Pillowy Perfection: DIY Cannabis Infused Marshmallows

Margaret 00:00:04 Welcome back, friends to episode 297 and today we are doing soft, pillowy sweet marshmallows. Welcome to Bite Me, the show about edibles where I help you take control of your high life. I'm your host and Certified Ganjier Margaret and I love helping cooks make safe and effective edibles at home. I'm so glad you're here. Hello, friends. I'm Margaret, your host. Today in a warm welcome to everybody who's tuning in to the podcast that explores the intersection of food, culture and cannabis, where I help home cooks make fabulous edibles in their own home kitchens. I am so glad you're with me today, and I would love to know where are you listening from? What are you making lately? Shoot me a fan mail and I'll share it in an episode. It'd be really nice if somebody would send one, because I don't want to say this every week. And not everybody. Anybody sent one, but I would love to know where you're listening from. In any case, we are here to talk about marshmallows.

Margaret 00:01:12 And of course, these marshmallows are with a twist. Now, why marshmallows, you might ask? Well, first of all, I've never made marshmallows. They are something. There was a cannabis confectionery business out of California a long time ago. Probably thinking about it when I first started this show. And their specialty was doing all kinds of different types of infused marshmallows, because obviously, like anything, the marshmallow itself is a wonderful base for which you can do other things with it. And that can include different flavors, toppings, you know, incorporating into other things. I wish I could remember the name of it, because it was from that point that I wanted to try making marshmallows, and I've never really gotten around to it, obviously, until I interviewed Vanessa and had the chance to read how to eat weed and have a good time. And that's where this recipe comes from. And the reason I chose this one, besides the fact that I've never made marshmallows and I do happen to love a good s'more, but they use the tincture that I talked about in last week's episode.

Margaret 00:02:16 So if you haven't had a chance to catch last week's episode on making Tinctures, it's a pretty in-depth guide to the art of tincture making. And I thought, why not include a recipe this week where you can use your newly minted tincture for something delicious? By the time this this recording comes out, this episode comes out. It'll be May 1st. So I'm thinking spring. Maybe marshmallows aren't necessarily a traditional spring thing, but it does make me think of like, warmer weather and campfires and the aforementioned s'mores. So that's sort of what gave me the inspiration for this particular episode. Before we get into the details of making your own marshmallows at home, I'm just going to quickly ask that you take a second and share this episode with somebody in your list of contacts right now. I'll wait. Because word of mouth is the best way to spread awareness about the show. While you do that, I'm going to draw a card from the Staunton Trivia Race two for 20 Trivia Card Game, because we're going to exercise our noggins a little bit and I picked a card.

Margaret 00:03:29 It's a movie question that gives me a little bit of hope that I might be able to answer it. What's the name of the marijuana? Oh, I think I've done this one before. I'm gonna put that back in the deck. Imagine that. There's probably like 420 cards in this deck, and I picked one that we've already done before. Let's draw again, shall we? This is a slang question. In the 1970s, the term Jefferson Airplane was a slang for a joint, a roach clip or a bong hit. Oh, that's a good question that I don't actually know the answer to. In the 1970s, the term Jefferson Airplane was a slang for a joint. A roach clip or a bong hit. And if you answered roach clip, you would be correct. That was a trickier one. I every time I heard the thought of Jefferson Airplane, I thought of the band. Not the Roach clip. But now you know. I know a couple people actually, who like to collect vintage cannabis pieces, like vintage roach clips and things like that.

Margaret 00:04:31 And I think that's really cool. If I ever get to spend more time at antique shops, it would be fun to try and find those types of things, because I suspect they're probably a little more difficult to find, maybe depend on where you live. But some of those vintage items would be really cool to have in a collection, like vintage roach clips and stuff, because I think that's just a fun way to bring a little history into an intention, into your cannabis consumption routine. Let's get into marshmallow making and tincture talk, shall we? So why homemade marshmallows? Well, as I already mentioned, I've never made them before. And odds are, you haven't either. They're. They have a fluffy texture. They have a nice, that sweet flavor that we're all familiar with. They're customizable. And we all know how much I enjoy something that you can customize and tailor to your own preferences based on what you have on hand. They are admittedly a lot of sugar, so they're sugar, water, gelatin.

Margaret 00:05:36 You're going to be using your tincture to infuse these if you so choose. These have egg whites, but they're all pretty much a recipe or ingredients, rather that you're going to likely have on hand, with the exception maybe of the turnt tincture, as Vanessa likes to call in her book. But if you haven't made that yet, you might want to get on that. They don't require anything fancy. In fact, I'm looking at the list right now. Powdered sugar. Water. granulated sugar, honey. So again three different types of sugar right there. Your tincture salt powdered gelatin egg whites and vanilla extract. So that's all it takes to make soft, pillowy airy marshmallows. And why infuse them? Well because they're a nice little snack. But they're also on the sweet. Quite the sweet side, as evidenced by the amount of sugar that I just mentioned. They're not friendly for people who are watching sugar intake, but when you infuse them, you're not going to be eating too many of them. And honestly, because I find marshmallows are pretty sweet, you're not necessarily going to want to eat a whole lot of them.

Margaret 00:06:39 So they're a perfect bite sized edible, and they're great for sharing. And of course, you can use them for hot cocoa. S'mores. I think I need to look up some other ideas of what to do with them, but those are a couple of ideas that come to mind. And hey, you know, spring still doesn't mean that it's not too warm for a nice cup of hot cocoa. They are good for that. Now, the magic ingredient in this particular Recipe, of course, is the tincture, which ties in perfectly with our discussion from last week. So if you haven't had a chance to listen to the tinctures episode yet and you're interested in trying out tinctures, I would suggest that you start there. And we dove pretty deep into making tinctures with a quick recap that's alcohol or glycerin based cannabis extract that's pretty easy to dose. Now, I use an alcohol based tincture, and as I mentioned in that episode, I've never made a glycerin one yet, but that's going to be on the agenda upcoming.

Margaret 00:07:32 There are a couple of interesting things to note about this. The recipe cleverly incorporates tincture, which is brilliant because it allows for precise dosing and avoids adding extra fats like cans of butter. For something that's already so high sugar. That's going to also allow you to keep the texture of the marshmallows, which are supposed to be light and airy. And of course, if you're adding anything heavier than that, this part, that's just not going to work. Of course, you want to know what your tinctures potency is, so that you can accurately dose these for consuming yourself and for sharing with others. Because let's be honest, if you make a whole pan full of marshmallows. The odds are you may not eat them all yourself. Now, having said that, I have made this recipe now twice. They were pretty easy to make. It was great on the first try. Mistakes were made. As often happens when you're doing these things, I infused one batch and I didn't infuse the other. I have eaten a godawful amount of marshmallows recently like so many marshmallows have I shared them? Yes, of course, but I have eaten quite a few.

Margaret 00:08:29 So yeah, they're pretty good. I know I have a raging sweet tooth as well, so now I'm going to have to rein it in again after all this stuff. And I'm going to be using the marshmallows that I have left, which are quite a number of them. But like I said, I have eaten quite a few. Vanessa says in her book that the Egyptians whipped up the first batch of marshmallows using the mallow plant nuts and honey, reserving the sweet treat for gods and royalty. Several centuries later, the French stepped in, tossed the mallow plant and replaced it with a gelatin stabilizer and egg whites for fluffiness. In this recipe, I introduce a new plant for puffiness. Haha. I like what she did there, and that's pretty interesting because there you have it folks. A treat for the gods, a treat for royalties. So treat yourself because you are queens and kings. Now, one thing that is interesting to note, because I did notice this in her book, How to Eat Weed and Have a Good Time.

Margaret 00:09:21 She talks about making tincture as well. And she talks about two different types of tinctures. Now we do get into that a little bit in last week's episode as well. But there's the freezer tincture method. And she in that takes a little bit longer than the room temperature countertop method. And the purpose of the freezer tincture method is that it's going to have less of a taste. It might not be as potent, but it's going to have less of that green taste that you get when you do a regular countertop tincture. Now I am in the process of making a freezer tincture myself to experiment with it and notice the taste difference, but I kind of ran out of the pure alcohol and I have to go get more. I have some in the freezer right now, but I'm trying to also do some experiments with some of the infusions that I'm making lately, and I would really like to have the same amount for the other ones as the other tinctures that I made, so I can compare my results. And that means I have to try and find some ethanol somewhere, and I'm not really sure we're going to see how that turns out.

Margaret 00:10:21 So I haven't actually made it yet, which means I use the countertop countertop tincture to make this particular recipe. And I will say that you do notice some of the taste in this particular recipe. That is just something to note that the. Obviously a marshmallow doesn't have a super strong flavor, even when you add in things like vanilla. And so if you use just a regular tincture, you are going to notice a taste. It didn't discolor it or anything, even though my tincture was obviously, you know, that color that it is, it was still nice. They were still nice and white and pillowy, but the the taste was there and it had that tincture alcohol, green like herbal taste. Now it was mild, I will say. But for somebody who's pretty sensitive to that, do note that you might be better off waiting till you can make a freezer based tincture that's going to have a lot less flavor, as she recommends. Do know that I was going against the grain on this particular one because I really wanted to make them, and I had just made all this tincture and I wanted to try it out.

Margaret 00:11:16 Putting this recipe together is pretty simple. So first of all, you're going to line a square cake pan with cooking spray and then some of the powdered sugar. And you're going to set that aside. That's what you're going to pour your marshmallow mixture into when it's all ready to go. But while that's while you're after you do that, you're going to get a saucepan over medium heat and you're going to add all the sugars, the water, your tincture and salt, and you're going to give it a swirl, but you're not necessarily going to stir it, and then you're going to leave it on the heat until it reaches 245 degrees. It says it takes about eight minutes. That is, from my recollection, pretty approximate. Pretty accurate. Well, that is going on. You're going to bloom your gelatin. So you just get out a little bowl and you mix in a quarter cup of cold water with the gelatin. And then in a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, you're going to beat the egg whites on high speed because it takes two egg whites until soft peaks form, and that takes about three minutes.

Margaret 00:12:22 So there's a couple things going on, but you can do those other two things while you're heating your sugar mixture to the 245 degrees. Once the sugar mixture reaches temperature, that's when you add your bloomed gelatin. And funnily enough, the second time that I made this, I forgot I had poured the hot sugar mixture in with the eggs, which does cook the eggs when you pour it in there, because again, it's a 245 degrees and you're going to whip that really high in your stand mixer. But the second time that I made that, I forgot to add the gelatin and the gelatin, even though it comes out almost like it is like a single piece when it's bloomed, it does melt into the the mixture Texture. And so what I did is I kind of panicked and I threw it in the stand mixer with the egg white and a sugar mixture. Now, at this point, I had already blended or beat the whisk, whatever I call it, the sugar mixture with the egg whites, and I was worried that that might affect the texture.

Margaret 00:13:26 It actually didn't too. It wasn't too bad. I did notice a couple of spots where some of the gelatin hadn't mixed or incorporated or didn't melt completely. There's a couple little spots, but overall most of it did melt into it because it was still hot from being on the stove. So I had that one of those oh shit moments. But I mean, that was the worst of it. They're pretty easy to make. You can't really the first time it took me a little longer, as it often does with the recipe that you're unfamiliar with. But the second time it was super easy. And interestingly, I was at a friend's house for dinner recently, and I think the the topic of marshmallows came up because I mentioned that I was fooling around making some marshmallows for an upcoming episode. And one person mentioned that with commercially made marshmallows, when you get a burn with those, like if you're cooking them over the fire, that you have to treat them for chemical burns because of all the fake shit they put in them.

Margaret 00:14:21 I have to fact check all of that. I just said stuff. I could be spreading misinformation, but this person had their first aid and worked with children on a regular basis, so they were pretty familiar with the concept of dealing with first aid injuries. And you know, when you have young children around a fire roasting marshmallows, these things tend to happen. So I just thought that was interesting that if you're ever looking to make your own marshmallows because you want to use them for s'mores or something like that, you know when you know exactly what's in them, maybe they're a little bit safer because you're not going to get chemical burns. If there happens to be an accident. You whip up your eggs, egg whites, and your your sugar has gotten to temperature. You just pour it in down the side of the bowl, and then you whip it up for, you know, a couple of minutes on high speed. You add some vanilla and then you do it for a couple more minutes, you will start to notice that it is the texture and the color and all these things.

Margaret 00:15:11 Even though you add like a tablespoon of vanilla extract, it doesn't really change the color. They are nice and white, just like you would imagine marshmallows to be. Textures a little bit different, maybe a little bit softer almost. Now it could be because the second time I definitely didn't add that gelatin in at the correct time. Now of course you add in vanilla, but you could maybe even add something like a peppermint extract. What would happen if you added different flavors? I should try that next, actually, because I have a number of foreign oil flavors that could lend itself, well, just something a little bit different. So that could be a fun way to play around with these. You could roll them in toasted coconuts, maybe add a little cocoa powder or freeze dried fruit powder. I mean, I feel like there's a few different things. I haven't tried any of those. So do take these with a grain of salt because you know, who knows what the results might be. But again, a base.

Margaret 00:16:04 A base of a good marshmallow recipe can sort of open the doors to a whole bunch of other ways to experiment once it's done whipping and you get it to the texture that you're looking to get it to, you pour it. You're going to need a rubber spatula to pour it into your your prepared greased cake pan. And then you sprinkle it with some more icing sugar. And then you let it set for about an hour. Now, I have to admit, I've made this twice, and you're supposed to be able. Because of course you grease the pan before you get started, which I did generously, but I never wanted to tip out of the pan for me. I don't know why. Like, I even ran a knife around the edge of the pan, and when I flipped it over, they just didn't want to come out. And it's supposed to the first time. I don't think I waited quite long enough for the marshmallows to set, because the recommendation is about an hour. I guess it says at least an hour at room temperature.

Margaret 00:16:52 The second time I definitely did probably a couple of hours, and each time they didn't tip out for me. So I'm not really sure what's going on with that. I'm not. I don't know why they didn't tip out for me, so I had to cut them in the pan and that worked. But that also meant that when I tried to lift them out of the pan, they just didn't come out nice and perfectly square, which they would have otherwise if I'd been able to tip them out and then cut them on the cutting board that way. So maybe you'll have better luck than I did. But that is what happened to me. So they're maybe a little bit misshapen, but I don't know. Sometimes I think that reflects my general attitude towards edibles making. They don't have to look perfect. I mean, it's nice that they do, but sometimes that's just not the way things work out. You let them set, you cut them up, you put them in a container, you toss them in a little more of the powdered sugar because that's going to keep them from sticking together.

Margaret 00:17:43 And then you toss them in the container. I did toss mine in a container the first time I made them, and they almost looked out from the outside because it was a clear Tupperware container that they were like all melding together, but they actually maintained their shape really nicely, even though they were kind of all squished into this container. And I'm sure the powdered sugar helped to keep them from sticking with each other. But they didn't like come. They didn't like meld back. I've had things where I've done that and I've put them in a container and then they all just kind of like melded back into one giant clump. But these did really hold their shape, which was really nice. So this has been a really fun recipe to make, and I highly encourage you to try it if you want something different. I did the first batch with a CBD infused tincture, because it's really difficult to make sweets around this house and not be able to share them with my dad. And I know he's okay with CBD.

Margaret 00:18:34 He's a little more cautious around THC, which is only natural, and I have to be careful with dosing him around that because I can't be giving him. It's so hard to make things and then be like, oh no, you can't have any of this got THC in it. So I tend to make it's a really it's really tough. I definitely see where I get my sweet tooth from because that man has a sweet tooth very much like my own, in fact. And I am very conscious of my own and have to keep bringing it back in because it does like to get out of control from time to time. But yeah, I definitely see where I get it from. But again, it's really I do tend to use a lot of CBD and a lot of my recipes because one, I do enjoy those. I do enjoy a lot of CBD throughout the day and tend to focus more on the THC, the heavier THC in the evenings. Of course, you can do these with THC, a ratio.

Margaret 00:19:21 You can do them without whatever you want. If you haven't picked up this book yet, I really have been enjoying this particular book. If you haven't checked out the recipe or the recipe, if you haven't checked out the interview with Vanessa that I did yet, I do encourage you to check out that one as well, because it was packed with a lot of really interesting tips around making edibles at home, and I think you will learn something from it. I certainly did, and as somebody who's been making edibles for quite some time, it's always wonderful to learn something new and to have something new that you can try out in your own home kitchen. So that's why I do recommend that episode. And I am going to be doing one more recipe from her book. Actually, maybe that one or different one. I'm going to be doing another tincture based recipe for next week, so tune in for that one. So if you have been attempting to make some tinctures at home. This will give you some inspiration of things you can do with it.

Margaret 00:20:10 You know you're on this journey with me, so if you do make this particular recipe, tag me, post it online and tag me bite me podcast or consider joining the Bite Me Cannabis Club. Head over to join Bite Me. Com to learn more about that. And people are often sharing the homemade creations that they're making in in the club as well. So there's a couple different ways that you can show off your culinary skills. And I would also love to hear how you would use your marshmallows, because, you know, you make this batch of marshmallows, you got to do something with them. Yes, you can just eat them. And I have done lots of that, but sometimes it's nice to use them for another project as well to incorporate them into something. So let me know how you are using your marshmallows. So that's it for this week my friends. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Check out the full show notes at Bite Me podcast. Consider joining the Bite Me Cannabis Club. I'm your host, Margaret.

Margaret 00:21:06 And until next week, stay high.