Homemade Vegetarian Marshmallows—a quest

Several years ago, my daughter became a vegetarian and discovered that marshmallows—so necessary for s’mores—are made with gelatin. Since gelatin comes from hides and bones, she needed an alternative.

At the time, I couldn’t find vegetarian marshmallows in the stores. (I think they are slightly easier to find now.) We had made marshmallows at home once or twice before, so I started looking for a vegetarian marshmallow recipe on-line.

The recipe that kept coming up basically substituted agar for the gelatin in a standard recipe, with few other changes. The person whose blog I got it from said it made great marshmallows—but after trying it twice (the first time I used flaky agar instead of powder), all I got was a nasty slimy goo.

I tried looking for other versions of the recipe, then for recipes using other thickeners. I found a recipe for marshmallows that used xanthan gum and egg whites, and lo!—it produced marshmallows!

 I was so thrilled that out of sheer gratitude, I immediately ordered the book that the recipe had come from: Demolition Desserts, by Elizabeth Falkner.

I made these again last week. Out of curiosity, I looked on-line for the website where I had discovered the recipe. I found a source of recipes using exotic thickeners from Agar to Xanthan gum, but it also listed that same unsuccessful agar recipe that I’d started with! And the source was a company that produced agar! Doesn't anyone test these recipes? (If you have gotten the agar-only recipe to work, please tell me how you did it.)

So is it possible to make marshmallows using agar? Another source of a recipe using agar, Serious Eats, added a protein source, such as soy protein, and explained that the protein is needed to make it work. Gelatin is a source of protein, as well as a thickener, and egg whites provide protein in the recipe that worked for me. So maybe that is the answer and those other agar recipes were missing a key component.

Before deciding whether to list the recipe here, I checked into copyright law on recipes. Apparently lists of ingredients and basic instructions cannot be copyrighted (though it is only fair to list the source, if you know it.) Photos and elaborations on the instructions and comments about the recipe, however, are copyrighted. I also checked to see that this recipe is already available at various sites, though the quantities of water, corn syrup, etc. vary slightly.

So here is the version I use, with my own comments. If you want step-by-step photos, you'll have to check other sites.

Ingredients

Cornstarch and powdered sugar for dusting

Oil

2 tsp xanthan gum

¼ cup water

Pinch cream of tartar

1 ¼ cups granulated sugar

¾ cup corn syrup

3 egg whites

½ tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Prepare a 50:50 mix of cornstarch and powdered sugar for dusting the pan and the finished marshmallows. I suggest ¼ cup of each. (Some versions use plain cornstarch, but ick!)
2. Oil and liberally dust a jelly-roll pan (for thinner marshmallows) or a smaller, deeper pan (I assume it works equally well to make thick marshmallows, though they may be more difficult to cut.) You may wish to line the pan with parchment first and oil and dust that instead.
3. Mix xanthan gum with 1 tablespoon of the granulated sugar. Set aside. (You can get xanthan gum at supermarkets now—it is also used in gluten-free baking.)
4. Set eggs out to reach room temperature. (I used pasteurized egg white product, which doesn’t whip quite as well but was adequate. You could also use powdered egg white, or real egg white. I’m not sure if there is a safety concern here or not, given that you are going to pour hot syrup into it later.)
5. Start whipping the egg whites before the syrup boils. I recommend a stand mixer with a whisk attachment—marshmallow is thick stuff to whip. Whip the whites till they make soft peaks, about 2 minutes. (I’m not sure how soft, really—I may have stopped too soon.)
6. Put water, cream of tartar, the rest of the granulated sugar, and the corn syrup into a pot. Leave room for it to foam up as it boils. Stir and heat to 248 degrees. (One recipe said not to stir it, but stirring worked fine for me.) You also will notice that the syrup goes from looking somewhat foamy to looking clear with bigger bubbles at around this point.
7. With the mixer running on low speed, slowly and carefully pour sugar syrup onto egg whites. Avoid hitting the whisk—you don’t want hot syrup splashing around.
8. Sprinkle on the xanthan gum-sugar mixture, and add vanilla extract or any other flavoring and coloring you want. Then turn up the speed to high and mix for 2-3 minutes till the marshmallow pulls away from the sides and clumps up in the whisk.
9. Using an oiled spatula, scrape the marshmallow into the pan and try to spread it. Ha! Now give up trying to spread it, dust it with more powdered sugar/cornstarch, and pat it into shape with well-dusted hands. Dust it a bit more, cover it with plastic, and refrigerate for 4 hours.
10. Then cut them with a powdered knife or pizza cutter or cookie cutter, dust the cut edges, and enjoy.

I store these in the fridge, but apparently the gelatin version can be stored at room temperature for a week. This makes me wonder if I actually need to refrigerate them. Recipes involving both egg white and lots of sugar, like royal icing, always leave me perplexed. At what point does the sugar make refrigeration unnecessary? So I’ll continue to play it safe and keep these in the fridge.

I’m not sure how these marshmallow do under fire (or on fire), but I can testify that they make perfectly good microwave s’mores.

Till next post.

Note: make sure your bowl, whisk, and the nearby areas of your mixer are free of any grease (butter, oil) from previous recipes, or the egg whites won't whip.