I love all the fall-time holidays. Of course, Halloween is a favorite of mine, but I thought that it would be the perfect time to have a backyard movie night to watch Coco and celebrate Dia de los Muertos. I’ll show you how I did my party and share my recipe for homemade Spicy Hot Chocolate Marshmallows.
Coco Movie Night
I have been hosting backyard movies for friends, family and neighbors for 14 years. I usually host them in the summer (you should see what I do for The Sound of Music!) but I thought that with the weather cooling down, right now would be the perfect time for an outdoor movie. With a whole collection of movies to choose from, I figured that Coco would be the right fit. Coco shows off a wonderful cultural holiday, Dia de los Muertos, and tells a story about the importance of family. I was surprised how many of my friends had never seen the movie but everyone just loved it!
To get my backyard ready for the screening, I decorated with papel picado (the colorful paper banners) and LOTS of candles.
I made floral headbands with items I found at the Dollar Tree— there were definitely a lot of marigolds used for those!
I usually ask for people to bring donations for a local food pantry and I raffle off big movie theater candy. This time, I decided to giveaway Coco-themed sugar cookies that I got on Etsy. The big giveaway prize was a Coco mug from Disneyland!
No movie screening is complete without snacks, so I made some marshmallows from scratch (it’s really not as hard as you think, you’ll see!) and a Crockpot full of Mexican hot chocolate. I made spicy marshmallows for the hot chocolate and chocolate-cinnamon swirl ones fo the s’mores. They were SO GOOD!
I hope this inspires you to celebrate Dia de los Muertos over the next few days and watch one of my favorite movies, Coco. Now, let’s make some marshmallows!
Spicy Hot Chocolate Marshmallows
makes about 24 marshmallows
Ingredients
Marshmallows:
- 3 envelopes gelatin
- 1 c cold water, divided
- 1 1/2 c granulated sugar
- 1 c light corn syrup
- 1/2 t sea salt
- 1 T vanilla extract
- 1 vanilla bean, scraped
- 1 t ground cinnamon
- 1/4 t ground cayenne
- powdered sugar for dusting
chocolate coating:
- 6 oz dark chocolate or semi-sweet, roughly chopped ( I used Ghiradelli)
- pinch of cinnamon
- pinch of cayenne
Directions:
make the marshmallow mixture
- Start by preparing a sheet pan by lining with parchment and covering it in a thick dusting of powdered sugar. Set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the gelatin and 1/2 a cup of the water and set aside while you make the syrup.
- In a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the remaining 1/2 cup of water, granulated sugar, corn syrup, and salt and bring to boil at medium heat. I spray my measuring cup with cooking spray so that the corn syrup doesn’t stick to it and all of it goes into the pan.
- Continue to let the mixture bubble until it reaches 240 degrees (soft ball stage).
- With the mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, slowly drizzle the syrup in over the gelatin with the mixer on medium-low. After you’ve added all the syrup, turn the mixer up to high and let it beat for about 10-15 minutes until the mixture is thick, glossy and white.
- Beat in the vanilla extract, scraped vanilla bean, cinnamon, and cayenne.
Form the marshmallows
- Add your marshmallow mixture to a large piping bag fitted with a large round tip and pipe little kisses. I made two sizes: a small, two-bite size and a larger size perfect for topping mugs of hot chocolate.
- If you don’t want to bother with a piping bag, you can add the marshmallow mixture to a square or rectangular pan covered in powdered sugar and top the marshmallows with powdered sugar as well to later slice into squares.
- Let them dry at least 8 hours, or overnight.
Dip the marshmallows
- If you chose to make square marshmallows, dip a knife in powdered sugar and slice marshmallows into squares. Brush off any excess powdered sugar from the marshmallows and set aside.
- Place a large mixing bowl over a pot filled with a few inches of water to create a double boiler. The bowl should not touch the surface of the water. Add the chocolate and melt over medium heat.
- Dip the bottoms of the marshmallows in the chocolate and set on a wax paper or parchment-lined sheet tray and drizzle the tops with a little more chocolate using a fork. Sprinkle with a pinch each of cinnamon and cayenne.
You can either add these marshmallows to your favorite hot chocolate recipe or share and snack on them as they are.
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Let’s Hear From You
I hope that this will inspire you to watch Coco tonight! And with the weather getting cooler, it’s always a good time to keep some marshmallows on hand. Have you seen Coco? How do you celebrate Dia de los Muertos in your family? Do you have any special traditions for the falltime holidays?