Marshmallow Pops

My daughter and I have been participating in a Mother-Daughter book club.  Several of the girls in the neighborhood get together with their moms and discuss a book they’ve read.  This month was our turn to host, which meant it was our turn to pick the book.  Finding time to read the chosen books has not been going so great for us in months past, so we made it easy on everyone by choosing a book that was a fun and quick read.

Very quick.

Perhaps you’ve read the book yourself?  Our selection was Lafcadio, The Lion Who Shot Back by Shel Silverstein.  It’s all about a lion who is being hunted, and decides to turn the tables.  He learns to use a gun, and becomes the hunter.  In the process, he discovers what it is like to live as a human, and experiences the joy of marshmallows, which he comes to love.

I ask you, if you had been eating zebra your whole life, wouldn’t you want to have some marshmallows, too?

This is not the first time I have dipped marshmallows in chocolate, (remember these?) but this is the first time I have put them on a stick.  Well, technically, it was a straw, but you get the idea.  I will share with you a hint to having lovely dipped marshmallows that don’t fall off their straws or drip chocolate everywhere.

First of all, I bought the humongous, monster-sized marshmallows.  When did they start making marshmallows this big?  They are FAR too big to fit in s’mores.  The package I bought wouldn’t fit in my new large and dang-stinkin-cute handbag, and it only had about 25 marshmallows in it!  Which was more than plenty.

I had the princess cut a small slit in each marshmallow, and then put a straw into the slit.  I bought clear plastic straws, the non-bendy kind.  We stood them up on a sheet pan, and then put the entire pan of marshmallows in the freezer for about 20 minutes.

The freezer does two awesome things… 1) it sticks the straws in there pretty good and tight, so the marshmallows won’t wobble around or fall off, and 2) it cools the melted chocolate very quickly, so it won’t drip all over the place.  You can thank me twice for that little trick.

While the marshmallows were chilling out, we gathered some fun toppings.

Tonight we had graham crackers, peppermint bits, mini chocolate chips, coconut, and a variety of sprinkles.  I put the sprinkles on a sheet pan, hoping to contain the mess somewhat.

As if.

The girls had a good time talking about the book.  They decided that they liked when the lion roared at people  to get his way, and they liked when he made a suit of marshmallows, and they really liked when someone ironed the suit, and it melted and was ruined.  When the discussion was over, the marshmallow party began!  I quickly melted some white chocolate.

I helped the girls get their marshmallows well coated in white chocolate, and then let them go crazy with toppings.

Yeah, crazy is a pretty appropriate word.  There was a lot of giggling, chatting, and tough topping-decision-making.  Just as it should be.

They started eating their creations.  Many of them did not make through the entire marshmallow.  Did I mention they’re humongous?

I had a little white chocolate left, so I colored it pink and gave a few more an extra touch with some pink white chocolate embellishments.  Cute, right?  By the way, a cup full of popcorn makes an excellent container for holding these completed marshmallows upright.  If you’re not going to eat them right away, you’ll probably want to keep them in the fridge, to keep the chocolate hardened.

I think these turned out really beautiful, and almost elegant.  There are so many options for what you could top them with, including:

• different kinds of chocolate
• chopped nuts (peanuts?  pistachios? walnuts?)
• Oreo crumbs or chunks (or other cookies, chocolate mint maybe?)
• crushed hard candies
• m&m’s or Reese’s pieces
• peanut butter chips
• crisped rice cereal
• caramel drizzle
• fresh berries
• cake crumbs or chunks
• coconut
• baking chips – chocolate/white chocolate/peanut butter/butterscotch/mint

You could probably come up with more stuff, if you try.  At any rate, our hosting turn is over, and I now have several more months to dream up the next fun treat concoction!!

If you enjoy this, you might also enjoy:

Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies from Jen’s Favorite Cookies

Lemon Marshmallow Fluff from Chocolate Moosey

Snowball Cake (with Marshmallow Frosting!) from Sprinkle Bakes