Fruit Marshmallow

A berry juice treat, as it was described then, was made from 2-3 ingredients: apple puree, grinded with sugar or honey and the pulp of cranberries, cranberries, sea buckthorn, rowanberries, currants or raspberries. In later years, egg white was sometimes added to the mixture to make it whiter. What was unchanged in technology until our time – the rustic oven, in which the fruit and berry “cakes” were dried. The oven in the city was long ago replaced by an oven, in which we will bake this delicacy. It does not take long to make “postela” but you have to watch it carefully. Apples in any case should not burn during preliminary cooking (it will spoil the taste of sweetness), therefore we regulate fire and as necessary we add water in a pan a little bit. The exact drying time in the oven will depend on the variety of apples. We recommend selecting the more sour apples. 

Ingredients

1.1 kg apples

350g berries (strawberries, currants, cherries)

70g sugar

1-2 tbsp lemon juice

Step by step recipe

Step 1

Peel and seed the apples, cut into large wedges and place in a heavy-based pan.

Step 2.

Add a little water (a couple of centimeters of it covering the bottom), cover and simmer over a low heat until the apples are almost pulverized and completely soft. This will take 20-40 minutes, depending on the variety of apples. Make sure that the apples do not burn, and a little water should be added in the process.

Step 3.

Pass the berries through a fine sieve.

Step 4.

Place the apples in the bowl of a blender, add the mashed berries and sugar and blend everything together. If the blender doesn’t have enough volume, simply finely crush the fruit mixture with a cleaver so that there are no large pieces.

Step 5

Return the pan with the apple puree to the cooker. Boil, without covering and stirring, until marmalade-like in consistency. This should take about 40 minutes.

Step 6.

Taste the purée and add lemon juice to taste 5 minutes before it is ready. Be aware that the marshmallow will become noticeably sweeter after drying in the oven.

Step 7.

Line baking trays with baking paper and brush with unflavoured vegetable oil. You can also use a silicone mat – it doesn’t need to be greased.

Step 8

After boiling, allow the fruit mixture to cool slightly and spread out on parchment with a 7 mm layer, smoothing it with a pastry spatula or a silicone spatula.

Step 9

Dry the marshmallow in an oven at a temperature not exceeding 100°C (or better 70-80°C) for 3-4 hours. The exact time depends on the type of apples and how cooked the marshmallow is. Dried marshmallow should not stick to hands, be dense and malleable – bend and roll.

Step 10.

Remove marshmallow from paper, cut into broad strips (best done with scissors) and roll up into strips.

Recipient tips

A sugar-free, thin, sour marshmallow (made from plums, cranberries or lingonberries) can be used in soups instead of tomato paste. Pour hot water in the ratio of 1:1 and let it gently dissolve to create a base for a sauce: plum marshmallows are suitable for tkemali and pomegranate for narsharab. A protein-free marshmallow can easily be made into jam by adding 3 parts of it to 1 part boiling water and simmering until it is thick. Chunks of protein-free marshmallows will decorate a cheese plate. Any marshmallow can be whisked together with warm milk, mixed with ice cream and made into a milkshake. Pastilles can be used not only as a stand-alone dish but also as a decoration for cakes and pastries.

Good advice

How to store marshmallow While it is still warm remove it from the baking tray. Then roll it up into a tube and let it cool. Protein and fig marshmallows can be sliced and wrapped in baking paper. Pastilles store well in cardboard boxes or tins lined with parchment. Glass jars are also suitable, but undried marshmallows can suffocate in them. So do not close the jars airtight – at least not until you get the hang of it. In the fridge any marshmallow keeps much longer than at room temperature – 3-4 months.

Per 100g: 1.54g protein (1.93% of the daily requirement)

– fats 0.84g (0.93%)

– carbohydrates 65.42g (38.94%)

– kcal 253.68 (14.09%)

– sodium 6.89 mg (0.48%)

– total sugar 19.14 g (38.28%)

– fatty acids 0,12 g (0,60%)

– dietary fibre 1.84 g (6.13%)

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