That Real Mom Life

The BEST naturally sweetened homemade marshmallows with NO corn syrup or preservatives.

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On my journey to create recipes with clean ingredients for my family, one of the biggest priorities has always been flavor. I’m a 90s baby that loves a good boxed cake or jumbo marshmallow but as we’ve come to focus on the ingredients we’re putting in our bodies, I didn’t want my “healthy swaps” to taste, well.. healthy. I wanted to create recipes that still held those classic and comforting flavors while maintaining our standard for ingredients as well.

Above I have “healthy swaps” in quotations on purpose. My version of clean and healthy is sourcing high quality ingredients thats as minimally processed as possible. So I do still use real flours or sugars or starches in my recipes, but I find the best quality ones I can.

The above being said, this recipe uses maple syrup and raw honey instead of regular sugar and corn syrup. The flavor these two bring are out of this world. Technically you can use either honey OR maple syrup, but I choose to use both as it balances out each flavor. You don’t taste that sharpness from the honey as much when balanced with the deep sweetness of the maple syrup. Add in some sea salt and a hefty caramelization process and you’ve got some real depth of flavor in these babies.

These marshmallows toast up wonderfully but you do have to use a high heat source like an open flame (campfire etc). If these are warmed up slowly, they will melt. (Toast at your own discretion and always use safety precautions).

I could eat endless amounts of these marshmallows toasted. It’s like caramelizing caramelized sugars. There can almost never be enough caramelizing.

Let’s talk ingredients.

I use some specific ingredients for these. As a family that doesn’t eat much pork (if any), we reach for beef gelatin powder instead. There’s no flavor or structural difference with the added benefit of some extra protein!

As stated above, I use raw honey and maple syrup to act as the sweetener here as well as the replacement for corn syrup. Salt and vanilla paste to add flavor, and corn starch and organic powdered sugar to prevent the marshmallows from sticking or seeping.

I highly recommend using a starch to coat your marshmallows in rather than just powdered sugar. It will help them to stay nice and dry and prevent them from sticking. You can easily use arrowroot powder here as well. I mix the two together and it works wonderfully.

Instructions

1. Combine 1/2 cup of water with your gelatin and mix it in the bowl of your stand mixer. Let it sit while you heat the syrup.
2. Combine 1/2cup of water with the honey, maple syrup, and salt and heat to 242-245 degrees. It will jump up to 220 pretty quick then take a bit to get up to 242, but that’s normal! Just stir occasionally and gently and keep an eye on it.
3. While the syrup heats, combine corn starch and organic powdered sugar and sprinkle it over top of a parchment lined pan.
4. Once the syrup is hot enough slowly pour it into your gelatin with the mixer on the lowest setting. Be careful of any splatter!
5. Once the syrup is incorporated, bump the mixer to high and let it whip. Once starts to lighten up, add in your vanilla paste and continue whipping until it’s white and fluffy and resembles marhsmallow fluff. About 5-8 minutes but keep a sharp eye on it – once it starts to cool the gelatin will harden QUICKLY and you may be eating a big glob of marshmallow out of your mixing bowl.
6. Once it’s white and fluffy, quickly spread the mixture onto your powdered and lined pan and dust the top with more powder. Let them set for a few hours to firm up then cut into desired sizes and coat in more powder.
7. Enjoy! Store in an airtight container not in the fridge. These are best withing a week of making them!

Let’s get to the recipe!