Christmas tree marshmallows for minted hot chocolate

Last year I made my first marshmallows - they were vanilla-flavoured and rolled in shredded coconut and cut in cubic shapes to mimic igloo blocks. That was for my son's Pingu themed birthday party last summer.
The marshmallows was quite a success and for me - relatively easy and straightforward to make. So they have been on my to cook list for quite a while.
Last Christmas I was thinking of a drink gift for the teachers and came up with the idea of mint-flavoured hot chocolate with marshmallows. Then the image of a hot cup of warm chocolate with floating green Christmas-tree marshmallows inside just popped into my mind and I knew what I was going to make.
Besides mint and chocolates are one of my top flavours for chocolate.
So here we go - I got the mini-Christmas tree cookie cutter I've got (I've got lots of cookies cutters) out of the cookie cutter storing box, prepared the gelatine, sugar and the mint essence, put the mixer on stand by and rolled up my sleeves.

The time needed until leaving the marshmallow mixture to dry is about 15-20 minutes. Setting time might take between 6 hours to overnight.
Well, cutting the actual shape of the marshmallows is a bit fiddly as they are stubbornly sticky and I had to wash the cutter every 5-6 cut shapes. So the final time would vary.

Recipe

Covers one 30x40 cm raised-edge oven tray - the thickness of the marshmallows is about 0.5 cm. If you need them thicker - use a smaller and deeper dish.

114 g powdered gelatin

90 ml water

1/2 tbsp mint extract

1 cups sugar

75 ml water

100 g golden syrup

1/4 tsp salt

green food colouring

rice four 

confectioner's sugar

Method

Sprinkle the gelatin in the cold water and leave to soak and absorb the water - 10 minutes. Then heat the mixture for a very short period - 1-2 minutes in bain marie or twice for 5 seconds in a microwave oven until it liquefies. Set aside.

In the meantime - the 10 minutes - combine the sugar, water, golden syrup and salt in a saucepan and bring to the boil until it reaches the soft ball stage - 115 degrees C. 

Remove from heat and transfer to a bigger bowl. Add the liquefied gelatin and start mixing with a hand mixer at high speed for some 8 minutes. The mixture will expand absorbing air and change colour to opaque white and consistency to light and fluffy. At that stage add the mint extract and the colouring.

Line a the biscuit tray with parchment paper and spray with oil.

Transfer the mixture to the tray and leave for between 6 hours to overnight.

On the next day using oiled cookie cutter cut the desired shapes and roll into mixed rice flour and icing sugar.

Store in airtight container and sprinkle some over your hot chocolate, coffee, or even tea! :)