Help me fix my marshmallow disaster!

I am trying to make marshmallow (as you do!) and it was an absolute disaster! This is what I did:

The recipe told me to boil the water/sugar/gelatine for 15 minutes without stirring. This part went OK, though the syrup was just starting to brown on top. I then had to cool it until it was lukewarm, add vanilla essence, then beat until light and fluffy. As it cooled, the mixture got quite thick and hard, so much so that I almost broke the electric beater! It looked like plastic and was really thick and stretchy with crumbly bits on the bottom of the bowl.

Where did I go wrong?

ive only made marshmallow once so Im no expert but maybe it was too cool??

No idea, but the same thing happened to me ...

No idea as my marshmallow making attempt turned out so bad I vowed never to do confectionary again.

hummm, i thought the other day id give it a go as i saw a recipie but after reading this maybe its not as easy as i thought! maybe it was too cool or it boiled to fast and you lost to much water??? just guessing though! :)