Make Your Own Peeps (Without All the Bad Stuff!)

Growing up, I always found a few Peeps in my Easter basket on Easter morning. I looked forward to it all year long...that crunchy sugar coating with soft marshmallow inside. Now, we can buy Peeps all year long, as they're usually themed for every holiday and not just Easter. While they're cute (and still just as delicious!), I thought it might be fun to make our own for a change, leaving out the artificial colors, corn syrup, and preservatives.

Peeps are pretty simple: shaped marshmallow covered in colored sugar. So, I started by making my own marshmallows. I'd never made marshmallows before, but I'll try most anything at least once. I found this recipe online and thought it sounded fairly straightforward. I didn't want to use corn syrup, though, so I substituted honey in its place. The only problem with using honey is that the marshmallows were honey-flavored. This is fine if you and your family like the taste of honey, but if you don't, you might want to try this recipe instead. I found it after I'd already made the marshmallows, and I'm definitely planning to use it next time I make something that calls for corn syrup.

Making the marshmallows was a lot of fun, and yes, it was messy, but not as messy as I thought it'd be!

Next, I picked out my cutting shapes and got the colored sugar ready. For the shapes, I just used my Spring cookie cutters, but you could also put the soft marshmallow into a decorator bag and use a piping tip to pipe chick shapes.

To make the naturally colored sugar, I used orange juice for yellow, strawberry preserves for pink, and blueberry juice concentrate for purple.

I simply put some sugar into a plastic bag, then added a bit of each juice until I got the desired color. I did like the results, and the juices gave the peeps a subtle flavor that was an unexpected surprise.

My marshmallows turned out a bit thick, and with my large-sized cutters, they made some huge Peeps!

Once I had the shapes, I just sprinkled them with the colored sugar. I then melted a bit of dark chocolate to add some detail, and used a toothpick to create the eyes and lines.

That's it! I used the extra marshmallow and cut it into smaller pieces, and drizzled the leftover melted chocolate on them. Both the Peeps and the marshmallows here a big hit with the family, and with me!

This Kitchen Experiment Was a Failure

I love meringue cookies. Not only are they tasty and sweet, they're mostly air so they're low cal. And they're supposed to be crispy, at least on the outside.

I decided to make a batch tonight using this recipe. I made 1/2 chocolate (without the chips) and 1/2 with pumpkin pie spice. Ever since I read the book Anticancer: A New Way of Life, I have tried to substitute Ideal brand sweetener for sugar whenever possible. Most of the time, it works out great, whether I'm baking, cooking, or just sweetening something. Not this time, though.

The meringue batter looked and tasted great. They even had that shine that you only get once you sweeten meringue. I popped them into the oven, and when they were done, the edges were nice and lightly browned, as usual. Once they'd cooled for a minute, though, I picked one up to try it, and it felt like one of those foam squeeze stress-relief balls that corporations give to their employees. They tasted okay, but the texture kind of ruined it for me.

So, why are my meringue cookies chewy and not crispy? A little research confirmed that it's the sugar that makes them crispy. Luckily my four-year-old daughter likes them, and she ate quite a few. I ate a few, too, just to satisfy my craving for something sweet. It'll be the last time I use a substitute for sugar in meringues, though!