recipe: candy covered marshmallow pops.

mason loves to help me. help me cook. help me 'make stuff'. help me with rance.

he likes to help. and i love that. but sometimes, it's not always something he can help with.

he wanted to help me make dinner one night as i was coating chicken, and when i said no i caught him sticking his hands into the dipping mixture because he wanted to taste it. (ICK! i mean how was he to know he shouldn't do that? i mean corn flakes are for breakfast too ya know... sans the uncooked chicken goo on it.. )

the point is, when it's something for him, i like to find something that he can really get in there & help with. so when we started thinking up ideas (aside from giving the girls pictures of rance because he says they think he's cute..) i wanted to make sure it was something he could do.

i remembered seeing a dessert table with these candy coated marshmallows on it & from there i came up with these marshmallow pops.

candy covered marshmallow pops:

-1 bag jumbo marshmallows
-popsicle sticks
-1 bag candy coating (your choice of color; we used less 1/4 bag for 25 marshmallows)
-sprinkles (your choice)
-microwave safe bowl (a small deep bowl works best)
-styrofoam brick covered in aluminum foil, empty cereal box, or cardboard box to hold pops upright

1. take your empty box & poke slits with a steak knife, large enough to fit your popsicle sticks. make sure they are far enough apart that the marshmallows won't touch if they tip forwards/backwards.we didn't do this, and i ended up having to poke more. (they get heavy with the coating on them)

2. insert a popsicle stick in the middle of each marshmallow, pushing it in until it ALMOST comes out the other side. put your marshmallow pops in the holes

3. put your candy coating in a microwave safe bowl & heat accord to package directions. make sure you stir it to a smooth consistency. the looser it is the better it will coat, & the easier it is to shake off the excess.

4. dip the end of the marshmallow into the candy coating. (i ended up doing this part. the candy coating went on heavy, & it took some tapping to get the excess back off.)

5. place the coated marshmallow back into your box. we let the candy coating dry about 5 minutes, but this could vary due to your climate. what you want is to wait until the coating looses it's sheen. at this point it'll be tacky enough to grab the sprinkles & not slide off with the weight. (you can see the finished ones in the back row)



6. empty your sprinkles into a small, deep bowl. dip your marshmallow pop into the sprinkles to coat. put it back into it's hole to dry further.

7. let pops continue to harden another hour or so, or you can put them in the fridge to harden them faster. package as desired.

we had a disagreement about packaging & in the end i didn't get a picture of them packaged up. i wanted to wrap them in cellophane with curling ribbon, and he wanted printed favor bags. i let him win (of course). and although he wasn't crazy about the taste in the end (he's picky), his class all thought they were cool & yummy. (i didn't think they tasted so bad either... you know.. because i couldn't just throw out the tester pops :)

there ya have it.

i've got a post on jazzing up wrapping paper & gift bags in the works, so keep coming back! :)

xo-k