Who doesn’t like roasting marshmallows over an open fire, either for s’mores, or just plain eating? No, seriously, who doesn’t – email me and we’ll have an intervention or something.
Marshmallows in their simplest form are basically sugar, water, and gelatin. However, if you look at the ingredients of most store marshmallows, you’ll find corn syrup (GMO), corn starch (GMO), and both artificial flavors and colors (because after all, only Blue #1 can give you a really white marshmallow).
But if you’re like us (this was the brainchild of S, so I’ll give credit where it’s due), you wonder why you can’t make your own, and skip all the garbage… Here’s the answer to that prayer – we’re going to show you how to make homemade marshmallows with no corn syrup.
Easy Homemade Marshmallows
Start by soaking some gelatin in 1/2 cup cold water in a small bowl.
Cook the sugar and 1/2 cup water over medium heat until fully dissolved. Add the gelatin mixture to the sugar and bring to a boil while stirring.
Pour this into a mixing bowl and let cool for a few minutes. Add the salt and vanilla.
With an electric mixer, beat for about 10-15 minutes, or until it doubles in volume (I’ll admit, this part is boring, but necessary to fluff it up).
Pour into a square pan that’s been dusted with powdered sugar or arrowroot, and set aside until cool. You’ll have to work quickly, once you stop mixing, it’ll start to solidify pretty fast, so pour it out as soon as you finish with the mixer.
Cut your homemade marshmallows into 1-2 inch squares, and roll in powdered sugar if desired.
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp gelatin (go high-quality if you can)
- 1/2 cup cold water
- 2 cups organic sugar (Costco actually carries this at a good price)
- Another 1/2 cup of cold water
- Pinch of salt
- 2 tsp real vanilla extract
Instructions
- Dust an 8-inch square pan with powdered sugar or organic corn starch.
- Soak gelatin in 1/2 cup cold water in a small bowl.
- In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar and 1/2 cup water, cooking over medium heat and stirring until fully dissolved.
- Add the gelatin mixture and bring to a boil, stirring to combine.
- Pour this into a mixing bowl and let cool for a few minutes. Add the salt and vanilla.
- With an electric mixer, beat for 10-15 minutes, until it doubles in volume (I'll admit, this part is boring, but necessary to fluff it up).
- Pour into your square pan, and set aside until cool.
- Cut into 1-2 inch squares, and roll in powdered sugar.
And when you’re done, you can break out the blowtorch.
Woohoo, now you can enjoy your very own Fluffy Puff marshmallows, made from the best stuff! (You probably need to be between the ages of 25 and 32 to get that reference… good old college days, when we had nothing better to do than find goofy Flash movies online…)
How do you store these and how long do they last?
They’ll last about a week until they start to get a little crunchy (depending on the humidity level – here in the cold dry winter air, probably less than that). They still taste fine if the top gets crunchy, and we still toast them.
As for storage, we usually just keep them in the pan and keep it covered. You could take them out and keep them in a jar or Pyrex container, but you’d probably want to dust them individually with powdered sugar or they’d all just end up in one big sticky clump.
I’m bookmarking this recipe for our homemade Easter peeps. Thanks!
Ha! fluffy puffy marshmallows! my 15 yr old wore his older brother’s homestar runner sweatshirt to school – and only a teacher knew him.
I’ve made these a few times and have a tip: pipe the mixture into drops on a dusted cookie sheet and then sprinkle powdered sugar / corn starch on top – no need to cut and you can put them in a jar to store 🙂
I hate piping anything, but it does sound like a good idea 🙂 Thanks!
Alternatively- add 12-14 oz of rice crispie cereal (roughly 12-14 cups) and 3 TBS melted butter while the marshmallow goo is still warm and un-set. Then pour into a wax-paper covered pan, allow to cool, and cut into rice crispie treats!