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Candy and sugary desserts are not a food eaten very often by my family. My husband doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth, and we attempt to avoid sugar as much as possible. But occasionally when the kids are craving sweets, or if we’re out somewhere where candy and other junk food is around, I try to find a healthier alternative for them. This healthy, homemade marshmallow recipe came about because of that need.
We actually got the idea when watching a cooking show with the kids, and since I was not going to use the corn syrup and processed sugar that the TV recipe suggested, the healthy marshmallow experimenting began!
It’s a sticky process for sure but really fun for the kids to watch the gelatin turn into fluffy white goo … and with a little practice not much trouble at all. Homemade marshmallows aren’t sickeningly sweet like store-bought marshmallows and have a better texture and flavor too (in my opinion!).
Healthy Marshmallows? Is It Possible?
Maybe you’re wondering … isn’t she always saying how sugar is bad? In a word, yes, and I have a stricter policy for myself on even natural sugars than I used to. For the kids, though, I don’t worry about an occasional treat as long as it meets several qualifications:
- All of the ingredients have to come from healthy sources and not be made chemically in any way.
- The ingredients should have some health-boosting properties (like gelatin or probiotics, etc.).
- It needs to taste good! After all, that’s the point!
With these goals in mind, the kids and I got to work on our experiment. I had a few failed marshmallow batches that luckily still tasted good and could be used as a marshmallow cream. Finally, I found a marshmallow recipe that I was happy with (and so were the kids!).
This recipe contains all GAPS-friendly ingredients, which is great for those trying to reverse food allergies. (We were working on a dairy allergy at the time with my son.) The gelatin and optional probiotics are gut-soothing and supportive of skin, hair, and nail growth. And if you use some of the variations below, you can work in even more health-boosting ingredients.
Marshmallow Variations
- More on the marshmallow root option – Since I came up with the first marshmallow recipe, I came up with a way to add marshmallow root for additional health benefits. This anti-inflammatory herb is known for its soothing, cooling effects and is great on a sore throat. Using it is entirely optional (I indicate this in the recipe), but if you’re going to have sugar, might as well have anti-inflammatories with it! I also think it makes it a little more authentic.
- Matcha Marshmallow – Try my matcha marshmallow recipe for different healthy marshmallow option. I originally came up with this one day when contemplating how to color the marshmallows to make them more festive. Of course I didn’t want to use artificial food dye, and my eye fell on our powdered matcha tea. Bingo! Delicious, colorful marshmallows with the additional health benefits of matcha tea.
- Elderberry Marshmallow – No kid will turn down this remedy! Immune-boosting elderberry syrup makes these marshmallows the perfect soothing treat when cold season hits.
- Marshmallow “fluff” – Reduce the gelatin for a thinner consistency. I got the “fluff” texture when I used around 2 tablespoons of gelatin.
Healthy Marshmallow Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 TBSP marshmallow root powder (optional)
- 1 cup water (warm, divided)
- ¼ cup gelatin powder
- 1 cup honey (or maple syrup)
- 2 tsp vanilla (or mint or lemon extract, cocoa powder, etc.)
- 4 capsules probiotics (optional)
Instructions
- If using marshmallow root powder, combine 1 cup of warm water with the 1 marshmallow root and set aside for 5 minutes (or as long as overnight in the fridge).
- Stir well and strain. Make sure that the liquid makes a whole cup.
- Pour ½ cup of the prepared marshmallow root mix into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the gelatin. Whisk slightly to incorporate and set aside. If not using marshmallow root simply pour ½ cup warm water into mixing bowl, add gelatin, and whisk slightly and set aside.
- Pour the other ½ cup of water and 1 cup of honey, and cocoa powder if using, into a small saucepan and whisk to combine.
- Slowly bring the water and honey mixture to a boil while stirring. If you have a kitchen thermometer (and I recommend it), you want it to reach at least 240°F. If you don't have a kitchen thermometer, just keep boiling, stirring constantly for 8 minutes.
- Turn on mixer with water/gelatin mixture to medium speed and whisk while slowly pouring the honey/water mixture into the mixing bowl.
- When add honey mix is added, turn the mixer to high and whisk for another 10-15 minutes or until it forms a stiff cream like the consistency of marshmallow cream. It should form soft peaks.
- Add the probiotics and any flavor ingredients for the last 2 minutes of mixing.
- Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish with coconut oil or line with parchment paper, leaving some on the sides to be able to pull up.
- When marshmallows are whipped, pour into the lined/greased dish and smooth evenly.
- Let rest at least 4 hours (overnight is better).
- Flip onto a cutting board and cut with a well-oiled pizza cutter or knife.
- Store in an airtight container on the counter.
Notes
Nutrition
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Have you ever made a dessert like this? Will you try these? What flavors would you add? Share below!
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What kind of probiotics did you use? Do you use great lakes gelatin or something else? What if I wanted to use my own gelatin from a broth or something? (because it’s hard to find organic gelatin, much less grass-fed).
I use Great Lakes… I’ve never tried with homemade Geltain, so not sure about that…
Could you do this with the same amount of pure maple syrup instead of honey? It is the only sweetener we can use due to allergies. We have tons of raw local honey and can’t use it. 🙂
I haven’t tried it but have heard from others that it can work… let me know how it goes if you try it!
I have made this recipe with a combination of raw honey and pure maple syrup. It worked well, but I think I had to mix it a bit longer than the recipe called for. But the marshmallows turned out yummy and my girls are more than happy to have 1-2 healthy marshmallows each day. How many marshmallows should one consume daily to see the benefits of the gelatin?
Can you use stevia instead of honey?
I do in almost all recipes, but it won’t work in this one, since the natural sugars in the honey are needed to create the fluffy texture…
I made a recipe similar to your recipe. The honey flavor was very intense. Do your marshmallows taste similar to the store brand?
Try another type of honey.
Honey has a large variety of flavors, depending on what flower the bees have frequented.
Typically the color will give an idea of the intensity of flavor..
Some honeys are nearly clear, only a slight color.. They tend to be very sweet with very little flavor…
And some honeys are as dark as molasses, with very strong flavors.
Can you use Raw Honey? The honey we buy is almost solid in 32 oz glass jars from the farmer, and if you want it liquid you need to melt it.
Do you know if the quality of marshmallows is affected by the raw honey?
It works great. I usually use raw too 🙂
Hi Katie,
It’s a grate recipe, my concern, though, is honey boiling aspect. As far as I know honey becomes poisoness when being boiled. It only hold 40 degrees Celsius.
I wish there was some articles that prove other, for I know a lot of tasty recipes with boiled honey 🙁 May be you would know some?!
Thank you for your precious time working on this grate blog!
Anya
You can use raw honey but boiling it kills all the nutrients in the honey. I am wondering if I can make this recipe without boiling the honey and just boiling the water.
I have tried this. I have also tried reducing the amount of honey for marshmallows that weren’t so sweet. Neither of those things worked: I ended up with a syrup that never got fluffy.
Can these be used to make rice crispy treats?
Yes, but I’d stir in the other ingredients at the end of the mixing process for the marshmallows before the set instead of re-melting them like the traditional recipe…
Hi, I love these Marshmallows! I tried to make the rice treats and they turned out very soggy. Do you have a recipe for this? Many Thanks~!
I’ve made rice crispy treats several times with this recipe. The treats will get soggy if you skip the remelting step. I don’t know why this is, but remelting seems to be necessary for decent treats. At least for me.
I just use a standard rice crispy treat recipe, nothing fancy.
So you need to let them set and remelt them to get it to work? So strange!
I loooove that you added probiotics to marshmallows. Genius! I know I can make tea with some of the herbs, and I could use honey to sweeten, but I don’t know how to get the powdered stuff to work in a drink. I guess just put it in and shake it up a lot? I have a very picky teenager. We do have a SodaStream so I can use that to carbonate it.
I’ll play with it and see but I’m sure there is a way to do it without the agave or the need for a can..
Oh, that would be soooo super if you had a chance to figure it out!
My daughter & I made these today, and the taste is great! When I tried spreading it in the glass dish, it was a big fluff ball that wouldn’t spread. It’s just a gelatinous mass. Do you think I mixed it too long? That’s what I’m thinking. Oh well, we’re still going to enjoy our ugly marshmallow ball!!!
Probably mixed a little too long… If you just leave it there until it sets, you should still be able to cut it in to squares…
Do you think using this for rice crispy treats would work? Has any one tried this yet?
JUST made Rice Krispy treats. Didn’t work. I used the marshmellow cream mix right after finishing in the mixer. The rice krispies soaked up the moisture and became soggy. Any suggestions? Maybe letting the marshmellow mixture set up for just a bit (not 4 hours) before mixing with the krispies?
Same thing happened to me and I only mixed for 6 minutes, so next time I think I might do what looks like soft peaks to me.
These look incredible! Can’t wait to try them!
Could you use the fluff marshmallow to make strawberry mousse?
I have successfully made marshmallows for a while now, using similar recipes, however recently they’ve started separating…I was surprised to read your comment about putting them in the fridge makes them melt – surely it should make them too hard? Could putting in the fridge cause the separation I’m experiencing?
It could… it has something to do with the moisture, not the temp I think.
Wellness Mama-just saw this post. I know it’s an older one. But I wanted to comment-made your marshmallows almost a year ago and froze what we didn’t eat. (No kids here! Empty nesters!)
A year later there are still some in there and they’re fine! I pulled one out and tried it the other day. They’re cut and on wax paper in a freezer zip bag with most of the air pushed out. I didn’t use probiotics and if you did they probably wouldn’t be active anymore but the marshmallow is great!
Can you share one of your “failures”? I am looking for an alternative to marshmallow fluff. My son loves sunflower butter and fluff sandwiches.
Just reduce the amount of gelatin to make it thinner and more fluff like. I think around 2 tbsp of gelatin was when I got the fluff consistency.
OOOhhhh! This fluff would be like traditional 7 minute icing or what is also called boiled icing! I think that would be great to put on a cake but is AIP Paleo friendly. Super exciting!!