A Beginner's Guide to Making Homemade Marshmallows

1. Introduction: Hi, I'm chefs say to Pharaoh and welcome to marshmallow university. If you're joining me, it's most likely that you love eating marshmallows just as much as I do. And you want to learn all you can to create fluffy, flavorful marshmallows in less time and with confidence. In this course, I'm going to share with you the technique that I've developed over the last 11 years making marshmallows. My love for marshmallows since become the focus of my homegrown business, the marshmallow of the Month Club. Over the last few years, I've sent out thousands of marshmallows were engaging in flavor from classic vanilla to the odd cranberry, to the delightful pair ginger Prosecco. This course is structured so you can pause after each lesson and gather your ingredients, equipment that you'll need to make classic vanilla marshmallows. I'll guide you through all the equipment that you'll need and review the recipe and ingredients, as well as some alternative ingredients, will learn the technique to making marshmallows. As a bonus, I'll show you how to package your marshmallows to give away as gifts for the holidays. Or maybe you want to create a kit for your next bonfire. So whether you're new to making marshmallows or you just want to sneak peek into how I make my delicious marshmallows. This course is for you. So let's jump in and make your first batch of classic vanilla marshmallows. 2. What to Expect: Your final project will consist of a pan of marshmallows that you can cut into 16 individual marshmallows, perfect for gifting or snacking. Learning vanilla marshmallows is a great place to start for beginning marshmallow makers. They were the first marshmallow flavor that I learned. And it's a low cost way to learn the art and technique of marshmallow making. When you're ready to make your first batch of marshmallows, set aside about 45 minutes to complete this project from start to finish. I've included a resource guide for you that has a list of your equipment, the ingredients, and the recipe. And there's a section of the guy that will show you where you can get alternative ingredients and some of the equipment as well. Be sure at the end of this course, when you're done making your first batch of marshmallows, share a photo with us in the project gallery. I would love to see what you created. So let's jump in and learn about all the equipment you're going to need to make your first batch of vanilla marshmallows. 3. Equipment: Here's all the equipment that you will need to make classic vanilla marshmallows from scratch. You'll need a sifter to high heat spatulas and nine by 13 pan. A dry cup measure, a teaspoon of tape measure, a thermometer, hot, mobile, a scale, and a liquid measure. You absolutely can make marshmallows with your hand mixer, but there are some precautions. You want to make sure your bowl is nice indeed, and that you start off on a lower speed. If you start off too high, then all of the syrup is going to start flying around and you'll run the risk of burning yourself. So this is all the equipment that you're going to need to make homemade marshmallows. 4. Ingredients: The ingredients you'll need for making your classic vanilla marshmallows begins with fewer sugar. So you will need granulated sugar, corn syrup, gelatin, vanilla, vegetable spray, and powdered sugar. 5. Alternative Ingredients: So when it comes to your sugar ingredient, you have a couple of different choices. Not all sugar is made the same. This sugars pioneer sugar, and it's made with beats rather than cane sugar. So if you are looking for a vegan sugar, There's a couple of different options. One would be Pioneer and the other one is acyl-CoA. And what makes them Vg and sugar is that it doesn't go through the same process is white granulated sugar. White granulated sugar uses cow bone chars, char to make the sugar white. So if you're looking for a sugar that's going to be a vegan vegetarian option, go with pioneer or sulcus sugar. Now when it comes to vanilla, you have all kinds of options for vanilla. The first one that I showed you was a Nielsen Massey. Nielsen Massey is one of the most flavorful vanilla set you can find. And they have Tahitian, Madagascar, and Mexican vanilla. And they also have another product that's vanilla bean paste. Now the vanilla bean paste does have the vanilla bean, so you'll see a little black specks in there, and it also contains sugar. So you're going to want to watch when you use the vanilla bean paste as it has a little bit additional sugar to it. Mccormick's, Walmart and Target. They all have their brand of a pure vanilla extract, which is absolutely delicious. I found this Uganda vanilla extract at Whole Foods. So another option for, for vanilla. And then of course you have a class, the original vanilla, which is going to be a vanilla bean. And I'll show you how to split that vanilla bean so that you can get all this seeds that are inside of there. So you'll see sometimes with my marshmallows they'll have these little black dots. And that's going to be the bean from the vanilla bean. Now, vanilla beans can be costly. They can go for about $4 per bean. But I've provided you a link inside of the guide that shows you where you can get this beam for almost a dollar piece. Now your options for gelatin do have a range and some of them work one-to-one with the recipe that I'm going to share with you. And some of them are a little bit, Yeah. So some of them have a little bit more work to it. Classically, marshmallows are made with a fork base gelatin, and you'll find that nox is one of those brands that has a gelatin readily accessible at any grocery store. And it'll come in packets and you'll need for packets of this Knox gelatin. So that would be a pork option. If you're looking to avoid the pork option. If you have a kosher grocery group of kosher grocery store, you should be able to find believers gelatin, which is a fish base gelatin. And this is typically what I use in my marshmallows. And the whole lol gelatin is vegetarian, but it is not one-to-one within the recipe. It's very sensitive to temperature, and this is a product that I can show you how to use in another course. And then if you're looking for the most economical gelatin out there and you have access to Walmart and you're making a whole bunch of marshmallows. The Great Value brand of an flavored gelatin. It's the most economical way to purchase Shelton. I know some of you are looking to make vegan marshmallows and I'm going to go all over it and another course. But I just want to show you these are the two ingredients that I have found that works really well when it comes to making vegan marshmallows. So make sure you stay tuned and I'll share with you how to make the marshmallows with these two products. There are many alternatives to using corn syrup in your marshmallows. Having corn syrup in your marshmallows allows your marshmallow sugar syrup and not to crystallize. And sometimes if you don't have this corn syrup in there, you might get this crunchy top to your marshmallow or it crystallizes in the pot. So having corn syrup is an important ingredient. However, alternatives to corn syrup would be any kind of inverted syrup. Like maple syrup, honey. You can also make your own corn syrup and I'll share a link with you in the guide on how to make your own corn syrup from your choice of sugar. So you wanna make sure you have some kind of inverted sugar syrup in your marshmallows. Now I recently saw that someone was looking for an alternative to powdered sugar. If you didn't know, powdered sugar is a very fine granulated sugar, and it also has cornstarch. So some people have an allergy to corn and they're looking to for an alternative to cornstarch. So if you have access to an oldies, all these has a powdered sugar that uses tapioca starch. And the only purpose of this ingredient is so that you can dusts your marshmallow so they don't stick together. So that's why we use powdered sugar. So again, if you're looking for an alternative to powdered sugar, you can try all these brand of powdered sugar with tapioca starch instead of cornstarch. When you're looking for a spray. So we use any kind of oil spray to spray our pan and we'll go over that when we're working on our technique. But you want to avoid one ingredient you want to avoid is bakers Joy. Bakers Joy does how flower inside of it, and it will work well. But if you're gluten-free, then you want to avoid bakers Joy. So we just look for a vegetable oil, canola. And you can use the butter flavored spray if you want to, but using the olive oil or coconut, that flavor is going to come off inside of your marshmallow. So I would avoid the olive oil sprays. Definitely. And grab yourself a vegetable non-stick spray. 6. Recipe: Let's measure out those ingredients for this recipe, you'll need 2.5 ounces of gelatin, four ounces of cold water, two teaspoons of vanilla, two cups of sugar, 12 ounces or 1.5 cups of water, and four ounces of corn syrup. 7. Technique Part 1: Combine Ingredients: And a microwaveable bowl. Combine your gelatin and your vanilla to your water, and then pour in the water vanilla and vanilla into your gelatin. Stir. Now gelatin has to bloom and gelatin will bloom in cold water. So you wanna make sure that this water is cold when you're blooming your gelatin. And then we're just going to set that aside. Using a heavy pot. You're going to add your two cups of sugar, your 1.5 cups of water, corn syrup. Placing your thermometer. And we're going to let this cook to 230 degrees. 8. Technique Part 2: Prep Your Pan: While you're marshmallows or whipping, will need to prepare our pan. You're going to take some spray, some non-stick spray, and just spray your pan. Make sure you have a clean spatula so that we can scrape the bowl and we don't have the residue from the gelatin from our other spatula. So make sure you have a nice clean spatula for this step. 9. Technique Part 3 Whipping Into Marshmallows: When your sugar syrup gets to about 225 degrees, you want to microwave your gelatin until it liquefies. It can take up to a minute, but it started 30 second increments. And you don't want to cook it, you just want to liquefy it. This will make it easier to incorporate the sugar syrup into your gelatin. At 230 degrees, you're gonna take your serum. We're going to handle this carefully. And we're going to for right into our challenges. And now we need to wake our gelatin to make marshmallows. Using a stand mixer, you'll scrape your gelatin sugar syrup into the bowl. Use your whisk attachment to whisk on high until the batch triples in size. And you'll know that a tripled because you'll take the whisked out periodically and you'll see that it's like a medium pizza, not soft, not hard peaks, but a median. So if it's too soft, then it'll take longer to set in. It won't be as area and fluffy as you want it to be. And if it's a stiff peak, then it'll be really hard to get out of the bowl and they'll set up too quick. So as you can see, this doubling the size and it's getting lighter as well. So that's another indicator that you're marshmallows are getting nice and fluffy. It's the color. If you were to touch the bowl, you'd probably the temperatures dropped just a little bit. And that's a good sign too. So you want to touch the mall and you don't want to burn your hand. And then you'll know that it's starting to cool off and it's starting to set up for marshmallows. Now I want you to know this is live. I've, I haven't edited this video for you to see how long it actually takes to whip your marshmallows. Some recipes will tell you to WIP for five to ten minutes. But it all depends on your speed and how and the power of your motor. So this happens to be a kitchen aid 600 with a really good motor and I haven't had the highest speed possible. We're probably what, about two minutes and maybe three minutes and to whipping. And you can see we're almost to the point of tripling in size. Let's just get a little bit closer and I want you to see, but how far up the bowl it is. As you can see, it didn't take long for our marshmallows to get nice and thick and width. So we're going to scrape it into our bowl. We're going to scrape it into our p.sit quickly as this will start to set up fast. So you want to be, it was spread that nice and even a look how pretty that is. Love most mammals get everything out, no marshmallow left behind. And we're just going to give them a nice even spread. These are going to be super fake in this eight by eight pan. Oh yes. And now we're going to o set for two hours. Turn them out in column. So I'll see you in the next video when we cut our marshmallows. 10. Marshmallow University Cutting Marshmallows: When you're ready to cut your marshmallows, make sure that you have a bowl of powdered sugar, a sifter, a large chef's knife, and some vegetables spread. So with our sifter for going to just add some powdered sugar and sprinkle it over the top of our marshmallows. And on a clean surface we can just turn it apt. Because we sprayed our pan should come out nice. And let's sprinkle some more powdered sugar for the final. Now our goal is to get 16 marshmallows from this. So you can take a ruler and measure them out. I'm going to eyeball them just so little bit. Just make a little mark. But I could have gone down a little bit further. Let's make the mark there. So depending on how big you want your marshmallows to be, I think that's good. 1, 2, 3, 4. These guys, like the really big though, make another mark there. And then between there. All right, so before we cut, we want to spray our knife. What some vegetable spray. And that'll help it so it doesn't stick as much when we're cutting our marshmallows. So these marshmallows have been setting up for the last two hours and it shouldn't take longer than that. Oh, I forgot to mark it the other way as well. Right. So let's go 1234. We're going to be a little different in shape, but that's okay. Oh, these guys are going to be nice and big. So I'm going to make my first cut. Then I'll make my second cut. And if your knife start sticking, called user fees. So we've huge. If your knife starts sticking, then you can go ahead and spray it again. These are mondo. I usually don't make my marshmallows this big. But you can cut them as big or as small as you want to cut them right down in there. And think I'm going to spray one more time here. Big fluffy marshmallows. And they have so many amazing tools that you can use to actually cut these. You could do with a pizza cutter. It's a little bit harder with the and now I'm just going to start cutting them. Now the insights are going to be sticky. So that's when you'll take your bowl of powdered sugar. And you're just going to fluff up inside of the ball. So if you do want them to be a certain size, I would definitely grab a ruler and make some marks with the ruler. But you're going to have these mondo size marshmallows, jumbo, jumbo marshmallows. And then once it comes out. So give those a cut, deb those inside of our powdered sugar. I am going to cut some of these a little bit smaller so that you can see different ways to package them. Well, lets you just want to give people these one big, big marshmallows. So I'm going to take the sky. Oh yeah. There's one that I love the size of those. So look at those nice, fluffy marshmallows that will have huge, I'm sure someone would love to eat this giant enormous marshmallow. So you can definitely get more than 16. So after I cut these, I'm going to break them down again and cut them just a little bit smaller. Of course, if you want to give someone a gigantic one, you can. And our spirit of marsh move. And there you have 16 jumbo marshmallows. 11. Marshmallow University bonus packaging: As promised, here are some of my fever fun ways to package your marshmallow creation. So when it comes to packaging your marshmallows, the most important thing is that you keep them in an airtight container so that they don't dry out and moose flavor. And the easiest way to do that is to grab a baggie that has a nice seal on it and that you can zip up for freshness. Now, when it comes to the holiday season, there are these great Ziploc bags on the market that have a holiday little logo on them. And you can use that forgive thing. I did that with these big boys right here. So I used the holiday bags as you can see, and it has like this one has a raccoon who's riding a bicycle. And then there's one with an elf at the North Pole. So that's another fun way to quick and easy seal your bags for gifting. Now of course, my favorite way is to use this some more kit that I created. So it's white gift box that has a top and bottom that looks like a Graham cracker. And then I cut out a piece of chocolate to make it look like it's more is dripping chocolate. So that's another fun way to package them. And then I use the same idea for a baby shower. So this is perfect for a baby shower. And now this is with a clear box so you can see right through. And then again, I decorated a happy birthday box, and this is a three-by-three box. The bigger one is a four by four box. And so here's what the clear box would look like. And I put a little happy birthday on there. So you, when I make us some more kit, I'll add a little tea light candle and a little skewer, some chocolate. And there's some, you find your favorite Graham crackers, whether they're gluten-free or vegan, He's happening or you ones that I baked and add a nice sized Marshmallow to it. So this is what it would look like. If you're making a Sworkit in a clear box, then I also have a kit that's in a e, So you can put it in this sandwich baggie. And again, there's the little tea lights so that they can toast them. Although skewer, some chocolate, Graham crackers and the marshmallows. So if this is something that you're giving away, like the day that you have made them or the day after that you can put everything in one bag. The Graham crackers, we'll get a little bit softer. But when you're making s'mores, want soft Graham crackers. So that's another way. Oh, and then I cut off like this little piece of craft paper and I found these great stamps. So I found stamps that look like s'mores and they look like marshmallows. And one of them actually says some more. And so I stamp that with white stamp with a white sampling pigment pad and made those different symbols on there just for a little bit of fun. So that's how I did that. Now let's say you want to pack for cocoa. Think this is so much fun. I find this to be so much fun for Coca. So I found these little kids can get a mason jar that has a lid on top of it, and it came with little spoons. So I'll show you how I did this, right? So there's the little stone. You'll need to cut out a piece of ground cloth and put it on with a rubber band. And I had some little Twine. So there's some twine that I wrapped it around. And I made a little tag and stamped little tag. But what's great with these mugs is that they come with a lid on it. So I thought this was so brilliant. Now if I were shipping, if I weren't keeping these for maybe a couple of these, I put a little bit of plastic on top of that just to ensure that it's going to be air tight. But I added some marshmallows to it. And I took that pack of cocoa and put the cocoa in the bottom, if you can see that. So the cocoa is at the bottom, added some chocolate chips and marshmallows on top. And you can get about four ounces of milk or hot water inside of there to make a Haute Chocolate. So I thought this was a really fun way to make. I won't be able to type this again, you've gotta do it with a rubber band. Let me grab a rubber band, take this rubber band and add it to the fabric. And then type is so round. I would probably find if i'm I'm not going to keep the rubber band on there. It just helped me with giving this around almost like jam jars, sorry. Give this a little type itself. Then not remove the rubber band. And you can have the spoon onto inside a low tide off. And that up. I think this is just a curious way to give out hot chocolate. So you would find the mason jar that has a lead and you can put in your own cocoa, maybe some chocolate chips and marshmallows on top and then seal it and then add like a little wooden spoon. Maybe personalize it with their manes. I just think this is such a cute and adorable way. So I also use the court bag, this, so this was another one that, But the really big ones inside of a court bag and stamp that again. So I stamped on top of there. Now, the one that I'm going to demonstrate for you is probably actually be my favorite way to package marshmallows for gifts. So this is a gestated bags, so they're inside of a gestated bag. And this during the holidays will all year long. You can find great designer paper that you can use. And this one just happens to have like cocoa on there, so and then whip cream at the top. But I'll pretend like it's marshmallow hubs. But I really love this paper. So I'm going to demonstrate to you with you how I made this. So you will need GAS it bags. Now what I'm using is a three by 6.5 inch Gosset bags. And in the resource list you will find where you can purchase these from. So what's great about them is that the GST it back, say open up nice and wide to put your marshmallows inside. I do have a couple of marshmallows leftover that we can put inside of there. And then we're going to cut out the paper. So a nice designer paper will probably be about 12 by 12. And we're going to cut this turns this way. We're going to cut this 10 now this is a paper trimmer, love, love, love, love my paper trimmer. And we're going to cut this. I mean, we're offering just pushed off ten by 27 eighths. So if you don't have a paper trimmer, you can use a ruler and cage that 10 by 2 and 7 eighths. And I can put my paper trimmer or well, then I'm going to fold that directly in half and you can leave it as is and put it inside of the bag. But I'm going to embellish this just a little bit. So I have two hole punches. This is 1.5 and this is a two-inch hole punch. So I'm going to cut a smaller hole punch. I'm going to use the smaller one that cut a window. And then I'm going to grab some silver paper. And I'm going to cut a larger punch. And I always turn my punches upside down when i bunch. And then out of this circle I'm going to cut another hole inside of there. And then I'm going to close this down. And I'm going to move this down. A whole lot of moving. Well, my blue somehow it goes inside of there. The one thing with the best bag is doesn't have the closure and the top. So you will need a heat seal in order to make this happen. So I also added on, we had a little tag, a little bit of rebellion. And then I have all these great phrases that I have stickers for and I love to add those stickers. And what other thing is one piece of tape on the bottom of a desk bags just so that it sits flat. So as you can see what this one, it doesn't sit flat. So this is just a really fun way. It's one of my favorite ways to present marshmallows for the holidays. There's any particular packaging that you want to know more about, please let me know in the discussion and I'll get back to you on where and how you can get the certain packaging. 12. Marshmallow University final thoughts: Congratulations on learning how to make the Mela marshmallows from scratch. And now you're ready to share them with your family. And whether it's in year, favorite hot cocoa or during the next bonfire, or to make classics s'mores. I would love to see the creations that you made with your marshmallow. So be sure to post a picture in the project gallery. And as always, if you have any questions about the equipment, technique, or ingredients used in this recipe, feel free to post in the discussions and I'll answer your questions. I'm a chef, saw you to Pharrell. Thank you for learning with me today and happy marshmallow making.