Snouts - Homemade Bacon Marshmallows Dipped in Milk Chocolate

Dear readers,

I'm not a huge marshmallow fan. When I was a child I used to toast marshmallows on the fire in the living room. My favourite marshmallows were those covered in granulated sugar because, when they were toasted, the sugar melted into a crispy shell which encased the soft molten marshmallow - they had such a wonderful light crunch with a gooey centre, unlike those covered in corn flour which just burned on the outside! I find most commercial marshmallows generally quite chewy and unpleasant. I heard, however, that homemade marshmallows are quite different from the commercial ones. Also, I thought that it would be fun to make marshmallows at home!

When I was in Year 7 (at school), many years ago, we had a media project where we had to design a product and create some adverts for it. I made some "scent bags" with a couple of my friends (I was very 'attached' to the sewing machine at that age) and some of my friends in my class made a food product - snouts! As far as I can remember, these snouts were coated in chocolate and had a pair of nostrils to represent a pig snout. I decided to use that memory of my friend's snouts to influence my homemade marshmallows to surprise him.

Bacon seems to be in everything in America. Burgers, pancakes, chocolate, brownies, cookies, lollipops... and even marshmallows! I always like to make things interesting and I thought that bacon marshmallows would be very apt for making snouts! Most of the people with whom I discussed my idea of bacon marshmallows were a little horrified. This didn't put me off of making them (they already exist anyway!) but it did scare me off of putting too much bacon in them. This resulted in a final product with only a few tiny pieces of bacon in each snout, which meant that most people wouldn't even know that the bacon was there, unless I told them. So I am a little disappointed with the outcome in that respect. Next time I will definitely use more bacon, and try not to be afraid of adding too much!

Homemade marshmallows really are very different from the commercial ones - they are so light and airy, like little clouds (the Spanish actually call marshmallows "nubes", which literally means 'clouds') that go "poof!" in your mouth and disappear before your second chew! They are also very easy to make (unlike macarons!). I can't wait to try out a different flavour soon!

This recipe is adapted from David Lebovitz.
Snouts

9g powdered gelatine (1 sachet)

60ml + 40ml water

100g sugar (caster or granulated)

50g liquid glucose

2 large egg whites at room temperature

A pinch of salt

A few drops of red food colouring

2 rashers of crispy bacon, finely chopped

100g milk chocolate

Marshmallow mix (70g icing sugar mixed with 70g corn flour, sieved)

This recipe makes ~24 snouts.

Put the gelatine and 60ml cold water in a small bowl to soften.

In a small saucepan with a sugar thermometer add the 40ml cold water, the sugar and liquid glucose and place over a medium heat.

In a clean bowl whisk the egg whites until they are soft and fluffy. Add the pinch of salt.

Once the sugar mix reaches a temperature of 220°F, beat the eggs until they become stiff. When the sugar mix reaches 245°F, slowly pour it over the whipped egg whites and continue whisking.

Put the gelatine and water mix into the saucepan and allow it to melt with the remaining heat from the sugar mix. Whilst whipping, pour the liquefied gelatine into the egg whites and sugar. Add the food colouring and continue whisking until the mixture and the bowl has completely cooled. Gently fold in the crispy bacon pieces.

Generously dust a round cake tin with the marshmallow mix and lightly grease the edges of the tin with vegetable oil.

Spoon the cooled marshmallow into the cake tin and allow to set uncovered for a minimum of 4 hours, but preferably overnight.

Once the marshmallow has set, use a 1 inch diameter cookie cutter to cut out individual marshmallows. Roll in the marshmallow mix and dust away any excess.

Slowly melt the chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of hot water on a low heat. Dip the bottom of the marshmallows in the melted chocolate and place on greaseproof paper. Use the end of a fork to dot on the two nostrils of the snout on the top of the marshmallow. Allow the chocolate to cool and serve!

Notes:
The complete cooling of the marshmallow during the final whip is crucial - if the marshmallow hasn't fully cooled before placing into the mould, it will weep after it has set.

Unfortunately, I was afraid of adding too much bacon in these marshmallows which, as I mentioned above, has resulted in a marshmallow with too little bacon flavour and texture.

My friend, for whom I made these marshmallows, was overjoyed with my re-creation of the snouts. He agreed that the marshmallows were very light and fluffy. He enjoyed the bacon but also agreed that the bacon flavour could be made stronger.

Oink!

Toffee Bacon Lollipop from Cochon 555

As I mentioned in my previous post, my favourite dish from Cochon 555 was the Toffee Bacon Lollipop that I took home and consumed the next day.

Not only does this lollipop look totally pleasing with its shimmering chocolate-drenched pig-face contour, it also delivers a rather unique culinary experience...

Each bite flooded my mouth with deliciousness. The texture of the toffee wasn't jaw-breaking, yet required a substantial amount of force to bite into, which was rewarded by the salty, caramelised and subtle meaty flavour.

I am so sad that I failed to take home more than one of these rare and delectable finds!

Cochon 555 - Napa, California

Vegetarians: beware. This post contains a lot of meat!

Many wines glasses at the entrance of the main event

I have recently been successful in gaining two internships here in California. One of the internships is with the Perishable Foods Council of Northern California which starts next quarter. The other internship is with Culture Magazine, which commenced two weeks ago.

Strips of crispy bacon served in glass jars

Thus far with Culture Magazine, I have been performing various tasks in social media. My first main assignment was to attend Cochon 555 (cochon is French for domestic pig), eat lots of food, drink lots of wine, talk to lots of people, take lots of photos and blog about it. Pretty tough job, I think you'll agree! (Did I mention that we got a VIP ticket?!)

St Germain cocktails

The event was held at the beautiful Culinary Institute of America in St Helena, Napa. The VIP room event commenced at 3.30pm. As I meandered around the room with my St Germain cocktail, that was kindly handed to me on entry, I picked up various bites including Black River Caviar canapés, sustainable oysters (my first - I can't say that this was a pleasant experience!), crispy strips of bacon that were displayed in jars on almost every table, and plentiful doses of artisan cheeses from Cheese Plus.

Fenugreek Gouda - on the cover of this season's Culture Magazine

Tarentaise - my favourite cheese of the event

A sample of each cheese and cracker from the Cheese Plus stand

Cheese Plus also had a fondue to sample. I think the fact that I consumed four servings of the delicious goo says enough about how much I enjoyed it!

The fondue pot at Cheese Plus

Ray Bair from Cheese Plus

Gooey deliciousness - smoky creole tasso ham fondue

Then we got a sneak preview of the "pièce de résistance"...

Look at those gorgeous colours on that cider-glazed pig!

Inside the pig oven

Inside the main event were five chefs, five winemakers and five pigs. Some of the culinary works of art that were on offer included blood and tongue sausage, shredded pork with coconut and pineapple, bacon waffles, Asian pork buns, lard on toast and the most delectable pork pie created by Dave Cruz from Ad Hoc in Yountville, Napa.

Pork canapés

Sliced pigs head

Jars upon jars of crispy bacon

Inside the event

Blood and tongue sausage

Shredded pork with pineapple and coconut

Lard on toast (I could physically feel my arteries clogging as this went down my oesophagus)

Bacon waffle with ice cream and maple syrup

Pork canapé, fruit and pork slice, pork pie by Dave Cruz

A rather beautiful fruity pork slice

Despite the fact that I generally prefer my desserts to be less sweet than the average, they still win me over at any food contest. I very much enjoyed the bacon waffle with the miniature scoop of ice cream. The winning dish for me, however, was the Toffee Bacon Chocolate Lollipop, which was so utterly divine that it will have its own blog post (coming soon!).

As the end of the evening drew closer, there was still so much to try, yet, my stomach was completely full and almost on the verge of popping! My taste buds had certainly been tickled by the explosive (but rather salty) culinary adventure. The various samples of wines and cocktails just added to my fuzzy contentment.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable day. Thank you Culture Magazine!