Mongpoovian suggests a "dark" chocolate recipe 60% cocoa powder, 20% cocoa butter, 20% sugar. He says you can use pure cocoa butter from the chemist but I don't think ai will do that actually. Too expensive! Only a chocolatier would come out with something like that ! He also suggests coconut oil, which is way cheaper and I think that is something I'd try. Another commenter PearlZenith suggest making milk chocolate by adding milk powder. No good for a lactose intolerant girl like me. Even though I eat milk chocolte more than I should, I only do it cos of the convience and lack of options. I certainly wouldn't go through all the trouble of making something from scratch if its bad for me.
So here's a nice recipe from dhruv about making chocolate from cocoa powder
http://dhruvbird.blogspot.co.uk/2008/08/how-to-make-chocolate-from-cocoa-powder.html
Anyway, back to my deductions. Look at this recipe for jam from the BBC food website
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/simple_blackcurrant_jam_77904
Seems to be boiling sugar and adding fruit. So whether they wanna admit it or not Jam must be a confectionary.
None of this though solves my problem of wanting marshamallows with less sugar. So back to the drawing board. I remember eating in Yo!Sushi my freind was eating some desert, probably made from rice, which I couldn' t have but perhaps I could learn something from the process. These little buns are called Mochi. Just like Moshi Monsters but probably the copyright was too expensive
http://japanesefood.about.com/cs/video/g/g_mochi.htm
and the very similar Dodol from Malaysia
http://1asiafoodguide.com/asian-recipe/malaysian-dodol-food-recipe.html
I just needed a recipe without rice. I turned back to my Arab world neighbours, who despite their questionable views on womens rights seemed to have got it just right with a glutten free food. I looked longingly at Havla recipes wondering if I could force myself to stomach the excesssively sweetened crumly stuff I found in Shepherds Bush. It was gluten free, lactose free, it was already prepared, rich in calcium and I could carry it round in my bag for emergencies. No, just too much sugar. I wondered what Turkish Delights were made of. Locating another recipe was in order
http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/details/Food/lokum_recipe.html
Turns out the secret ingredient is starch. Starch, something you can use as a gel for your hair, or to make you look really odd in your clothes. An alternative for starch is of course gelatine which if you mix with boiling syrup, you get Marshmallows. Mix it with water, you get wobbly jelly!
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/grandmas_sunshine_salad/
Which melts to water when you leave it out the fridge for too long. Perhaps I was being too ambitious. Why was I doing this again? Oh yes, I wanted marshmallows, with less sugar.
Ok, what if I went back one step to Mochis? The way they described pounding the rice sounded a lot like fufu.
http://www.congocookbook.com/staple_dish_recipes/fufu.html
or the easier version
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/food/fufu.html
The easy version still needed two people though. Perhaps it could be made in the microwave instead?
I found a whole whost of microwave confectionary
Jam in a microwave
http://kajaldreams.blogspot.co.uk/2007/08/apple-jam.html
Microwave Havla(with nuts and setting in a bwl, it woul work better)
http://www.ruthsrealfood.com/2011/10/30-second-halva-dessert.html
Microwave pavola, (marshmallowy, no gelatine but 3/4 cup sugar)http://cathysfoodadventures.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/microwave-pavlova.html
BUSTAMANTE BACKBONE ( by smilingeyes55 fromToronto)
Ingredients:
1 cup grated coconut (squeeze once to drain)
2 cups very dark brown sugar
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon fresh ginger grated fine
1 tablespoon lime juice or cream of tartar powder
Method:
Mix the sugar and water, add ginger, and lime juice. Boil until
when dropped in water it forms a ball. about 1/2 hr. add the
coconut stir well. pour in a buttered cookie sheet, slice with
a knife when cooled a little or with a pair of scissors.
Besan Ladoo( sounds weird but is gluten free, so I'll eat it)
http://bhaatukli.blogspot.co.uk/2007/08/microwave-besan-ladoo.html
All of these thrilling and inspiring but the amount of sugar used shows me that its just a variation of boiling sugar and adding stuff. So I suppose, what I need to ask myself is, can you make fufu in the microwave?
The people at Ghana to Ghana think you can.
http://www.ghanatoghana.com/Ghanahomepage/fufu-fufu-flour-ghanaian
At this point I started to wonder if my craving for sugar free marshmallows had sprung from a unfulfilled desire for some fufu? If it was I felt I had somehow managed to find the easiest way to prepare it. One person and no excessive stirring.
Surely, if I had the flour and mixed it into a small ball with some nutmeg and ginger, I would get this treat. All I need now is the flour, which I can't get cos I'm too sick to go out. Sigh...
