On a whim last week, I made grapefruit blood orange ginger marshmallows. I had seen the confection being made from scratch perhaps a decade ago, but it looked like a lot of effort for a treat that I had long perceived as cloyingly, flatly sweet. At the start of the year I stumbled upon the notion of using fruit juice in place of water to create a tangy balance, and so I thought to experiment with Alton Brown’s recipe.

Making the fluffy sweet reminded me about the Stanford marshmallow experiment. Beginning in the late 1960s, a psychology professor at Stanford University conducted a series of studies on delayed gratification. In all, over 600 children between ages 3 and 6 participated. Subjects of the study were given the option of immediately consuming the less favoured reward of 1 marshmallow – or sometimes a cookie or a pretzel – or waiting up to 15 minutes to be given the preferred reward of 2 marshmallows. The studies found that age was a determinant factor in achieving delayed gratification, as was being distracted by other thoughts during the waiting period. On a basic level, this sounds intuitive. We know from everyday experience that as children get older, they usually become better about not throwing a tantrum when instant reward is not delivered (though some of us have had relatives or bosses who defy this trend), and that we tend to be more patient about waiting if there are distractions to kill time (this might explain why my old doctor’s office subscribed to such a wide range of magazines and hired such eccentric front desk staff). What was interesting was that in his follow up work decades later, the Stanford professor found that the children who were better with delayed gratification tended to show more future-oriented self-control, had superior SAT scores, and were rated as being more rational and better at handling social pressures. What remains to be discussed is whether – and if so, how – these phenomena are related: Are some children just born better at delaying gratification and that same gift is what allows them to achieve success as adults? Or are those kids raised in environments that encouraged rationally deferring immediate reward in exchange for greater dividends in future?

While we mull over that, perhaps you’d like to try making this slightly tart marshmallow. It does take a whole 12 minutes of whipping and 4 hours of resting time, so maybe a little finesse with delaying gratification would be helpful?

Grapefruit Blood Orange Ginger Marshmallow

Ingredients:

• 3/4 (180 ml) cup sugar
• 1/2 (125 ml) cup corn syrup
• 1/4 tsp (1 ml) salt
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) blood orange juice (about 1 1/2 medium fruit), strained
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) grapefruit juice (about 1/2 large fruit), strained
• 1″ (2.5 cm) ginger
• 1.5 packets (10.5 g) unflavoured gelatin
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) powdered sugar, more for dusting/slicing

Directions:

1. In medium saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup, salt, and blood orange juice. Stir to combine. Attach a candy thermometer. Cook on high heat until mixture reaches 250ºF, about 7-8 minutes.
2. While syrup mixture is cooking, in a stand mixer’s bowl or a deep mixing bowl (if using a hand mixer), sprinkle gelatin over grapefruit juice. Let bloom for about 5 minutes.
3. While gelatin is blooming, finely mince the ginger and strain the juices into the grapefruit mix.
4. Line a 6″ x 8″ baking tray with plastic wrap. Lightly mist wrap with oil. Dust bottom and sides with about 1 tbsp (15 ml) icing sugar. Shake tray to evenly coat all sides.
   
5. Once the orange syrup has reached 250ºF, immediately remove from heat.
   
6. Turn mixer to low and begin whisking while slowly streaming in the hot syrup along the inside walls of the bowl.
   
7. Once syrup is well-combined with the grapefruit mix, turn up mixer speed and whip for about 12 minutes or until mixture has doubled in volume.
   
8. Pour mixture into lined pan with help of lightly oiled spatula. Smooth top surface. Gently tap tray on counter to release big air bubbles. Let cool for 4 hours before slicing.
   
9. To slice, dust cutting board and blade with 1 tbsp powdered sugar. Lift marshmallow block out of pan, invert, and peel off plastic wrap. Cut into 3/4″ (2 cm) cubes. Dust blade with sugar in between cuts.
10. Place marshmallows in large container with lid and gently shake with 1 tbsp powdered sugar until cubes are evenly coated. Store in airtight container for up to 1 week.