There are so many recipes out there that use marshmallows as their base. Homemade fondant, fluff, ice creams, frostings and of course s’mores. I want to try so many different things but I can’t seem to get rid of the wrench in my plan. If you knew how easy it was to make regular marshmallows you would never spend money in a store again. Gelatin free marshmallows however, not so easy. In the United States, Sweet and Sara makes vegan marshmallows that are sold at whole foods. There are a few online retailers in the United Kingdom as well. If you do a google search for vegan marshmallows, you will realize there isn’t too much variety as far as ideas go. There is the popular open source cookbook and recipe by David Soleil. I’m sure it works, since everyone seems to post it on their blogs. Genutine Vegetarian Gelatin and guar gum are not products readily available to me so I can’t try it.

Marshmallow on a Stick

The dilemma started when I wanted to make some Mexican Hot Chocolate Ice Cream with Marshmallows. I eat marshmallows. Gelatin and all. But there’s a lot of people around me that don’t. I tried adapting a recipe for regular marshmallows, substituting agar agar for gelatin. It didn’t work. It thickened and after whipping became the consistency of marshmallow fluff, but it didn’t turn opaque. I think that’s what I need to fix. It stayed liquid even after I let it cool overnight. I was left with a really thick sugar syrup and no marshmallows for my ice cream.

Marshmallow Heaven

So now for my second try I’ve managed to get my hands on to some cream of tartar and arrowroot powder. Not sure yet how they will help but I’m going to look into it and update this post on Monday. Hopefully I will get the time to try another batch by then.

I mentioned Genutine Vegetarian Gelatin earlier. I just looked up the company, La Sactuaire, that sells it and their products are fascinating. They are taking huge steps towards making it easy to be vegan.