Surprisingly easy to make, you cannot beat homemade strawberry marshmallows. Flavoured with real strawberry puree, these marshmallows are made without highly refined corn syrup. They are also egg free and gluten free, making them perfect treat for those with multiple allergies or sensitivities.
Total Time Investment: 30 minutes plus overnight setting
Mr Grumpy and I don’t ‘do’ Valentine’s Day. A month or so before we would have celebrated our first Valentine’s Day together, he gave a little speech about “just another excuse for stores to make you buy stuff, not a real holiday, blah blah blah.” As his little speech about commercialisation mirrored my own feelings about Christmas, I couldn’t really argue. The upshot is we don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day. However, if we did, then this Valentine’s Day would be all about marshmallows.
Personally I find commercial marshmallows, and even some artisan ones, sickly sweet. Then there is the issue of flavourings and colourings. If I eat strawberry marshmallows, I want them to taste like strawberries and not some spongy, sticky mass with a vague chemical flavour. And I don’t want the colour to come from a bottle.
Homemade strawberry marshmallows are completely different to anything you will buy commercially. They have texture, flavour and are oh so moreish. I don’t eat a lot of sweet things, but I sent The Princess off to school with most of the latest batch of these marshmallows just to save me from myself.
You may think that homemade marshmallows are quite complicated, but they are actually ridiculously easy to make. And making your own means you have complete control over the level of sweetness, the type of sugar used, and the colours and flavours that you wish to add. My recipe is also made without eggs, which is ideal for those families battling egg allergies. You need only make one batch for the whole family.
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So let’s just talk about ingredients for a second. Some form of sugar is essential when making marshmallows. Most homemade marshmallow recipes use corn syrup or glucose, and highly refined white sugar. This is what makes marshmallows so sweet. Like everything I make, I prefer to use less refined sugars, so have developed this recipe with raw sugar and brown rice malt syrup.
The other main ingredient in homemade marshmallows is gelatine. Gelatine is so much more than just the setting agent. It may surprise you to know that gelatine actually has a myriad of health benefits. These include aiding digestion, assisting bone and joint health and improving skin elasticity. It is derived from animal skin and bones, so is not suitable for vegetarian and vegan diets. Try to source gelatine derived from grass pastured animals for maximum health benefits.
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Faced with so many different options for flavouring my marshmallows, I decided I wanted to make strawberry marshmallows. Vanilla marshmallows are so passé, and chocolate marshmallows are better for Easter (in my opinion). The fresh strawberry puree provides a pure strawberry flavour that is not drowned out by sugar, and is not created by chemicals. Delicious!
Ingredient Substitutions for Strawberry Marshmallows
Whilst it is important to stick quite closely to the recipe for these strawberry marshmallows if you wish to guarantee success, there is still a little room to customise the recipe according to the ingredients you have on hand so you can save yourself a trip to the shops. Try the following:
- Use either fresh or frozen strawberries to make the puree. Frozen are actually a better choice if strawberries are not in season as they are likely to have more flavour than off-season fresh strawberries. You want well flavoured strawberries to make marshmallows.
- Cornstarch can be substituted for arrowroot powder. The arrowroot just gives a slightly nicer mouth feel. Ensure you use real cornstarch if you want the marshmallows to remain gluten free.
- Substitute white sugar for raw sugar if necessary, although this will make the marshmallows sweeter.
- Use white icing sugar in place of the golden icing sugar.
- I have not tried other liquid sweeteners in place of the brown rice syrup, but have seen other recipes that successfully use maple syrup or honey. You can use corn syrup or glucose syrup in place of the brown rice syrup, although again your marshmallows will be sweeter (and not corn syrup free 😉 )
Tips & Tricks for Success with Strawberry Marshmallows
I’ve made quite a few batches of these strawberry marshmallows now, so let me pass on a few tips to guarantee that your marshmallow journey is successful.
- Buy a thermometer: You do need a candy thermometer to make your own marshmallows. There is no way of getting around this. If you don’t own a thermometer, buy one. They are cheap, and I promise that after one batch you will be putting that thermometer to good use.
- Use a stand mixer: Unless you are prepared to stand in your kitchen for ever, you really need to make these using the whisk attachment on a stand mixer. I have not made them with a hand held mixer, so cannot guarantee it would work as well. But to be honest, homemade marshmallows are so good that if I only had a hand held mixer I would try it anyway.
- Choose funky shapes for the finished marshmallows: Cut the marshmallows to any shape you desire. I have previously made them into cubes using a pizza cutter, and I’ve also used cookie cutters to cut the marshmallows into shapes. If you use cookie cutters, you will get off-cuts. These can either be nibbled quietly by yourself in the kitchen (Shhhhhh!!) or you could whip up an impromptu batch of rocky road.
- Dust with icing sugar: Marshmallows are sticky. The icing sugar mixture is your friend. Sprinkle it over over any sticky surface.
- Decorate the marshmallows: To create swirls, dip a toothpick into natural food colouring and pass it through the top of the marshmallow immediately after you smooth it into the tin.
- Make in advance: Marshmallows need to be made at least the day before they are required to allow them to set properly, so are the ideal confectionery to make in advance of a party.
- Soak utensils for easy clean up: To clean up, put the saucepan and mixing bowl in the sink, and fill them with water. Put all your implements in the water and walk away. Come back 10 minutes later and everything will have softened and dissolved, making it easy to clean.
Strawberry marshmallows will keep for at least a week, stored in an airtight container on the bench. The sugar in the marshmallows acts as a preservative for the fresh strawberry puree, in much the same action as in jam, so there are no concerns of them spoiling. They will keep longer than a week, but will start to harden and become less spongy over time.
Enjoy!
One year ago: Lemon Feta Zucchini Noodles
Two years ago: Slow Cooker Mexican Chocolate & Zucchini Cake
Three years ago: How to Freeze Chicken Schnitzel (with quick cooking tips).
Made this recipe? Tell me how it went in the comments below.
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The Best Fresh Strawberry Marshmallows {No Corn Syrup, GF}
Ingredients
- 42 g (1/3 cup) golden icing sugar
- 2 Tablespoons arrowroot powder
- 250 g (1 1/4 cups) strawberries fresh or frozen
- 40 ml (2 Tablespoons) gelatine
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 300 g (1 1/2 cups) raw sugar
- 150 ml (2/3 cup) rice bran syrup
- 100 ml (1/3 cup + 1 Tablespoon) water
Instructions
- Sift the icing sugar and arrowroot powder together and set aside.
- Grease and line a 20cm x 30cm x 3cm slice tray.
- Sift a small amount of the icing sugar mixture over the base of the lined tray and set aside. Try and coat as much of the base as possible.
- Puree the strawberries in a blender and pass through a fine sieve to remove the seeds.
- Place the strawberry puree, vanilla extract and the gelatine into the bowl of a stand mixer. Stir gently to combine.
- Place the sugar, rice bran syrup and water in a medium saucepan over a medium - high heat.
- Without stirring, bring the sugar mixture to the boil. Continue to boil until the syrup reaches 115C on a candy thermometer. This will take approximately 15 minutes.
- Turn the stand mixer onto low and quickly pour the sugar syrup into the bowl. Continue to mix on low until the gelatine mixture has melted and no lumps are visible.
- Turn the mixer up to medium high and whisk for approximately 10 minutes. The mixture will start to foam and thicken. It is ready when the marshmallow is the consistency of soft serve ice cream.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and spread out with a spatula. Sprinkle with some of the icing sugar mixture.
- Allow the marshmallow to set at room temperature for approximately 6 hours, or until firm. I leave mine overnight.
- Cut into desired shapes and toss the cut marshmallow in the icing sugar mixture. Shake off excess icing sugar and store in an airtight container.
Notes
- To create swirls, dip a toothpick into natural food colouring and pass it through the top of the marshmallow immediately after you smooth it into the tin.
- To clean up, put the saucepan and mixing bowl in the sink and fill them with water. Put all your implements in the water and walk away. Come back 10 minutes later and everything will have softened and dissolved, making it easy to clean.
Nutrition
Update notes: This post was originally published in February 2014, and was republished on 7th February 2018. It was last updated on 17th May 2018 to included the nutritional analysis and to make minor changes to the text.
We don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day either! Just made my first batch of marshmallows using rice malt syrup for sweetness.
Good to know I’m not the only one Tracey 🙂 How did the marshmallows turn out? Were they well received?
Sorry for the delayed reply! My husband and daughters friend liked them but my daughter wasn’t too keen.
Ah … children. So fickle and so annoying aren’t they 🙂