Candyland
October 2nd, 2009 by Elizabeth Phillips
It all started with a bag of Skittles. We’d just returned from a big family weekend — my beloved Granny’s 90th — and Gus realized that his dad and I had left his goodies behind. A thoughtful family member had distributed gift bags filled with treats and toys to the kids. Foreseeing a long three days of late bedtimes and birthday cake, we had “lost” the Skittles. (Can we please keep that between us?) Gus’s cousins’ technicolor tongues reminded him all weekend long that their parents hadn’t mislaid any candy, and by our return he was distraught.
At moments like this, I feel confused. I know why I whisk candy out of sight, but worry that making the lousy stuff scarce glamorizes it — it’s like I’m turning Mrs. Beasley into Barbie. Eventually, without Mom and Dad to monitor them, my kids will act like addicts, bingeing on Jolly Ranchers and Pop Rocks. Maybe I should just let them cloy themselves into a lust for kale.
However, candy is powerful stuff, and the evidence is in. Study after study has shown that refined sugar in any but small amounts is unhealthful — especially for kids, who typically consume more. Also, the preservatives and artificial colorings that keep most candies so fresh and bright can contribute to hyperactive behavior in children. Limiting exposure, then, is compelling. But is turning our home into a glucose-free gulag the solution? Isn’t there a time and a place for everything?
I think a treat should be just that — a treat. I’d rather my kids and I ate something truly delicious and homemade a few times a month than grocery-store candy daily or even weekly. We use the best ingredients we can, even though they cost more, because we’re aiming for quality, not quantity. Often, these ingredients are healthier, too.
So, in response to the Skittles fiasco, Gus and I whipped up (literally) a batch of pillowy home-made marshmallows, substituting agave nectar, which has a lower glycemic index, for the corn syrup in the traditional recipe. (Glycemic index, or GI, measures the spike in blood sugar that occurs after consuming a carbo-hydrate or sugar. Consuming foods with lower GIs has been shown to be less likely to lead to diabetes and type-2 heart disease.) We also used raw sugar, which has trace nutrients absent from refined sugar, and none of the chemicals used in processing it. They were delicious. I haven’t heard a word about the Skittles since.
Of course, as my husband pointed out, I can’t sanely argue that marshmallows are a health food. But Crispy Cupcakes, a home-made alternative to Rice Krispie Treats (packaged or otherwise), offer more protein and fiber than the commercial product. The recipe, from Lisa Barnes’s Petit Appetit: Eat, Drink and Be Merry, calls for making these in regular-sized muffin papers; but you can create smaller portions by using a mini-muffin pan and papers. They’re fun and easy to do with kids. And they’re good enough to keep my kids from asking, “It’s not healthy, is it?”
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Crispy Cupcakes
Adapted from Lisa Barnes’s Petit Appetit: Eat, Drink and Be Merry
Makes 10-20 cupcakes, depending on which size muffin papers you use.
5 tablespoons organic unsalted butter
¼ cup honey (or agave nectar)
1 ½ cups rolled oats
1 ½ cups puffed brown rice cereal
2 teaspoons sesame seeds (try unhulled)
½ cup organic unsweetened dried fruit pieces (we used mixed berries—yummy)
Melt butter and honey in a small pan over low heat. While it’s melting, have your child put muffin papers in a muffin pan. Mix all other ingredients in a medium bowl.
Add melted butter-honey mixture and stir to combine. Spoon into muffin cups and press down so it all sticks together. Before serving, chill in the fridge or freezer 1 hour or more, and store in the fridge to hold shape.
Vanilla Marshmallows
There are recipes for flavored (even pumpkin!) marshmallows out there, many contained in Eileen Talanian’s terrific Marshmallows: Homemade Gourmet Treats. However, for us beginners, even this recipe, modified from The Joy of Cooking, is a revelation.
3 packages gelatin
1 1/3 cups cold water
1 ½ cups raw sugar
½ cup light agave nectar
¼ teaspoon salt
½ tablespoon vanilla
¼ cup cornstarch
¼ cup powdered sugar
Divide the water, placing half in the bowl of a stand mixer. Have the whisk attachment ready. Sprinkle the gelatin as evenly as possible over the water and let stand 5 minutes. Meanwhile, combine remaining water in a small heavy saucepan over low heat with the sugar, syrup and salt.
When it starts to boil, cover for 3 minutes to keep crystals from clinging to the sides of the pan. Continue to cook, uncovered over medium heat, until the syrup measures 244° on a candy thermometer (as if you had such a thing!) or it forms a soft ball when dropped into cold water. (This is actually cool for the kids to see, but careful with the hot syrup.)
While the syrup cooks, look at the gelatin. If there are still white bits, beat it with a fork till it looks like watery mashed potatoes. When the syrup is ready, turn your mixer on low and immediately pour the syrup slowly into the gelatin. When it’s all in, turn the mixer up to high and beat, 5-10 minutes, until it stops expanding. Add vanilla and beat in.
Spray an 8” x 12” pan with cooking spray and dust with a mixture of cornstarch and powdered sugar, then spread the marshmallow in the pan with a rubber spatula. Let rest 8-12 hours, then cut with a pizza wheel or scissors dusted in more of the cornstarch mixture. Toss cubes in remaining powder, and store in a closed container.