These marshmallows are seriously tasty. They were a lot easier to make than I was anticipating but I did have to borrow a friend’s hand mixer, which is a kitchen appliance I don’t own. It would probably take too long to do by hand, assuming it was even possible. We made these marshmallows the night before Solstice to toast over the bonfire we had out at Oliver Lake and have had many hot chocolates with marshmallows floating in them. That’s probably my favourite way to have them!

It’s not hard to find a recipe for homemade marshmallows and I found a perfect one at the blog, Out of the Box Food, an awesome blog that shows you what’s in commercial processed foods and offers whole food/ homemade alternatives. I love the maple and vanilla flavour in these marshmallows and the best part is not using corn syrup or petroleum products, which we don’t consume here! I’m going to share the recipe because I have a bit more instruction I’d like to add from Paxye’s and then my own experience.

I only want to make one extra note: Next time I would put them into a larger dish so they aren’t quite so thick. I used an 11 x 7 and might try 13 x 9 next time. I ended up cutting many of these in half so they would be easier to handle when we made smores.

Marshmallows

Homemade Marshmallows

  • 2 tbsp Gelatin
  • 1/2 cup Cold Water
  • 1 cup Maple Syrup
  • 1/4 cup Water
  • 1/2 cup Sugar
  • 1/2 Vanilla Bean (or a tsp of Vanilla Extract added to the finished syrup)
  • Butter and Icing Sugar or sifted Cocoa for preparing dish
  1. Butter baking dish very well and then dust evenly with icing sugar to prevent the marshmallows from sticking.
  2. Pour gelatin and 1/2 cup cold water into large mixing bowl. Let sit 10 minutes.
  3. Meanwhile, pour maple syrup, 1/4 cup water and sugar into saucepan. Split vanilla bean, scrape seeds into syrup mixture and then add vanilla bean pod.
  4. Cook syrup mixture over medium low heat. When mixture begins to boil, set timer for 11 minutes and continue to cook without stirring.
  5. After 11 minutes, remove syrup mixture from heat and discard vanilla bean pod.
  6. With a hand mixer or stand mixer, gently mix gelatin to break up for about 3 seconds. Then with mixer running on low, slowly add hot syrup. Mix on low for 1 minute, then increase to high and beat 10 minutes more.
  7. Pour mixture into the prepared dish. Wet hands to prevent sticking and spread mixture evenly in dish.
  8. Lightly sprinkle powdered sugar on top of marshmallows and let sit for four hours or more. (Or less if you can’t wait, they’ll be a bit jiggly but easy enough to handle. Some of my pictures are before they were more hardened.)
  9. Cube or cut with a cookie cutters as you like. My new friend, Joan, suggested cutting them them into snowflake shapes. I think that would be lovely!

Marshmallows in Hot Chocolate

Bzzz....Smore goodness.Maple Vanilla Syrup for marshmallowsToasting

Over the fireSmores!Toasting Marshmallows is Lily's favouriteHomemade marshmallows

I can’t wait to make them again for our New Year’s Eve party in (remote boat access only) Oona River!

13 Responses to Homemade Marshmallows

  1. The first time I saw a recipe for marshmallows was in a Roald Dahl cookbook for kids. “More Revolting Recipes”
    It involved making a pillow of two sheets of them. I vaugly recall there were things in it too. . . dunno/recall what though.
    I had never ever thought to make them! Owning a bookstore opens ones eyes to the possibilities! I still wanna make some! Glad to hear your input. Frankly your blog is really all I need for recipes. Your tastes run really similar to ours and your give great insights to alterations that seem to fit really well in to our ways too!
    Great that you take the time. Thanks!

  2. jo says:

    Okay, okay, okay – you’ve made me jealous enough – can you stop now please?
    I’m drooling, Matt’s not going to be happy with the soggy laptop!
    I think I will have to try to make these very soon. Oh, and very jealous of the Oona trip – say hi to everyone for us, and have a fabulous time.

  3. Katherine says:

    This is so cool, Annie. Thanks. Now I have another vacation activity for the kids. :o)

  4. greenteacher says:

    I wonder what the possibility of making these vegan with agar agar is…hmm, I also wonder what I could do if with the stuff it became a failed experiment!

  5. Hi! I’m so glad you found my website and enjoyed making the Maple Marshmallows! What a wonderful site you have…such beautiful photos and great content! I’m happy to have you bookmarked now! I’ll definitely keep reading!

    On a side note – greenteacher, I’m sure you will make beautiful marshmallows, but should anything go awry, you can always use up the mixture to make some (natural) Rice Crispy Squares!

    Happy Holidays!

  6. Annie says:

    Thanks everyone!

    Mickey- I could totally see how a couple layers of these would make a great pillow if you didn’t mind getting sticky once your warm head melted them! Gross!

    G- I would be thrilled if they were able to be made with agar agar for a vegetarian option. You should try it, or I can… It’s true that it wouldn’t need to go to waste. I bet it would still taste good plopped into a hot chocolate.

    ootbf- I can’t remember now where I came across your website but it is right up my alley.

    Natural Rice Crispy Square recipe: http://outoftheboxfood.com/?p=1672

    I hope you all try and enjoy these marshmallows as much as we do! xx

  7. Erin says:

    I am so making these when it dries out here again and we can have a fire. I have a gallon jug of lovely maple syrup to find uses for and this will be fun to try. I’ll keep your tips in mind too. I’ll likely do what you did for the ingredients too.

    I love them in cocoa and this will make my evening Camino dark cocoa with chopped candied ginger even better. I drink it unsweetened because the chopped ginger is so sweet already but it can always use some extra richness!!

  8. Rebecca says:

    Oh yum! Marshamallows have been on my ‘to make’ list for far too long….

  9. Lindsay says:

    I once made lemon meringue pie by hand for Kris because we didn’t have a mixer of any kind. It took me about an hour to whip that meringue, but I refused to stop and let it go to waste once I’d started. I went out and bought a hand mixer the next day lol. Anyway, these look delicious. Kyrie made strawberry marshmallows once and I was blown away by how much better homemade ones are (as usual).

  10. greenteacher says:

    Thanks for the advice outofthebox and A. I guess it would taste good no matter what it looked like :)

  11. Kim says:

    I tried to make these during a snow storm we had recently and failed at it. I used a hand mixer but the whisk part which got stuck in the candy (which I overcooked). Such a mess to clean up but we were able to salvage enough to enjoy with a cup of cocoa each. So not a total loss… must try again though!

  12. Shannon says:

    OK—Lily and I are at home, trying to enjoy our “funnest day ever” and we decided to toast some marshmallows over the woodfire to put in hot chocolate to drink on the deck while reading books! And of course—nothing will do but Annie’s amazing maple marshmallows! SO happy the recipe is on here. I thought we might have storebought ones in the back of the cupboard somewhere, but Lily said “ah, Mom? I kind of like homeade ones better.” At least she has good taste!

  13. Annie says:

    Yay! I need to make some again soon too. Hot chocolate just isn’t the same without one of these marshmallows.

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