Tag Archives: Marshmallow

Butterscotch, Peanut & Marshmallow Bars!

I’ve had my eye on this recipe for a while now and just needed an excuse to make it. And the excuse I found? It was Saturday! That’s good enough for me!

This is what you will need to make 12 large pieces. (You could easily make more by cutting smaller pieces, it’s quite rich!)

Original recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery iPhone App.

For The Base:

  • 150g Plain Flour
  • 40g Icing Sugar
  • 120g Unsalted Butter Room Temp!

For The Topping

  • 100g Marshmallows
  • 210g Golden Caster Sugar
  • 150g Soft Light Brown Sugar
  • 190g Golden Syrup
  • 70g Unsalted Butter Room Temp!
  • 60ml Double Cream Room Temp!
  • Vanilla Extract
  • 60g Crunch Peanut Butter
  • 30g Mixed Nuts, chopped

Preheat the oven to 190°C/Fan 170°C and line a 20cm x 30cm tray (or as close as) with baking paper.

Sift the flour and icing sugar into a bowl. Add the butter and rub with your fingers until a dough is formed. Press the dough into the lined tray – make sure to create a “lip” all the way around the edge to stop the filling from flowing over later.

Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes – until the biscuit is a light golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool a little.

Place the marshmallows evenly over the base. At this point, bear in mind where you want to slice as it is VERY difficult to slice through marshmallow.

In a large wide saucepan, place the golden caster sugar, the soft light brown sugar, the golden syrup & 240ml of water. Bring to the boil.

Allow it to boil until it gets to the “soft ball” stage or 116°C/240°F if you happen to have a thermometer. (The soft ball stage is when you drop some of the syrup into cold water it will form a soft ball when rolled between your fingers)

Use as wide a pan as you have. The wider the pan, the quicker the process. I actually started out with a relatively small pan but ended up transferring it to a larger one as it boils up so much! So save yourself the pot washing.

Patience is required in abundance here. It took me about 45 minutes to boil it up to the right temperature. It’s worth the wait though. (As stated before though, if you use a wider pan it should speed up the process.)

When it’s at the right temperature/soft ball stage, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the butter. Then bring it back up to the boil and simmer for about 3 minutes.

Then remove from the heat once again and carefully stir in the double cream. Take care here, this stuff is like molten lava and it WILL splatter!

Once the cream is incorporated, add the vanilla essence and peanut butter and stir until it has completely melted through.

Whilst the mixture is still really hot, pour it all over the biscuit base/marshmallows. Make sure to cover all the marshmallows.

Sprinkle over the chopped nuts and get ready for the hardest part. Wait for at least a couple of hours for it to set at room temperature before removing and slicing. It’s painful I know but it’ll be worth it.

When I started out this recipe, I wasn’t entirely sure how exactly it would work. It was quite fun to make though, and I rather enjoyed watching the marshmallows melt into gooey blobs!

All in all, it was a rather therapeutic item to create in my kitchen. However, it did remind me of a pudding that I have not had since I was a little girl. Butterscotch Tart. I have tried to get my hands on a recipe for quite some time now but to no avail.  It was my absolute favourite pud in school!

I think I’ll have another go at trying to find a recipe.

Well, until we meet again chums.

Miss KitchenMason

Chocolate & Marshmallow Cupcakes!

This weekend it was mine & the Mr’s 6th anniversary so I decided to pop the question…

“If you could have anything in or on a cupcake what would it be?” 

He responded speedily with “Marshmallows!”

I  recently bought a brilliant book called Cox Cookies & Cake. So I had a flick through and low & behold, Chocolate & Marshmallow Cupcakes! Who’d have thunk it??

The baking bug tightened it’s already firm grip on me and I got straight to my kitchen. This is what you will need to make 12-15 cupcakes:

For the Cake

  • 75g Dark Chocolate
  • 200g Unsalted Butter
  • 225g Caster Sugar
  • 3 Eggs
  • 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
  • 25g Cocoa Powder
  • 175g Plain Flour

For the Marshmallow Buttercream Frosting

  • 250g Unsalted Butter (Room Temp!)
  • 125g Marshmallow Fluff

To Decorate

  • Mini Marshmallows

Preheat your oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C and put paper cases in a cupcake tray.

In a large saucepan over a low heat melt the butter with the chocolate and leave to cool for a few minutes. Then add the caster sugar and mix well.

Next, add the eggs one by one and then sift in the flour, cocoa powder & baking powder. Mix until you have a smooth cake batter.

Split the mixture between the cupcake cases & bake in the centre of the oven for approx 20 minutes. Turn halfway to ensure an even bake. Use a skewer to test at about 15 minutes and then every 5 minutes after that. When the skewer comes out clean, they’re done.

The original recipe said it made 12 but I had enough batter for 15. Fill them to about three quarters full. Don’t over fill them.

When cooked, allow the cakes to sit in the tray for about 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the marshmallow buttercream frosting, simply beat the marshmallow Fluff with the softened butter in a bowl until smooth.

To decorate, you could just smooth the frosting on top with a pallet knife or you could pipe it on like I did. Whatever takes your fancy.  Top with mini marshmallows for that extra little touch.

These little beauts are so yummy. They have a deep, rich chocolatey flavour to contrast the sweet marshmallow frosting. Delish! And they got the seal of approval from the Mr too, can’t be bad!

On another note, because the Mr is so totally marvellous, he took me out to dinner at a local restaurant called The White House.

It has always been so highly recommended and I have always wanted to go there and see for myself.

For the starter I had Ham Hock ,Chorizio and Chicken Terrine with a Cherry Tomato and Shallot Dressing. It tasted as good as it looked.

For the main I had Chicken Supreme and Stuffed Roasted Leg with a Red Wine Sauce. This was hands down the tastiest chicken dish I have ever had at a restaurant. The sweetness from the tomatoes went beautifully with the creamy potatoes underneath. The chicken was so juicy & tender with a stuffing that was packed with bags of flavour. Finger licking good. Lots of yummy noises made.

For dessert I had a Chocolate Brownie with a Pistachio Crust & Home Made Ice Cream. I don’t really need to say anything about it. It’s chocolate and it’s me. We go together like Romeo & Juliet. Yum.

All in all it was a very tasty meal in a pleasant atmosphere. A lovely way to spend our 6th anniversary.

Hope you enjoyed this weeks post my lovelies. If you like what you see, enter your e-mail in the “Sign up for yummy updates” box at the top of the page to subscribe. That way you’ll never miss another scrumptious post : D

Until next time.

KitchenMason