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
Ingredients
Instructions
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.
Turn the heat down and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally. You want it to bubble gently.
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.
Take it off the heat and let it cool for 3-5 minutes.
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.
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!
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.”