I received Thomas Keller’s gorgeous cookbook Bouchon for Christmas.  Flipping through its pages back in early January I came across a quirky little recipe for Easter egg marshmallows.  A little gimmicky, but also beautiful and fun and very Keller. (The ingredient list calls for silver leaf gelatin and a little citric acid to make your own colored and flavored sprinkles – you know, common pantry ingredients that you probably have in your pantry for just this occasion.)

Needless to say, I knew the little person in my house would love a marshmallow “egg-e” and I bookmarked the page to make them this spring. And last week I did.  I diligently ordered the leaf gelatin off Amazon, scratched making my own sprinkles as I figured the 2-year old critic wasn’t going to appreciate the effort, and the resulting egg-shaped marshmallows were as whimsical as I thought they would be.

I knew I had to share them with you, but asking you to buy leaf gelatin just days before Easter is unfair so I tested out my own marshmallow recipe to see if it too could deliver egg-shaped marshmallows with as much ease as Keller’s.  The answer is yes and with every ingredient available at your local grocery store it’s a great project to make between now and Easter.

My homemade marshmallow recipe yields a big batch and with this second round of testing our marshmallow egg levels were quickly reaching obscene levels. How many dozen marshmallow eggs does one house need? And so at the last minute I opted to dye about half the batch with food coloring and cut them up into squares for more manageable snacking.  As I poured the colored mallow into my prepared pan my inner domestic goddess exclaimed with glee as I realized that if I could make eggs then homemade Peeps were certainly in my future.

And that’s what you’ll find below.  Instructions for how to make marshmallow eggs using my original marshmallow recipe and then tips on how to make homemade peeps.  Happy cooking!

Marshmallow Eggs with Sprinkles

1 recipe for homemade marshmallows
about 1-2 dozen plastic eggs (amount will vary depending on size of egg)
Cooking spray
Piping bag with a large round tip
a clean egg holder (optional, but good for keeping decorated eggs in good condition)
Colored sprinkles

Wash the plastic Easter eggs with soap and water and dry completely.  Spray the insides of each egg with cooking spray and set on a paper towel to drain any excess oil.

Make a batch of homemade marshmallows according to the recipe. When marshmallow batter is still warm scrape it into a piping bag fitted with a large round tip.  Fill each side of the plastic Easter eggs with the marshmallow mixture and then carefully close the plastic Easter egg leaving the filling inside.  Don’t be alarmed if marshmallow oozes out the sides of the egg (or through the tiny holes at the top of some plastic eggs); you’ll clean this up later.  Continue piping eggs until all of your plastic eggs are filled.

Dampen a paper towel and wipe up the excess marshmallow from the plastic eggs.  Let the eggs sit undisturbed to set for at least 4 hours.

Pour the sprinkles into small bowls by color.   Carefully open the eggs and let the marshmallows come out.  Working with an egg at a time, roll it in the sprinkles and set upright in a clean egg holder.  Repeat until all of the eggs are covered with sprinkles.  Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and keep in a dry place for up to 4 days.

Marshmallow Peeps

1 recipe for homemade marshmallows
Food Coloring
Colored sprinkles (if desired)
Cooking spray (if using a mold)

There’s two ways to do this.  The simplest approach and the best one for young helpers is to do what I did and pour the marshmallow batter into a prepared pan as directed in the recipe. Be sure to let the marshmallows set for at least 4 hours and then run a knife around the edge of the pan and carefully turn the marshmallows out onto a work surface sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar.  From there, you or your helpers can use cookie cutters to cut out your desired marshmallow shapes. These can be dipped in a mixture of cornstarch-confectioners sugar (see the marshmallow recipe) or dipped in colored sprinkles; just make sure that all the sticky edges get covered.

If you choose this easy route a couple of tips:

• For thin marshmallows, choose a large pan.  Thick marshmallows, go small.
• If adding food coloring, stir it into the marshmallow mixture before you add the mixture to the pan.
• And yes, if making more than one color of marshmallow (simply divide the batter before adding food coloring) you can pour them all in the same pan.

For the more ambitious peep makers, buy peep-making supplies (yes, I too had no idea).  You’ll make the marshmallows just like the recipe states (dying them as needed), but spray the silicon mold with cooking spray before filling with marshmallow.  Let the marshmallows set in the molds for at least four hours then pop out and decorate as you wish.