I'm playing with my food again
Reading the old Joy of Cooking, I ran across a very strange recipe. Very simple, 2 ingredients. Coffee Marshmallow Jelly. Optional chopped nuts.
It's a Jello-type dessert that requires no gelatin (except for the marshmallows). Making a half recipe, I melted 8 ounces of marshmallows in 1 cup of strong coffee (double boiler), poured it into a mold and let it sit for 12 hours. My question was, would this even work? What the hell would it be like? Inquiring minds (ok, one inquiring mind) want to know.
On a technical level, it does work. Except for foam floating to the top, which makes a rather unappetizing thin sticky foam (which ends up invisible on the bottom), what you end up with is a firm coffee gelatin mold which tastes strongly of marshmallow.
On the minus side, we haven't had anything gelatin-based in decades, which is a strong indication that it doesn't really appeal to us personally. Plus, coffee and marshmallow is not a flavor match made in heaven. And the marshmallow flavor...lingers. It's hella sweet.
On the plus side, it's easy enough to remind me of flapper pudding - a dessert so easy even a flapper could make it. (The original icebox cake, soaking purchased cookies in whipped cream in a pan until it was soft and sliceable.) You could teach a reasonably functioning schoolchild to do this. And it is cheap.
I won't do it with coffee again and might not do it at all. The only uses I can imagine is with really tart fruit juice (raspberry might be good) or extra strength Mexican chocolate - maybe one full disc dissolved in boiling water. Cocoa and marshmallow is a match made in heaven.
Science requires sacrifices.
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