magazine madness

My resolution for 2008 is to cut down on buying cookery mags. I've got every issue of delicious published since it began, a couple of years of V E & T and Gourmet Traveller, and quite a few Donnas. Once read, the thought of looking through them in search of a good recipe never appeals, plus they're taking over the pantry. I cook from delicious all the time, but not that much from any of the others. Occasionally, though, I see something I just have to make...like the passionfruit marshmallows which were on the Chef's Recipes page of December Gourmet Traveller.

A reader asked for the recipe after tasting them at Rockpool. They looked so pretty in the picture and sounded easy, so today was the day. After all the excessive eating over Xmas/New Year I was going to make half a batch, so I started off with 5 passionfruit rather than the 10 that the recipe called for. But when I added the gelatine, I forgot to halve the amount, so had to go out and buy 5 more passionfruit.

I used a sugar thermometer for the sugar and water mixture, and the instructions said it had to be immersed at least 5 cms. As the liquid in the pan was only about 2 cms deep, I didn't know if the temperature it was registering was accurate so had to hope it was cooked enough. It seemed to be doing all the right things when I beat it with the egg whites. I patiently left it to set for the 3 hours...

I don't think the toffee was cooked quite enough - the finished product could definitely have been firmer and therefore not so messy to cut. It tasted good though - the passionfruit flavour was quite intense. It made a huge panful and I was feeling a little sick by the time I'd cut it up into squares and sampled the odd bit. I'll probably be calling in to work tomorrow to get rid of it all.