Trying elderflower marshmallows

Last week was pretty rainy. I had to take the saucers out from under some of my outdoor pot plants for fear of root rot, because they have seemed pretty drenched all week.

So, in pottering around the house, doing indoor things like tracing commercial sewing patterns onto tracing paper to re-size them in more ways than the "multi-size" lines can cope with, drafting a corset pattern, and I also spent some time cooking. Unfortunately, due to having a day job that requires working 12 days in a row every few weeks, I didn't cook much interesting for dinner. Mostly basic pasta dishes and risotto (plus arancini with the leftovers).

However, a recipe for elderflower marshmallows popped up on my Pinterest feed while I was scrolling on my lunch break. Although it is not remotely close to elderflower season, this recipe used cordial, which I did have some of, and I had recently bought a sugar thermometer for jam-making as I'd never had one and always had to somewhat guess when making jam.

The original recipe was a recipe by Country Living. Here's the original recipe: https://www.countryliving.com/uk/create/food-and-drink/recipes/a384/fluffy-homemade-elderflower-marshmallows/
I did not colour them pastel green, as I didn't really see the purpose. I had never made marshmallow before, so had no baseline for how it would turn out. However, I think if I was to make it again, I would make a couple of changes.

The quantities were very small, but did create quite a lot of marshmallow. I had to use a tiny pan (and I mean tiny), or the sugar mixture did not cover enough of the jam thermometer to be accurate. My stand-mixer also couldn't really whip the single medium egg white, so I had to start with the hand-mixer to get it started, and swap back to the stand-mixer when I went to pour the sugar mix in because I couldn't hold a mixer and pour evenly at the same time. The tin needs to be greased *really* well, or it will get stuck. I did not wait overnight for it to set, as it had set itself within a couple of hours while I made dinner, so turned it out and cut it when we had finished eating.

Lastly, the elderflower taste was overpowering initially. I suspect it depends on the strength of the cordial you use (the bottle of mine suggests 1 part cordial to 12 parts water, but I use even less as that is a little strong for me), but in the 24 hours or so after making it, it was extremely strong. However, after two or three days in an airtight container, the taste mellowed, and became rather enjoyable. I think if I was making these for use within a day or two or making I'd probably cut down on the quantity or cordial, but leave it the same if I was preparing them in advance for something.

That said, they are gorgeous. I may have to take them into work to prevent me eating them all myself.