Two things I had leftover from the cookies I made for this year’s cookie party: Dulce de leche and marshmallows. What’s a girl to do? How about dip the marshmallows in the dulce de leche? I weighed the dulce de leche and it was about 7 ounces. I mixed this with 7 ounces of sweetened condensed milk, added a dash of cinnamon and a bit of vanilla, and stirred it up on top of a double boiler.
I put the marshmallows out on a waxed-paper-lined tray and stuck toothpicks in them. I had the cocktail toothpicks with the colored plastic on the end, so I picked out all of the red and green ones. One by one I dipped the marshmallows in the caramel mixture, still simmering on the double boiler, and then placed them on the waxed paper.
In some small, shallow dishes, I put chopped nuts, red and green sprinkles and some holly and berry jimmies. I wasn’t sure which would work the best. Then I melted some chocolate. I dipped the caramel marshmallows in the chocolate, but only covering the bottom third of the marshmallow.
Then I dipped the wet chocolate in the garnishes. I like how the sprinkles look, but the nuts were easier to work with. And the holly and berries just didn’t work right (see above). The chocolate was melting into the dish and making the holly and berries just a glob. The dipping can be kind of tricky. You have to shake off a lot of chocolate so that the chocolate doesn’t fall off into the garnish dish.
Anyway, I think they turned out great. I imagine kids will love these, but if I was making them for kids, I would probably use those sucker sticks instead of sharp toothpicks. I didn’t think I would like them so much, but they’re really good. The chocolate hardened a bit and the crunch of the sprinkles and nuts is a good contrast to the gooey marshmallow. Oh, and using different kinds of sprinkles would make these easily adaptable for different holidays or parties.
