Suvudu Universe

Welcome back to Courtney Cooks Star Wars, your blog for Star Wars recipe geekery.

‘Tis the holiday season now, so it’s time for sweets! This entry’s recipe will be great for holiday gifts for family, friends, and even co-workers. And it works well with Luke Skywalker’s favorite drink, hot chocolate. Sticky sweetmallow squares were a dessert popular with children from the 2009 Star Wars Hyperspace exclusive article, Dining at Dex’s, by Gregory Walker. Dex served two different types of sweetmallow squares, one for the kids with ‘charmed quark frosting’, and another grown-up version (no description mentioned for those, but I imagine they had some alcohol in them). The recipe I’ve come up with will be the children’s version, as we don’t want to be giving boozy marshmallows as holiday gifts! Or, maybe you do…after all, how fun would tipsy co-workers be? This is a good starter recipe for those wanting to experiment in candy making; lots of steps, but relatively easy.

Sticky Sweetmallow Squares

1/3 cup powdered sugar

½ cup cold water

2 ½ TBS unflavored gelatin

1 ½ cups white sugar

1 cup corn syrup

½ tsp salt

½ cup room temperature water

½ tsp pure peppermint extract

8-10 drops of red food coloring

Candy Thermometer

1. Grease the bottom and sides of a 2 quart glass baking dish with butter. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar in the dish and shake it around to coat the bottom and sides. Next, in the bowl of a stand mixer, pour in the ½ cup cold water and sprinkle the gelatin over the top. Set this bowl aside; gelatin will soften during this step.

2. In a large saucepan, combine the sugar, corn syrup, salt, and ½ cup water over low heat. Stir constantly until sugar is dissolved. (DO NOT walk away from the pan, keep stirring!) Heat this to boiling (you may need to increase the heat to medium). Once boiling, leave it alone (no stirring) for about 30 minutes – this will be 240 degrees on a candy thermometer. You’ll know it’s done when a small amount of the mixture forms a ball when dropped into a cup of very cold water. Remove from heat.

3. Slowly pour the syrup mixture into the gelatin while beating on low speed. Then increase to high speed for about 8-10 minutes. Mixture should triple in volume and be white. Add in the peppermint extract and beat another minute. Pour into the baking dish. Pat it down with wet hands. Drop the food coloring on top of the mixture in random dots. Pull a knife through the food coloring dots to create swirls. Let stand uncovered at minimum 8 hours (overnight is best).

Once the mixture has set, dust a cutting board with powdered sugar. Turn the mixture out onto the cutting board. You can loosen the sides of the marshmallow with a knife. To cut, grease a sharp knife with butter and cut into squares. Dust the cut marshmallows with powdered sugar. Package them in plastic bags with ribbon – and you’ve got a homemade holiday gift!