Dehydrated mini marshmallows have been on my "to do" list for a while. Why might you ask? Well, I love hot chocolate. (Not so much the store bought, but the kind made from the recipe found on my blog here.) Marshmallows are so tempting to buy shopping. Even more tempting during the holiday season when all brands can be found at rock bottom prices. My problem lies in the inability to use them up fast enough. They eventually get a funky color and start to stick together... even before the best buy date. :( About a month ago, I came across prepper post regarding dehydrating marshmallows. The prepper dehydrated them at 115 for over 10 hours. Unfortunately, it didn't work for me. Instead of wasting the partially dehydrated marshmallows, the Magic Mill got turned up to 151 degrees for 4 hours, and the marshmallows turned out nice and crunchy. Not quite as sugary as Lucky Charms Cereal but having the same texture. Score!
The dehydrated marshmallows do a slow melt in a steaming cup of hot chocolate. Perfect for me! I purchased three more bags of minis to dehydrate and put in pint ball jars and vacuum seal with my food saver for the possibility of long-term storage. My Magic Mill with its 6 shelves can hold 2 bags of minis with little effort. A third bag probably could've been squeezed in, but it was MIA when I started the set up... So, it will go in the next round! ;)
The Magic Mill has been set for 151 degrees at 4 hours. It was tempting to set it for 5 hours, but if four works, energy has been saved.
Noteworthy: The Magic Mill has a square grid on the shelves. Quite a few of the minis found their way through during the loading process. Knowing that the minis will get slightly larger during the drying process, there is also the possibility of them wedging between the grids. With this in mind, I decided to use my mesh and honey combed plastic covers on the shelves. The marshmallows want to roll all over, but this extra effort is a necessary step.
More tomorrow with the final outcome! :)
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