“What’s this?” my son asked, waving a jar clearly marked Marshmallow Creme. It wasn’t a literal question; he can read. He was really asking me why in the world I was bringing such crap into the house. “It’s got corn syrup in it. The first ingredient!”
My holiday fudge is the best fudge ever*. The recipe calls for a jar of marshmallow creme. What’s a girl to do? I have to make fudge. It’s a holiday tradition.
Him: “Can’t you mess around with the recipe and leave out the marshmallow?”
Me: “It won’t be the same! You know how much you guys love my fudge.”
Him: “Isn’t there something else you can use?”
Me: “It won’t be the same!”
Him: “Can’t we make our own marshmallow creme without corn syrup?”
Me: “Actually, I do know where I can get a recipe like that…”
Him: “Let’s make some, then. That would be fun!”
And so we did. We used the recipe for corn syrup-free marshmallows from Frugal Kiwi. The boys measured out sugar, honey, and water into a pot, but once the sugar melted, the amount of liquid in the pot was laughable. The ingredients barely filled the bottom of our 8-quart pot so we switched to a small saucepan. The sugar mixture was a kind of ugly brown color the entire time it was cooking – not very marshmallow-y at all. The boys were a little skeptical, wondering if this recipe would really make very many marshmallows. Or if they’d be the right color.
Once we poured the hot liquid into my stand mixer and set it going, though, the mixture began to take on the expected white color. And it began to grow in bulk; by the time it was done, the bowl was half-full.
I put enough of the fluff into a jar to use for making fudge, and the boys spread the rest to cut into marshmallows. The result?
“Wow! These taste just like…marshmallows!”
You will need a candy thermometer for the recipe, but it really is very easy and didn’t take much time at all – half an hour, maybe? I’ll definitely make them again.
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*My fudge recipe was passed to me from a friend. It really is the best fudge recipe ever. People scoff when I say that, but only until they try it themselves. Then they come back to me and tell me I was right, which is always nice.
These look good! We’ll have to try it. But to be really authentic, we should probably look for a recipe that uses mallow from a marsh!
We WILL be trying this at our house very soon!! Thanks for the link!!!
Sounds like fun!
I have made my own marshmallows – just water, sugar, and geletin – as part of a great squares recipe. Pink snow squares. I think the recipe is older than commercial marshmallows!
I also have the same fudge recipe (and need to make a couple more batches today) but I never bother with marshmallow creme – I just buy the biggest bag of regular marshmallows that I can find.
This year I also discovered that a kitchen scale is a huge help. My recipe is for “one package …” and when I buy enough for 10+ batches in bulk, weighing out the ingredients is much easier than measuring out a 1 kg bag of marshmallows and dividing to figure out how many cups make 200g.
Merry Christmas and enjoy baking and experimenting with your kids.
I’ve got it on my list to make these plain, chocolate dipped and with coconut for presents for friends. They go over very well and look especially elegant when piped instead of poured.
The nice thing about marshmallow creme (or Fluff if you go for the name brand stuff) is that it doesn’t have gelatin in it. You can make pretty good creme by making marshmallows and just leaving out the gelling agent.
My wife did a writeup a year or so ago on her blog (hopefully linked on my name) about a vegetarian marshmallow recipe from the hydrocolloid recipe book being compiled at khymos.org. Just leave off the gum arabic if you don’t want it to thicken up.
The recipe actually worked better than the gelatin-based ones I tried to make back when I still ate meat.
Chris, thanks for sharing a veggie marshmallow option. We’ve been mail ordering our marshmallows for years. I can’t wait to try these out with my hard-core veggie son. Thanks!
So cool! I love it that your son knows to avoid corn syrup.
First of all, I’m so impressed with your son! You go, girl, at raising him up the right way.
I always wondered about making marshmallows at home – so glad to know it can be done and is easy to do.
Wow! I love marshmallows – I clicked over and the recipe looks terrific. Thanks.
Hi! Good post! But the website has been loading slowly.
Gday super evaluation on GeekMom » Blog Archive » GeekMom Kitchen Alchemy: Make Your Own Marshmallows VC Seed Funding.
Hallo, sehr interessanter Artikel. Ich verfolge das selbe Themengebiet und warte gespannt auf weitere Artikel zu dem Thema.