Marshmallow is not food the very first delicacy invented by man. Well, or the second, the first is just dried fruit.
Homemade fruit pastille is a natural, tasty and cheap delicacy for all family members. This pastille is appropriate as an independent dessert for tea or coffee, and is also widely used in baking, and even as an addition to meat dishes. Marshmallow is prepared from pureed berry or fruit puree; apples, cherry plums, plums, apricots or peaches are ideal for marshmallows.

Plum pastille has a very pleasant sweet and sour, not cloying taste and stores well. In the southern regions, marshmallows are dried directly in the sun, but in the middle zone, of course, you will have to use the oven.

Ingredients

• plum 1 kg
• granulated sugar 300 g
• vegetable oil 1-2 tbsp. l.

How to make plum marshmallow at home

1. Choose fruits for marshmallows that are well-ripened, but not overripe, and in no case spoiled. Be sure to check that the pit is easy to separate, otherwise preparing the plum will take a very long time.
2. 
   So, the plums need to be washed and the main water drained. Remove the seeds. It is easy to remove the pit if you cut the plum along the hollow and turn the halves a little. The bone will literally pop out on its own.
3. 
   Place the plum halves in a small saucepan and add 100 ml of water.
4. 
   Over medium heat, bring the plums to a boil and cook until they begin to fall apart. Remove from heat and cool to almost room temperature.
5. 
   Next you will need a blender. Use it to puree all the pulp from the plums.
6. 
   Rub the resulting puree through a sieve, so the mass becomes as homogeneous as possible.
7. 
   Transfer the puree into a saucepan, add sugar, and cook over medium heat (don’t forget to stir constantly, don’t cover it with a lid).
8. 
   How to determine how long to cook the puree? It should look almost like jam, stop boiling, and begin to “spit” quite strongly. Then remove the puree from the heat.
9. 
   Line a baking sheet with parchment, evenly greased.
10. 
    Using a spoon, spread all the plum puree onto the parchment.
11. 
    Now this layer of puree needs to be dried to a marshmallow state. Place the pan in the oven, turn the heat to low and open the oven door slightly. This way the marshmallow will dry for at least 4 hours (depending on the oven, the process may take 6 hours).
12. 
    The pastille is ready when it begins to easily come away from the parchment in one layer. Let it cool completely.
13. 
    Cut the cooled marshmallow into strips with scissors, roll into rolls, each can be tied with twine if desired.

This is how plum pastille is prepared at home. Place it in clean, dry jars and close tightly. It is recommended to store the pastille in a cool place.

Plum pastila is very tasty! Plus it's very useful! It is recommended to replace children's candies with fruit or berry marshmallows - after all, these are natural products, proven, tasty and without preservatives. Adjust the amount of sugar to your taste; if necessary, you can omit it at all or add a minimum.

The only disadvantage of making plum marshmallows at home is the long drying process. Keep in mind that the thicker the layer of marshmallow, the longer it will take to dry.

So let's get started! Take plums, water and sugar.

Wash the plums, dry them and remove the pits.

Place the plums in a saucepan. Let's add some water.

Boil for 15-20 minutes until soft.

Add sugar and cook until it dissolves.

Puree the mixture with an immersion blender. Let's cook until thick - the better you boil the mass, the less time it will have to sit in the oven. But be careful not to burn!

Pour the boiled plum sweet mass onto oiled parchment or silicone mat and place in an oven preheated to 90-100 degrees for 4-6 hours. The oven must be slightly open - I insert a wooden spatula into the door, this is necessary so that the moisture evaporates.

The finished plum marshmallow should be elastic and not sticky. We remove it, sprinkle it with powdered sugar, cut it into shapes, roll it into spirals and store it in a tightly closed jar.

Enjoy your tea!

Many are lovers of natural sweets and prefer to prepare such dishes themselves using fruits. One of the varieties of such desserts is marshmallow, the main ingredient of which is plum fruits. It is quite possible to prepare the dish with your own hands at home, but not everyone knows how to carry out this process correctly. This article will talk in detail not only about the dessert itself, but also about the algorithm and basic recipes for its preparation.

Features of the dish

Plum pastille is a unique delicacy for tea, which has many positive reviews from both adults and children. This dish does not contain chemical components or preservatives. Some of the beneficial substances contained in plum fruits are retained even after heat treatment of the fruit.

Pastila has a soft texture; it can be given any shape and served as homemade sweets. You also have a huge scope for experimentation, since, in addition to plums, you can add other fruits to the delicacy, for example, apples. In addition, you have a unique opportunity to regulate the amount of sugar in the dessert; it is determined by the taste of the fruit itself, as well as personal preferences. Sometimes this dish is made sour and eaten in combination with meat and some hot dishes.

Dessert recipe

Sometimes they take a much smaller amount of sugar, for example, only 70 grams of granulated sugar are added to 700 grams of fruit. If, on the contrary, you want to make a sweeter option, then you can take 500 grams of sugar per kilogram of fruit.

The cooking process must follow a certain algorithm.

• Select suitable fruits. It is desirable that they are quite ripe and juicy. This procedure will also eliminate the need to add a lot of sugar to the dish. Do not use even slightly rotting fruits to create marshmallows.
• Fruits should be washed and stems removed.
• Then cut the plums in half, remove the core and place them in the pan. At this stage, sprinkle the fruit with the juice of half a lemon and add water.
• Next, put the pan on the fire with the lid closed and bring the water inside to a boil.
• Then you need to remove the lid, reduce the heat and evaporate the fruit for 30 minutes.
• Remove the hot fruits and puree them using a blender.

• After this, add sugar and puree the mixture until it reaches a uniform consistency without lumps of sugar. This will take approximately 15 minutes.
• Then take a baking sheet and line it with baking parchment. Apply olive oil on top and pour in the plum mixture. It needs to be leveled so that the thickness of the layer filling the entire baking sheet is no more than 10 mm.
• The oven needs to be preheated to 100 degrees and the future dessert should be placed in it. The baking tray with puree is usually dried for 5-6 hours. To prevent the product from burning, it is recommended to leave the oven door ajar. If you don’t have an oven, you can dry the dessert for two or more days on the balcony. The readiness of the dessert is determined by touching it - it should not stick, and the finished sweetness can be freely separated from the parchment.
• On a baking sheet, cut the treat into portions and then remove from the paper. Afterwards the plates are rolled into a tube shape.

You can eat marshmallows by combining it with various foods. Sometimes it is sprinkled with cinnamon or vanilla is added, serving as a full-fledged dessert. To make the delicacy more satisfying, you can eat it together with various nuts - the products combine quite well.

An unusual taste can be achieved by sprinkling the dessert with sesame seeds or even poppy seeds.

Where can I cook?

You can prepare such the right sweetness not only in the oven. There are other technologies for creating natural delicacies.

To prepare a dish in a slow cooker, you need to take a kilogram of plum fruits and 250 grams of granulated sugar.

The cooking method includes a number of sequential operations.

• Clean and halved plums should be sprinkled with sugar, and then wait about half an hour for them to release their juice.
• Then put the mixture in the slow cooker, selecting the stewing mode, leave the ingredients there for another half hour.
• Using a blender, finally blend the ingredients to a puree consistency and return them to the slow cooker. You should select the simmer mode and leave the mixture there for 4 or 5 hours, stirring from time to time.
• The dish will be ready when no drops drip from the spoon when stirring. Instead, pieces should fall.
• After you have cooled the dessert, put it in a container (it must be lined with cling film on the inside) and leave for 10-12 hours or overnight in the refrigerator.
• When serving, the product is cut into small pieces and rolled in sugar or powdered sugar.

To create plum treats in the microwave, you must follow the step-by-step instructions.

Is it possible to make plum marshmallow at home? Yes, and not even according to one recipe. The marshmallow in this recipe is prepared in its pure form, without sugar, agar-agar, pectin and other thickeners - it can be safely given to even the smallest children, and can also be eaten by pregnant and lactating women without fear of allergic reactions. The calorie content of the dessert is very low, so it can be safely included in your diet.

The rich, natural sweet and sour taste of plum pastille will perfectly complement oatmeal and meat dishes. If the marshmallow is made from sweet varieties of plums, then the result is a dessert that children are happy to eat in its pure form, like candy, and if it is made from sour ones,

Preparation time: 24 hours / Yield: 10 servings.

Ingredients

• sweet plums 1 kg
• vegetable oil 1 tsp.

Preparation

We wash the plums and let the water drain - any type of fruit will do, preferably they are sweet,



We cut each fruit with a sharp knife over the entire surface, dividing the plum into 2 halves, and remove the pit.



Grind the pitted fruits in a blender or pass through a meat grinder. The result should be a homogeneous fruit puree.



Place the plums in a saucepan with a thick bottom and place on the lowest heat. Cook, stirring constantly, for 1 hour - do not cover with a lid.



During the cooking process, the jam will acquire a more uniform consistency of a bright red color. Continue cooking uncovered for another 2 hours, stirring continuously until all the liquid evaporates.



The result should be a thick, dark brown plum jam that holds its shape well.



Cover a baking sheet with parchment and grease it with a small amount of vegetable oil.



Pour the plum jam onto a baking sheet, spread it evenly over the parchment and level it using a wooden or silicone spatula.



The layer should be no thicker than one centimeter - otherwise the marshmallow will dry for a very long time.



We put the plum marshmallow to dry - it will ripen in the sun for 3-4 days, in an oven heated to 100 degrees, the drying time will be 15-20 hours. The oven door should be kept open to allow free air circulation. Determining the degree of drying is very simple: if a trace of juice remains on your finger, then it is too early to remove the marshmallow.



When the marshmallow is completely dry, its thickness will be only 2-3 mm.



Dried marshmallow does not stick to your fingers, leaves no traces of juice, but remains elastic to the touch - this indicates the readiness of the dish. Pastille can turn out darker or lighter depending on the source material.



Remove the plum pastille from the parchment (the finished pastille comes off very easily - another criterion for readiness), roll it into tubes and cut into portions. If desired, you can sprinkle with powdered sugar. You can remove the marshmallow not in one piece, but by cutting it into pieces along with the parchment and then detaching it from the paper, as you wish.

On a note:

• Store plum marshmallows in a tightly sealed glass jar or wrapped in cling paper in the refrigerator.
• You can diversify the taste of marshmallow by adding a little lemon juice and honey, cinnamon, vanilla or nuts.
• You can also make sweet plum pastille. To do this, cook the jam by adding granulated sugar at the rate of 300 g of sugar per 1 kg of plums.

Let the baked plums for the marshmallow cool slightly so as not to burn yourself. Transfer them in batches to a blender and puree until smooth. As you can see, I didn’t remove the skin from them, the blender did a great job with it.

Pour the plum puree into a large saucepan and add sugar to taste. Stir well until it is completely dissolved. If your puree remains warm, then you don’t need to heat it up. If it has time to cool down, you can put it on the stove for just a minute.

Line two large baking trays with baking paper so that it hangs over the edges. Pour the prepared plum puree over them and distribute evenly. The ideal layer thickness for me is half a centimeter or a little more. Otherwise it will take a very long time to dry. The surface should be flat and smooth, as in the photo.

To dry plum marshmallows at home, set your oven to the lowest possible temperature and place the baking sheets in the center. In my oven it's 80 degrees. If you can’t set it to less than 100, then it’s better to leave the oven door ajar, otherwise the marshmallow may burn. If you have a convection mode, feel free to turn it on. It perfectly speeds up the drying process. Approximately halfway through cooking, it is better to swap the baking sheets for even drying. The pastille will be ready when it completely stops sticking to your hands and becomes easy to separate from the paper.