Homemade Peeps! - 5 Easter Candies in 5 Days

by Monika Bartyzel, Posted Apr 7th 2009 @ 2:00PM

Not all candy-making is a science involving a delicate dance of temperature and time. One Easter candy, in fact, can be quite fun -- fun to make, fun to eat, and fun to play with. You know what I'm talking about -- the cute, adorable, and delicious Peeps.

While many candies have devoted fans, nothing seems to inspire the fun and frivolity of the Peep. These little marshmallow suckers inspire an insane following. The blog Unlikely Words found just about every Peeps-themed site of note on the Internet -- pickled Peeps, Presidential Peeps and even anti-Peeps. Even better is the annual contest held by The Washington Post in which people diorama the heck out of their Peeps. We're talking everything from excellent movie recreations like The Wizard of Oz and Ghostbusters to an awesome plumber Peep.

They're almost too good to recreate yourself ... almost! You can still go out and buy your beloved chicks and bunnies, but why not whip up some pals for them as well?

There are two steps to a proper Peeps homage.

The first, creating the marshmallow, is quite simple (so simple, in fact, that you may never buy store-bought marshmallow again). But then comes the second, tricky step of forming that white, sticky mass into shapes. Luckily, there are so many ways to form them that at least one should work for you. I used the Homemade Marshmallow Peeps recipe from From What's Cooking America. Like many candies, marshmallow is cooked sugar that is boiled, then cooled. Rather than simply mixing sugar, water, and corn syrup, marshmallow needs the perk of gelatin and a lot of mixing to make it into white, tasty fluffiness. Some recipes, like Martha Stewart's, simply require sugar, water, and gelatin but recipes like the one above kick it up a notch because they add extract and an added punch of flavor.

Many recipes that ask for extract will list vanilla, but here's the big secret to making delicious and unique marshmallow treats: Use caramel extract. It'll make the marshmallow taste all the better without radically altering its flavor and could create some marshmallow converts. If caramel is not your idea of extreme yumminess, go wild with any extract. With the marshmallow whipped and ready, there is one last choice to make:

First: How do you want to coat them? Classic Peeps use colored Sanding Sugar (as seen here), which lends a shimmering brightness. One could also use Dusting Sugar (as seen here), which will give you a matte appearance.

Second: How do you want to shape them? For one, you could pour the marshmallow into a pan, let it cool a little, and cut it like the What's Cooking recipe suggests, or you can take the Martha Stewart approach and pipe it. The first approach is much simpler since it solely requires procuring some cookie cutters, cutting the shapes and tossing on sugar. The latter (while being lots of fun) is much trickier. That devilish Martha might make it seem like a breeze, but we are talking about carefully piping shapes with a ridiculously sticky substance. Those who loathe the task of piping frosting, steer clear of this technique, which is much trickier.

Got time to spare? Give each technique a go. Experimenting is the fun of homemade Peeps, and a few batches will let you test out different flavors, sugars, and looks to get the Peeps you desire. Peruse the gallery for the many ways you can shape your marshmallow treats, and happy Peeping!

Homemade Peeps(click thumbnails to view gallery)

Filed Under: Ingredients, Holidays, How To
Tags: 5 Easter Candies in 5 Days, 5EasterCandiesIn5Days, candy, easter, homemade marshmallow, homemade Peeps, HomemadeMarshmallow, HomemadePeeps, marshmallow, marshmallow treats, MarshmallowTreats, Peeps

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

4-07-2009 @2:45PM rainey Smith said... I did Martha's piped bunnies and chicks several years ago. They are not at all difficult to shape.

Love the idea of adding syrup flavor to the base.

And, if you're thinking of going the cookie cutter route and you want really high quality marshmallow, Nina Wanat is selling her BonBon marshamallow in slabs for Easter. Hint: DO NOT MISS the passionfruit marshamallow. It's stoopendous!!
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4-07-2009 @2:47PM rainey Smith said... Oops! Forgot the link to her marshmallow: http://bonbonbar.foodzie.com/products/677-Marshmallow-Slab-for-Chickies-
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4-07-2009 @3:31PM Monika said... Rainey -- Then please share how you got them to form properly! I'm not a bad frosting piper, but I was lucky to get a few chicks out of a ton of tries of both shapes. Did you use a lot of wet finger help to get it to release and not hang stubbornly from the tip? Jedi mind tricks?
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4-08-2009 @6:27PM rainey Smith said... Sounds like a consistency problem. Was yours a little too wet and stretchy?

Yes, I used the wet fingertip to smooth off the face and the tails of the rabbits but pointy works for the face and the back end of a chick and also for the ears of the rabbits.

It also looks like you tried to make yours as big as Peeps. Mine were much smaller -- the whole animal was a single bite.

I also piped them directly onto the plate of colored sugar so I could give them a little sugar "shower" and there was very little actual handling of the marshmallow.
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