Time to celebrate marshmallows with local and homemade treats
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Gretchen's homemade Easter peeps. -
The Peep Mobile arrived in Pittsburgh on April 8. -
Debbie Steinberg and Chris Momberger of the Pittsburgh Marshmallow Factory. -
Coconut Cake with Lemon Curd and Marshmallow Frosting
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Chris Momberger's analytical mind is perfectly suited to his job as a performance engineer. It's also worked magic with marshmallows.
Five years ago, he started making the sugary treats to take to potlucks and parties, first by his lonesome -- he needed a creative outlet to balance all that corporate problem-solving -- and then with the help of girlfriend Debbie Steinberg, who at the time was working on a degree in landscape architecture from Chatham University.
The pair proved so good at experimenting with sugar and gelatin that last fall they decided to go pro as the Pittsburgh Marshmallow Factory. They rented a stall at Pittsburgh Public Market in the Strip District, where on weekends more than a dozen varieties tempt for $1 a square. They're also sold at Hippie House Coffee in Oakmont and online at pittsburghmarshmallowfactory.com.
Mr. Momberger, 37, of East Deer, says, "Marshmallows strike a very primal nerve with people," in large part because no one ever eats them when they're having a bad time: you're either stirring a handful of jet-puffed minis into a cup of hot chocolate or roasting the big ones over an open campfire for s'mores.
The fluffy white confection also is the quintessential Easter treat. What kid (or adult) can resist a sugar-coated Peep, which Bethlehem's Just Born candy company churns out to the tune of 4.2 million per day? That's enough in one year to circle the earth twice.
The bright-yellow marshmallow candies in the shape of chicks (and bunnies) are the most iconic, although the novelty eats, which first showed up in Easter baskets in 1953, also now come in bright green, blue, pink, orange and lavender, as well as in a variety of flavors such as chocolate mousse and mint. Just Born also makes a sugar-free marshmallow Peep sweetened with Splenda. New this year are milk- and dark-chocolate-dipped Peeps and nugget-sized Peepsters, samples of which were handed out last Friday around town during the first-ever PEEPS tour.
Not even a steady rain stopped crowds of Pittsburghers from converging on the bright-yellow Volkswagen Beetle, crowned with a giant Peep, whenever it pulled to a stop so the people inside could hand product out the window.
"We've gotten a million smiles, and that's before people even know we have candy," said Paul Gustafson, chief engineer of the multicity, three-week tour, which started April 5 in Nashville and concludes Saturday in Washington, D.C.
The company also has branched out to other holidays, with marshmallow candy in the shape of hearts for Valentine's Day, jack-o-lanterns for Halloween, and Christmas trees, snowmen and reindeer for Christmas.
A relative drop in the buck are the 750 or so 1 1/2-inch squares Mr. Momberger and Ms. Steinberg make each week in a rented commercial kitchen in Brackenridge. But they're also way more gourmet, crafted in small batches by hand, with flavors that most of us never could have imagined as kids, and might also have a hard time wrapping our heads around as adults.
They started simply enough, with vanilla and chocolate. Then Ms. Steinberg devised an orange creamsicle marshmallow that knocked everyone's socks off, and, "That's the moment I realized she had surpassed me in marshmallow creativity," says Mr. Momberger. "And the flavors kept coming."
"We're always looking for better ways and new ideas," agrees Ms. Steinberg, 32.
All of their marshmallows are made with as many local natural ingredients as possible.
First Published April 14, 2011 12:00 am
