Why make your own marshmallows? Aren’t they hard to do? It’s surprisingly simple, fun and they taste so much better! The real bonus is that homemade marshmallows fit way better between graham crackers for your s’mores!
Making your own marshmallows isn’t hard. It takes a few simple ingredients, a bit of patience, attention to details and a little cleanup afterward. I’ll walk you through making your first batch. Once you are comfortable with the recipe all you will need is the short version at the end and you can start experimenting with more flavours.
Many recipes we’ve come across use corn syrup but we prefer ours with honey and cane sugar. Follow the recipe below and you will have some delicious marshmallows!
Ingredients
Bloom
- 3 packets gelatin
- 1/2 cup water
Base
- 1 cup honey
- 1 cup cane sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
Coating
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
- 1.5 cup icing sugar
Supplies
- Baking spray
- Stand mixer
- Medium-sized pot
- 13″ x 9″ pan
- Pizza wheel
- Candy Thermometer (must go up to 250 F)
- A spatula that won’t melt in your mixture
Directions
Make sure all tools and ingredients are out and ready to go. Some of the steps will happen quickly and having everything close by will make it much easier. Your arms will appreciate the stand mixer, mixing the marshmallows will take over 10 minutes.
Making the Bloom
- Combine ½ cup of water with 3 packets of gelatin in the stand mixer bowl and mix until there are no clumps (just a few seconds). Let rest.
Making the Base
- In medium pot mix ½ cup of water, 1 cup of honey, 1 cup of cane sugar and ¼ tsp of Salt.
- Bring to a boil on high heat and continue until the mixture reaches 248F. The time this takes will depend on your stove. Stir every few minutes and keep an eye on the temperature – do not go over 250F.
The Marshmallow Batter
- Once the mixture reaches 248F turn off the heat and carefully pour into the gelatin mixture. Give it a quick stir to make sure gelatin is off the bottom. Be careful, the liquid is very hot.
- The mixture will be dark brown. Don’t panic, the whipping adds in the air which makes it white and fluffy.
- Gradually increase the speed of the mixer all the way to high (that’ll help prevent splashing the hot mixture everywhere) and mix for 12 minutes.
- Turn off the mixer, add 1 tbsp of vanilla extract and mix for a minute. Increase the speed gradually or you will have vanilla all over the kitchen.
Curing
- Spread your marshmallow batter into a 13″ x 9″ pan generously covered with baking spray. Try to get it as flat as possible but don’t overdo it or you’ll end up with a sticky mess.
- Let sit for 12 hours. You could cut them as soon as after 6 hours but the longer wait is worth it.
Cutting the Marshmallows
- Make the coating, mixing ½ cup cornstarch and 1 ½ cups of icing sugar.
- Gently rub some of the coatings on the top of the marshmallows. The outside should only be slightly sticky at this point.
- Flip onto a cutting surface and cover the remaining marshmallows with the coating. Tip: Use a plastic mat inside a baking sheet to cut down on the mess.
- Use a pizza wheel to cut your marshmallows up into the desired size. Coat each newly exposed edge of the marshmallow as you go.
- Tip: using a pizza wheel will save you the headache of fighting with your knife to cut the marshmallows. Starting with a clean pizza wheel you can usually cut a whole batch without having to wipe it off or spray it with oil.