Vanilla Sugar Lemonade and Mint Lemonade Slushies

I had my mac and cheese post all ready to go, but it's just way too hot today to think about turning on the oven or the stove.  So here's another post I've been working on that seems a better match for today's weather.

A couple of weeks ago, Food52 posted a video to show how to make The Best Lemonade You've Ever Had.  Strangely, there was no recipe attached, just a method involving rubbing the lemons in the sugar to scent them before making a simple syrup out of the sugar.  You had to dig into the comments to find that they recommend using equal volumes of lemon juice and simple syrup and that the simple syrup was made with equal volumes of the lemon scented sugar and water.

I tried the method, and on a whim, decided to use vanilla sugar* instead of plain sugar.  Wow.  This was definitely the best lemonade I had ever had.  It's been over a week since I made it, and I've made it several times since then, but I still can't put into words what makes it so great.  The vanilla just elevates the lemonade to another level but in a subtle, understated way.

Vanilla Sugar Lemonade (adapted from Food52)
makes 4 servings

2 large organic lemons, washed and dried
1/2 cup vanilla sugar*
Water

Place the sugar in a wide bowl.  One at a time, rub the outside of the lemons with the vanilla sugar.  Wipe off any sugar that remains on the lemons back into the bowl.

Roll the lemons on a hard surface to make juicing easier.  Slice the lemons in half and juice into a measuring cup.  I was able to get a little more than half a cup of juice.

Add more sugar if you want to match the volume of lemon juice.  Add an equal volume of hot water to the sugar and stir until dissolved to make a simple syrup.

Add the lemon juice and simple syrup to a pitcher or bottle.  Dilute with enough cold water to taste.  I add about 4 parts cold water to 1 part lemon juice/simple syrup solution.  It's still just the tiniest bit too strong for me to drink straight up but perfect once you add a few cubes of ice.  =)

*To make the vanilla sugar, I've been adding the spent vanilla bean pods to an air-tight container of sugar every time I make something that uses fresh vanilla beans.  After letting it sit there for a few days, the sugar absorbs the scent of the vanilla and becomes vanilla sugar!  You can use it in just about anything sweet:  cookies, cakes, ice cream, etc.

Then a couple of days ago I get a text from my friend Paula asking me if I wanted any of the mint she and her family had just picked from their backyard!  I immediately accepted even though I wasn't sure what I would do with it yet.  Then when I was making my third batch of lemonade in probably as many days, I started wondering if maybe I could rub the mint with the sugar and add some mint flavor to the lemonade that way.

So after rubbing the lemons in the sugar, I dropped in a handful of mint leaves and rubbed those all around.  I left the leaves in the sugar while pouring the hot water in and let it steep for a bit before straining out the leaves.  I found that I was able to extract a lot of the mint flavor this way without having to leave the mint leaves in the actual lemonade.  And if you really like the taste of mint, I'd recommend tearing the mint leaves up before adding them to the sugar to release even more oils.

To take it one step further, I decided to blend the mint lemonade with some ice to make a mint lemonade slushie, inspired by Ilene's post.

Yisss.....

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Vanilla & Cinnamon Marshmallows

I begged my friend, Andy, to throw a "Winter Warmer" just so I could have an excuse to make these marshmallows.  They're perfect for dunking in hot chocolate, toasting over a flame, or even just eating by themselves.

 
Vanilla & Cinnamon Marshmallows (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)
Makes about 96 1-inch cubed marshmallows

About 1 cup confectioners sugar
3 1/2 envelopes (2 tablespoons plus 2 1/2 teaspoons) unflavored gelatin
1 cup cold water, divided
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large egg whites, at room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla
Ground cinnamon

Oil bottom and sides of a 13- by 9- by 2-inch rectangular metal baking pan and dust bottom and sides with some confectioners’ sugar.

 
In bowl of a standing electric mixer or in a large bowl sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold cold water, and let stand to soften.  (It's not written in the SK recipe, but see how the top layer of gelatin powder doesn't get wet?  Don't leave it like that; stir it around a little so that it's all combined, which I failed to do with this batch, although if you forget, it's not the end of the world.)

 
In a 3-quart heavy saucepan cook granulated sugar, corn syrup, second 1/2 cup of cold water, and salt over low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to moderate and boil mixture, without stirring, until a candy or digital thermometer registers 240°F, about 12 minutes. Remove pan from heat and pour sugar mixture over gelatin mixture, stirring until gelatin is dissolved.  (At this point it's going to smell really bad, and you're going to wonder if the marshmallows will even be edible.  They will be, trust me.)

 
With standing mixer beat mixture on high speed until white, thick, and nearly tripled in volume, about six minutes.

 
In separate medium bowl with cleaned beaters beat egg whites until they just hold stiff peaks. Beat whites and vanilla into sugar mixture until just combined.

 
Pour mixture into baking pan. Sift 1/4 cup confectioners sugar evenly over top.

 
Chill marshmallow, uncovered, until firm, at least three hours, and up to one day.

 
Run a thin knife around edges of pan and invert pan onto a large cutting board. Lifting up one corner of inverted pan, with fingers loosen marshmallow and ease onto cutting board. With a large knife cut marshmallow into roughly one-inch cubes. (An oiled pizza cutter works well here too.)

 
Sift remaining confectioners’ sugar back into your now-empty baking pan, and roll the marshmallows through it, on all six sides, before shaking off the excess and packing them away.  (I found it was easiest to do this in batches rather than all at once.)

 
Marshmallows keep in an airtight container at cool room temperature 1 week.

This is where the recipe from Smitten Kitchen stops.  I tasted the marshmallows at this point, and they were perfect in texture--springy and fluffy just like she promised.  The taste was just a little too...one dimensional for me, though.  Vanilla in its other definition.  It was too late to add any wet ingredients like another flavor extract, but then I thought, what if I just toss it with some cinnamon?  Cinnamon and sugar are such a great flavor combination already (think cinnamon toast or snickerdoodles), it couldn't hurt to try.  So I plopped a few marshmallows in a gallon-sized Ziploc bag and sprinkled in a few dashes of ground cinnamon.  A few shakes later, the cinnamon was pretty evenly distributed.

 
It came down to the taste test:  would it be enough?  Too strong?  It turned out perfect!  The cinnamon added just enough spicy heat to give the marshmallows some depth while still remaining light and airy.  Unfortunately I didn't measure out how much cinnamon I tossed in there; it was literally just a couple of shakes.  I'd say start off with a little, shake, and taste.  If you want, you can always add more, but it's pretty hard to remove the cinnamon if you add too much.

Next time:  Passion Fruit Marshmallows!
Four years ago:  Toasted Coconut Ice Cream with Sesame Brittle and Crystallized Ginger

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