Back when I was a vegetarian, I’d never paid any attention to marshmallows simply because they contained gelatin. Due to a health crisis, a few months ago my diet was completely turned upside-down. Sick, broke, and unable to consume chocolate, I had given up on finding any comfort in food- that was until I chanced upon a recipe for DIY marshmallows.
To my disappointment, some of the ingredients are rather hard to get in the Netherlands and my first thought was had I had the money, I wouldn't be online looking for a DIY recipe. Nevertheless I decided to tweak the recipe a bit and come up with a broke-college-student version of the DIY marshmallow. I present to you, the marshpillows.
Marshpillows
- Prep Time:10 mins
- Cook Time:30 mins
- Total Time:40 mins
- Servings:30
- Easy
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 cup honey
- 2 tablespoon gelatin the cheapest you can find
Ingredients
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Step 1
Boil the honey and water for about 10-15 minutes at high heat. Keep stirring. The idea here is to condense the syrup as much as possible. After 10 minutes, if you happen to have a food grade thermometer lying around, the temperature should be around 110 ° C.
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Step 2
Turn the heat down and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally. You want it to bubble gently.
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Step 3
Some people like to bloom the gelatin by putting it in water for 5 minutes (2:1, water: gelatin). I’ve tried that before but it makes no difference in my experience. After the 10 minutes simmering, sprinkle the gelatin slowly into the mixture while stirring non-stop until the gelatin melts.
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Step 4
Take it off the heat and let it cool for 3-5 minutes.
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Step 5
Here comes the tricky part. Get a greased mixing bowl and dump your mixture into it. Start your mixer on low speed and then turn it to high speed after a minute or two. Continue mixing for 8-10 minutes. If you have a standing mixer, good for you ( give it to me when you’re getting an upgrade). A hand-mixer? You’re in luck, this recipe is exactly catered to hand-mixer. Just an egg-whisk? No problem, it’ll be a good arm-workout for the next 20 minutes.
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Step 6
At the end, the mixture should be thick and gooey. Pour it into a greased container. Don’t make the same mistake I did—GREASE your container!
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Step 7
Refrigerate the mixture overnight and then cut it. Dust your marshmallows with cinnamon powder or icing sugar. Just another tip: grease your knife before cutting them!
Some final words of advice: a good mixer is essential to make a successful marshmallow, but we’re not called "poor, broke" college students for no reason. It’s rare for any of us to have that bad-boy in our unkempt kitchen. I used a hand-mixer and as a result, these bad boys look more like gum than marshmallows. Hence, the name, “marshpillows.”