Homemade Marshmallows (without corn syrup!)

 

Truth be told...I am not a big marshmallow fan.  I do like to roast them over a good campfire and melt them into a s'more.  But in general, I don't like how sweet they are.  My children, however, love them.  Every time we go to the store and pass by that aisle, they ask.

 

 

"Please, can we get marshmallows for......(fruit salad, hot chocolate...anything?)?"

 

Mama:  "Noooooo," (as she picks up the bag and reads the label to her self just one more time just to prove she knows why she is saying no), "we don't need them."  (And quietly she says something about how much "junk" is in the ingredient list and wonders what these really are anyway...her health-conscious girls nodding in agreement, but sighing still over not having any in said fruit salad or hot chocolate).

 

 

Well, if you are thinking that I never eat anything unhealthy, you would be wrong.  But I am very mindful, particularly about artificial ingredients and colorings, and my motto is, "If you can make it yourself, you ought to."  (Most of the time, anyway).  And marshmallows....well, their ingredient list always makes me squirm.

 

Last year, we tried making our own for the first time.  They were peppermint ones and were definitely tasty.  But they made a large batch, and we got tired of the candy-cane flavor in everything.  So this year, we wanted to do it again.  I put it in the schedule of fun things to do during Advent.

Then I got out the recipes to prepare.  And made a discovery we didn't like...there was corn syrup in the recipe!  This would not do.  So, after some more research we found a recipe without corn syrup, but it still needed tweaking.  We improvised and created our own tasty results.  There's no way of getting around the sugar.  But at least we can make the sugar as natural as possible and without all of the artificial flavors and colors.   It's really very easy to do!  Ready to try it yourself?

Get out your ingredients.  There aren't too many.  We like this sugar (we buy it from Costco).

 

Here you can somewhat see how fluffy it looks when it has doubled in volume.  When we first poured in the syrup, we thought for sure our marshmallows were going to be light brown because our sugar is not bleached white and contains its natural coloring.  To our surprise, they turned out white and look like regular marshmallows!  And all without the use of blue food coloring.  Why do they do all that stuff to packaged food?

 

 

You could also dust them or roll them in toasted coconut.  You may want to dust

them with extra powdered sugar (or coconut) on the sides so that they do not stick to each other in storage.

 

 

And since we had our first snow yesterday (Hurray!), we got to try them out in our hot chocolate or eggnog lattes.  I think they were the perfect touch.  Even for one who doesn't normally go for marshmallows.  I think this will become a regular staple in the house for those occasional touches to fruit salad, hot drinks in the winter, and maybe even the candy cane fudge the girls are wanting to make for Christmas.

****My apologies that the recipe is hard to read.  I am experimenting with some things and always learning ( I have a LOT to learn!).  I hope to try to fix that very soon.