Once you’ve tried homemade marshmallows, you’ll never settle for those supermarket bags. These are truly amazing, both to make and to eat. Watching the syrup fluff up is one of those magical-seeming science experiments that make candymaking fun.
Thanks to Cooking for Engineers for the great information on the science and history of marshmallow making, as well as the recipe that inspired this corn-free version.
3 tablespoons unflavored gelatin
3/4 cup water, separated
2 cups white sugar
2/3 cup golden syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
potato starch
Tools needed: stand mixer with paddle attachment and a candy thermometer
Oil a 9 x 13 baking pan and then powder liberally with the potato starch. Pour 1/2 cup of the water and the gelatin into the bowl of your stand mixer. Allow to sit for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, mix the remaining 1/4 cup water, the sugar, salt and syrup together in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the mixture reaches 250 degrees on a candy thermometer. Do not stir once the mixture starts to bubble, or you risk having the syrup crystallize. Wash down any crystals that form on the sides of the pan with a clean pastry brush dipped in cold water.
Once the mixture has reached 250 degrees, remove it from the heat and immediately drizzle it into the gelatin mixture with the mixer running at low speed. Once the syrup has all been poured in, increase the speed to high. (You may need to do this slowly to prevent splatters, or cover the bowl with a tent of plastic wrap.) Beat for 10 minutes on high until white and fluffy.
Pour and/or scrape the fluff into the prepared pan and allow to dry overnight. Turn out onto a board dusted liberally with potato starch and cut into cubes with a pizza cutter. Dredge all sticky sides in the potato starch and store in an airtight container. Marshmallows should keep for several weeks (if they last that long!)
Hi
What is Golden Syrup? I’m really interested in making these since I have very allergic 3 year old twins. Thanks in advance
Jenny
We use Lyle’s Golden Syrup (http://www.lylesgoldensyrup.com/lylesgoldensyrup/default.htm), which can be hard to find in the United States, but is very popular in Brittan. It is a cane sugar syrup, very sticky, that can be used as a substitute for honey, corn syrup, or molasses in recipes. Hopefully, it will work for your twins! My three-year-old and I had a lot of fun making (and toasting and eating) these.
I just checked and it is available on Amazon!
Jeanette
can you use rice syrup?
I haven’t tried it with rice syrup, but I think it would work. Rice syrup behaves somewhat differently when you caramelize it (as in granola bars) than cane sugar, so the end result might be a little softer and require more drying than cane sugar marshmallows. If you try it, please let me know if it works!
Jeanette
I’ve been looking high and low for a recipe such as this!! See, our guy is corn AND rice free!!! Marshmallows that can be purchased contain either corn or rice syrup
But no need to fret now!! We can make our own! Thanks sooo very much! Although, we are in the states and Lyle’s can’t be purchased at my local store…it can be purchased online…such as Amazon grocery! Thanks again from a fun-lovin GFCFSFCFRFEFOF lil boy!
So glad to be of help!
Beware, these are highly addicitve.
Thanks – I’m going to try this with my corn-free, wheat free 5 yr old! She’s so sad that she can’t eat marsh,allows – they all include corn syrup up here.
I didn’t see where I was supposed to put the salt… so I left it out. I used a wire whip instead of the flat beater, and only needed to beat it for 5 minutes. But they were excellent. Now I just need to make it cane sugar-free so that my son can have them too…. I posted a comment (and link to the recipe) on my blog! Thanks for the recipe!
Sorry, editing problem there! I’ve fixed it.
What kind of sweetner can your son have? It might be possible to make them with honey, though the taste would be really different. Would require some experimentation!
Hi, my 2 1/2 year old daughter is allergic to wheat, corn, dairy, and potatoes. She just discovered that she’s missing out on marshmellows.
Do you think that I could us tapioca starch instead of potato starch?
Thanks so much!
The potato starch is basically there just to keep the marshmallows from sticking to each other. So anything along those lines would probably work. Arrowroot powder?? Let me know if it works!
Any news on how this went with tapioca or arrowroot?
My daughter also can’t have potatoes. On an upcoming Girl Scout camping trip they will be having s’mores and daughter doesn’t want to miss out.
Hi –
I have not been able to try this out. I wonder if any other readers have tried?
I use Tapioca Starch instead and they turn out fantastic. I actually prefer them with the Tapioca over the Potato Starch but I do make them either way depending on what I have on hand.
[...] a corn-free marshmallow that you can make at home. (As I sit here writing this, I just saw another blogger’s post for corn-free marshmallows, where the author used Lyle’s Golden Syrup, which is made from cane sugar. I have never heard [...]
I love these!!!! Sooo Easy and good! I found Golden Syrup at our local Stop & Shop! I share this recipe with everyone I know!!!! Next I plan on using this recipe for marshmallow fondant. (Add a lot of powdered sugar basically LOL)
I haven’t tried this marshmallow recipe yet but I would
like to know if the white sugar can be substituted with
another type of sugar? Example, pure Stevia or Xylitol
made for cooking and baking? Has anyone tried it with
another type of sugar?
I don’t think that either Stevia or Xylitol would work with this recipe. It relies on the chemical changes that sugar makes when heated to a certian temperature – and stevia and xylitol are both so different that I don’t believe they would work the same way.
Thank you for this recipe. We are going camping and my soon won’t be left out of the roasting party! He is allergic to corn, eggs and chicken. It was easy to make too! Thanks so much!
-Serenity
Love these for my son with corn/rice allergies. They work just as great for roasting, too
Trying this batch with some vanilla so we’ll see how that goes!
Corn, gluten and rice free marshmallows?! You’re my hero! Thanks soooooooo much!
Thank you! I have really been missing the occasional sweet snacks and this made some excellent rice krispy treats! My family said the marshmallows themselves were amazing (I don’t like marshmallows except with rice krispies). They were pretty easy too. My piece of advice to anyone making them is when it says a medium saucepan, use a medium saucepan! (or larger) I spilled the sugar because my pan was too small. However, it all worked out! Yum!
My kids have an appetite for marshmallows, like most kids do for candy bars. It’s on their fave foods list. So, when I threw out all items with corn in them (dtr has allergy), marshmallows went off our list. So deprived are they, that when I announced I’m making marshmallows, it became an event. The recipe turned out great, and now if we can find corn free rice crispies, we’ll be in business!
Thank you for this recipe! I googled looking for a corn-free soy-free marshmallow and your blog came up. My son is allergic to eggs, soy, nuts, corn, rapeseed, beef, chicken, pork, garlic, and melons. After all that, I sometimes wonder what I can feed him. But before I discovered all his allergies, I gave his rice krispy treats, but haven’t been able to give it to him now since discovering the corn allergy. So now, I can make the marshmallow to make the yummy treats! (I use Trader Joe’s Crispy Rice which doesnot contain corn – phew!)
Now the task is to locate this Golden Syrup and examine the ingredients. Wonder if I can sub with a thickened simple syrup?
Yes, you could substitute your own thick simple syrup. If you get it to work, let me know the ratio of sugar to water!
Lyle’s is in the maple syrup section of my grocery store.