Natural Easter Peeps

1. Grease your molds. I used some aluminum molds and some silicone. You need enough to put one whole recipe in the molds at once as soon as it’s whipped, before it gets too set to pour. I greased mine with cooking spray, but you could easily just rub some oil in the molds with a paper towel. Set molds aside once they’re greased and ready to go.

2. In a small bowl, soak gelatin and 1/2 cup of cold water. Set aside.

3. Combine granulated sugar and remaining 1/2 cup of water in a large heavy saucepan.

4. Cook and stir over medium heat until dissolved. Add gelatin and bring to a boil.

5. Remove from heat. Pour into a large bowl and let stand until partially cool.

6. Add salt and vanilla extract. Beat with an electric mixer on high speed until white and doubled in volume. You have to beat it for quite a few minutes and this is where a stand mixer really comes in handy.

7. Pour marshmallow creme into molds. Actually, it’s more like scooping it with a big spoon carefully into each mold.

8. While the marshmallow sets (it will take about 20 minutes or more), prepare the decorating sugar. I used India Tree decorating sugar. I had blue and pink. I cleaned my coffee grinder out really well and put some of the decorating sugar in it (the granules were too big) and ground it finer. Then I put it in a bowl and added some regular white sugar to make it go further. Also, I made one bowl with regular white sugar, added a few sprinkles of turmeric and then a couple of drops of liquid chlorophyll. This became a nice yellow! And I used a few all natural jelly beans on a couple of peeps for eyes, but they were really too big.

9. Marshmallows should be easy to remove from molds if they were greased well. Then, roll them in the prepared decorating sugar and place on a waxed-paper-lined tray.

10. Don’t eat too many! Save some for the kids! (These can be stored in a Ziploc bag in the freezer or refrigerator to keep them fresh.)