Many of you know that I love to cook exotic things. I don't get to do this very often since it is usually both expensive and time consuming. So, when I saw this recipe I thought - wow, what a great way to boycott a cake for Andy's birthday!
I mean I've never made marshmallows before - why would I, buying them is much cheaper with far less chance of burning all your hair off. But, you can't buy them made of beer! You have to actually make them.
First of all: what a great group of ingredients! Sugar, chocolate, pretzels and beer, what can go wrong?!? So, you combine the sugar and beer in a big pot and bring them to a boil. This is where the recipe basically says have your fire extinguisher handy and be prepared to need to buy a new stovetop if you let it boil over... not in the least frightening.
So, now that you have this molten mass of melted sugar you slowly (so it doesn't explode) pour it into your stand mixer. Add more beer and let your modern appliance to do work for the next 10 or so minutes. At this point it has cooled down enough to where you can actually touch it - and pout it into a dish lined with parchment paper to set overnight.
Now you just have to cut them into pieces roll in chocolate (we used dark) and them sprinkle with pretzel crumbs. Well, ours were more like dust because crushing them was Nina's job. George's job was to drop the cubes in the chocolate for me one at a time. He was a great helper. The only problem we ran into was that it was hot (go figure in June!) and the chocolate wouldn't set, so off to the freezer to set they went.
Surprisingly enough by themselves the marshmallows weren't all that great, but once they were paired with the chocolate they were fantastic! They turned out really well and everyone enjoyed the "gourmet" birthday cake.
For next year I'm thinking a jalapeno-cheddar cheese cheesecake... mmmm, can't wait!
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