Marshmallows are the kind of thing you don’t even realize you can make at home, but as soon as try them once you will never go back. They are an entirely different experience homemade vs store bought – they are fluffy, light clouds with actual flavor AND they melt in your mouth straight from the container. Although don’t discount them toasted—they crisp and caramelize 10x better than store bought and the insides become gooey flowing rivers of marshmallow dreams.
They are also incredibly simple to make – you essentially just heat a syrup base to a high temperature and whip it up with some gelatin. Smooth it out and let it set and you have incredible marshmallows.
You will need a two special equipment items: a stand mixer (or a heavy duty hand mixer and your strongest arm), and a candy thermometer (a meat thermometer works as well, but you may have to figure out a creative way to attach it).
The recipe below is vanilla bean flavored with my favorite ingredient – vanilla bean paste. If you don’t know about vanilla bean paste, let me be the one to introduce it to you with HIGH praise. It is basically a combination of vanilla extract and vanilla seeds and is PACKED with flavor. But my favorite part? No scraping vanilla bean pods to get the beautiful seeds and flavor (although sometimes it is still worth it, sadly). This is my favorite.
Don’t want vanilla? You can flavor these anyway you want! Try peppermint extract instead, swap some of the corn syrup for maple syrup for a maple variation, or add cocoa powder for a chocolate version. GO CRAZY.
The last note, and one on most of my baking recipes – I have the below recipe in grams/weight and I HIGHLY encourage you to weigh your ingredients!! It is far more accurate – did you know there is not even a standard “cup”? So there really is no way to know you have the proper amount of whatever ingredient without the weight. This is especially important in baking where just a few dozen grams in the wrong direction could have a big impact. Here is the scale I use.
Vanilla bean marshmallows
Course: Sweets, DessertDifficulty: Easy48
marshmallows30
minutes4
minutesLight, fluffy clouds of
Ingredients
21g (3 packs) unflavored gelatin
1 C cold water
298g (1 1/2 C) granulated sugar
312g (1 C) light corn syrup
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste*
- For tossing
1/2 C powdered sugar
1/2 C corn starch
Directions
- Lightly grease a 9×13 pan and set aside.
- Mix the gelatin and 1/2 of the cold water together in the bottom of your stand mixer bowl. Mix slightly to combine and set on your stand mixer with the whisk attachment.
- Combine the rest of the water with the sugar, corn syrup, and salt in a saucepan. Set the heat to medium and cook, stirring just until the sugar dissolves and the mixture turns clear. At this point, continue to boil without stirring, and set up your candy thermometer. Cook until the syrup reaches 240 degrees F and then remove from heat.
- Set your mixer to low on your gelatin and slowly pour in the hot syrup while the mixer whips.
Once all of the syrup is in the bowl, slowly increase the speed to high, careful not to splash yourself. Whip until the bowl is lukewarm to the touch. This can take anywhere from 10-20 minutes, so be patient and keep touching the outside of the bowl, and beware this step may smell a little weird. This is normal – plain gelatin does not smell the best when heated! It will go away.
In the last minute or so of mixing, add the vanilla paste. - When the mixture is lukewarm or about 95 degrees F, transfer to your prepared pan with a flexible spatula. Use clean, wet fingers to smooth the marshmallows out – they are very sticky at this point and will stick to utensils.
Dust with powdered sugar and cover. Let set at least 4hrs up to overnight. - Using a slightly greased knife, cut into 1 inch cubes. You may need to clean and re-grease the knife. Toss in a 1:1 ratio of powdered sugar and cornstarch to coat. This will help the texture and appearance, as just powdered sugar alone can get melty. Store in an airtight container.
Store at room temp for up to three weeks.
Recipe Video
Notes
- *if you dont have vanilla bean paste, use 1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract, or use vanilla extract and scrape vanilla pod seeds in
