20 Aug Summer fun with homemade marshmallows
Summer is always so fun. The lack of schedule, the adventures, the sunshine and the time in nature that may otherwise not happen when it’s -40C. I bet, if you asked any kid, they would tell you that a summer highlight is roasting marshmallows.
Yes, even a Naturopathic family roasts marshmallows! We just do it a little differently!
Since having kids (and being an ND), whenever I look at the ingredient list of conventional marshmallows I am quickly reminded that these sweet, fluffy, melt in your mouth puffs of deliciousness are full of unhealthy ingredients. They are certainly not made of the actual botanical Marshmallow root (Althea officionalis) that they were many years ago.
I didn’t want to deprive my kids of the wonderful memories of making s’mores in the summer and melting marshmallows in their hot chocolate in the winter. I started buying these natural marshmallows and these gluten-free Graham crackers from the Health food store.
While I can easily read and identify all the ingredients, I thought it would also be fun to make my own. I first tried 5 years ago, but without a mixer, the end product was yummy honey flavoured gummies. Delicious but not the least bit fluffy!
Just a few weeks ago, I decided to try again.
My goals were to test:
- Flavour
- How well they melt (in hot chocolate and on a graham cracker)
- If you could roast them over an open fire
- If you could dip them in chocolate to make a chocolate-covered marshmallow
I went back to the original recipe with a mixer this time and it was a success! While you have to be patient and really allow soft peaks to form, it was easy and fast to make. By adding different ingredients or types of honey you can alter the recipe and make it your own.
My next mission was to find a sugar-free marshmallow recipe. Let’s face it, even people following a sugar-free diet may want a marshmallow from time to time. I found this recipe frothed even faster, first looking like bubbly soap, but quickly transforming into creamy, soft peaks. They tasted shockingly close to a “normal” marshmallow.
From experience, I already knew that the health food store-bought Dandies marshmallows taste great, roast well over the fire and melt well.
How would these homemade recipes hold up?
We all agreed that both homemade marshmallow recipes tasted delicious. They had great shape and fluffiness, but we needed to test their ability to melt. For this part of the experiment I used our butane blow torch and found that the homemade marshmallows melt easily. This works great for hot chocolate and s’mores, but they melted way too fast to hold up over a camp fire.
I also found that when dipping in melted chocolate, you need to be fast and the chocolate needs to be melted at a low temperature. If the chocolate is too hot, it melts the marshmallows. Furthermore, you need a dark chocolate that is very low in sugar, because between the marshmallow sweetness and the sugar in the chocolate, it can taste quite sweet.
We had fun testing out to the toppers from crushed nuts, to coconut (toasted and raw) to non- artificial coloured sprinkles, the kids had a blast!
Next, I’ll try rice crispy squares. I love how easy it is (once you get a little adventurous) to make healthier “favourites”. Sure, it’s not sugar free, but it’s whole foods, and contains no artificial colours or flavours and that is a step in the right direction!
Cool side note:
You may find it interesting that true marshmallow root acts as a demulcent. Meaning that it soothes and heals wounds, particularly of the mucus membranes. This means it works great for stomach and mouth ulcers as well as heart burn.
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