I've been making my own homemade peeps for 8 years now! They are so so SO easy and seriously SO DELICIOUS! These little guys are only 4 ingredients and just take a little time and voila, the most delicious peeps you will ever have!
Add a few drops of the yellow, grind until sugar is bright yellow, but not so much it turns into a powder
spread sugar across a cookie sheet on parchment paper and place in an oven on low, keep stirring the sugar, you just want to dry it out a bit (the gel dye can make it too wet)
Marshmallow
Soak the gelatin in the 1/3 of a cup of cold water in a small bowl and set aside to swell for 10 minutes.
In a large saucepan dissolve the sugar in the 1 1/2 C of water over low heat, stirring constantly.
Add the swollen gelatin and dissolve.
Raise the temperature and bring to a boil.
Boil steadily, but not vigorously, for 15 minutes without stirring.
Remove from the heat and add to the mixer
Beat the mixture until it turns white and add the vanilla.
Then keep beating until it's very thick and white. I listen for the sound to change as the mixer starts working harder. It should hold the ribbons left from the beaters for the count of 6 before smoothing out completely. Don't over beat or the marshmallows will get too tough.
Once the mixture is at the right texture and you stop beating it will start to set. You want it to partiall set so it's thicker and holds it's shapped when piped but not set so much that you can't pipe anymore
spread out 1/2 the yellow sugar on a pan
using a large round tip and piping bag pipe a long oval about 1 inch wide and 2 inches long - pull away quickly to make the tail. I do a test one to see if it's thick enough before I pipe the rest.
repeat doing 4-5 right next to each other slightly touching - make a few more sets
holding the piping bag straight up and down pipe a large circle onto the rounded end of the oval
when it's about as wide a the oval start raising your piping tip as you go but lowering the pressure creating a pyramid of marshmallow - then at the end tilt the bag by 90 degrees and stop squeezing, pull away from the mound creating the head and beak, pinch off. Do a test peep to make sure it's thick enough to hold the shape
cover the marshmallows in more yellow sugar before they set
use the black dye and a toothpick to dot the eyes on