Marshmallows are always a treat. Whether you have yours in hot chocolate or add them to a cake when you're baking, they can be enjoyed by all the family.
If you're looking for something different, why not make your own instead of buying them at the supermarket? If you're keen to find out how, this is everything you need to know to make marshmallows from scratch...
How to make marshmallows
- Put sugar in a pan with 125ml (4fl oz) cold water, a pinch of salt and golden syrup.
- Heat over medium heat, stirring, until sugar dissolves. Turn up heat and bubble, until mixture reaches 115°C on a sugar thermometer.
- Put gelatine into bowl of a free-standing mixer and add 125ml (4fl oz) cold water. Leave to soak while you make sugar syrup. Fit whisk attachment and whisk gelatine mixture briefly on a low speed to combine. Pour in hot sugar syrup. Turn up speed to high and continue beating until mixture is very thick and pale, about 10-12min. If using food colouring, add a few drops during this stage.
- When marshmallow mixture is ready, beat in vanilla extract. Generously dust a 20.5cm x 30.5cm non-metallic serving dish with sifted icing sugar. Pour in marshmallow mix. Gently level and dust top with more sifted icing sugar. Allow to stand overnight at room temperature.
- Slice around edges of marshmallow, to help release it from dish. Dust a board with icing sugar and turn out marshmallow. Have a bowl of icing sugar ready, to dust marshmallow. Coat a large sharp knife in icing sugar, to stop marshmallow from sticking. Cut marshmallow into bite sized squares and put in bowl of icing sugar. Toss marshmallows to completely coat.
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An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
