Wondering how to make homemade marshmallows without using cornstarch? Here's a simple recipe that can use as little as just three ingredients to make marshmallows from scratch.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
If you've followed my blog for any length of time, you know how much I like to cook and bake. And try new recipes....and create new recipes.
Since we live off the grid, I often adjust recipes that use power-hungry kitchen gadgets to use hand-cranked kitchen appliances instead.
Although we do have off grid electricity in our homestead kitchen, in the winter we have very little sunlight. As in just about four-and-a-half hours. (We depend on a generator to power the batteries that run our appliances.)
Yet by March, the sun is shining more, and the days are longer.
So making things that need a lot of mixing, like bread dough or this homemade marshmallows recipe means I can use my KitchenAid Stand Mixer, which is one of my favorite homestead kitchen appliances.
Why Make Homemade Marshmallows Anyways?
As part of our off-grid homeschool, we spend a lot of our long winter days doing bookwork and academic subjects.
However, I'm a big believer in hands-on learning. So we also work on cooking and baking lessons. Often these are related to the fiction books we're reading.
This was a great hands-on lesson for my little helpers in the kitchen last week when it was sunny but cold out (about -34C.)
Ingredients You'll Need to Make Marshmallows From Scratch
- 1 envelope (.25oz packet) of unflavored gelatin
- 2 cups of sugar
- Pinch of salt
- ½ cup powdered sugar for dusting
- 1 teaspoon vanilla, optional
Helpful Kitchen Tools for This Recipe
How to Make Homemade Marshmallows
Mix the contents of the unflavoured gelatin envelope with ½ cup of water in a stand mixer bowl. Let this sit for about 5 minutes while melting the sugar.
Mix sugar with ¼ of water in a medium pot on high heat.
IMPORTANT: Do not stir this! If you do, stirring will make crystals form in the sugar and your marshmallows will have crunchy bits.
Melt the sugar until the temperature reaches 240 degrees F.
Once your sugar mixture hits this temperature, remove the pot from the stove.
Pour the sugar mixture over the gelatin while mixing on medium with a whisk attachment.
After it's mixed together, set the mixer on high.
Let it continue to mix for about 10 minutes or until marshmallow fluff forms.
Tip: I added 1 teaspoon of vanilla while whipping, as well as a pinch of salt.
Grease a 9 x 9 pan, with oil, and then use a flour sifter to dust the bottom of the pan with powdered sugar.
Pour the whipped marshmallow mix into the pan.
Coat the top of the marshmallow with a dusting of powdered sugar.
How to Make Homemade Marshmallows
Use this simple recipe and learn how to make marshmallows! These homemade marshmallows use three to five ingredients (depending on your taste) and no cornstarch whatsoever.
Ingredients
- 1 0.25 ounce envelope of unflavoured gelatine
- 2 cups of white sugar
- pinch of salt
- ½ cup of powdered sugar for dusting
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- ½ cup water and ¼ cup water, separated
Instructions
- Mix the contents of the unflavoured gelatin envelope with ½ cup of water in a stand mixer bowl. Let this sit for about 5 minutes while melting sugar.
- Mix sugar with ¼ cup of water in a medium pot on high heat. Don't stir this or crystals will form and your marshmallows will be crunchy!
- Melt this mixture until it reaches 240F according to the thermometer.
- Pour the mixture over the gelatin mixture while mixing on medium. Use the whisk attachment on the Stand Mixer.
- Add a pinch of salt and vanilla extract (if using.)
- Mix on high for 10 minutes or until the marshmallow fluff starts to form into peaks.
- Grease a 9 x 9-inch glass dish or baking pan with oil and dust with powdered sugar. Pour the whipped marshmallow into the pan.
- Dust the top with icing sugar and let it sit for 2 hours or so before serving.
Notes
I keep my homemade marshmallows in the fridge. Not sure if it is necessary, but it's what I do.
For marshmallow fluff, just whip for about five or six minutes. This is a great base for fruit-dips with sour/tart fruit such as Granny Smith apples or rhubarb.
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Let the marshmallow sit for a couple of hours before removing and serving.
Enjoy!
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Melynda Brown
Hello, this is one of my personal favorites for last week’s Encouraging Hearts and Home. I hope you stop by and say hello, this post has also been pinned to the Encouraging Hearts and Home board! Thank you for being a part of Encouraging Hearts and Home, we appreciate all that you share. Have a great week ahead!
Dee | Grammy's Grid
What? Never heard of making marshmallows and then I wondered why. You answered my question. Very interesting! Thanks so much for linking up with me at the Unlimited Monthly Link Party 22. Pinned!
Astrid
This sounds like a relatively doable recipe for me. I had really never known that you can actually make marshmallows at home (or what they are really made of). #AnythingGoes