Healthy homemade marshmallows made with herbs and honey are light, plush, and fluffy. Unlike store bought marshmallows that are hard and cardboardy, homemade marshmallows taste fabulous. By infusing them with herbs these healthy homemade marshmallows are packed with health supporting benefits too.
These healthy marshmallows are made with roses. They are a sweet, light finish to a meal, that also helps with digestion, reduces inflammation, and lifts the mood. Rose infused marshmallows get their flavor from rose water, rose hydrosol, and dried rose petals. The pink color is enhanced with hybiscus — roselle flowers.
It helps if you have basic candy making skills for this recipe for homemade marshmallows. If this is the first time you’ve made candy, check out this homemade vanilla marshmallow recipe first. For more detailed, step by step, instructions the Craftsy course, “Homemade Chocolate Candy, Fudge, Bars, & More” has a full lesson (lesson 4) on making marshmallows . While the ingredient list is not as healthy as my recipe, it does give you easy to follow, step by step technique in video format, allowing you to pause and rewatch sections while you learn the technique for making homemade marshmallows. The course is a thorough introduction to tempering chocolate and making marshmallows, which is a basis for fondant and homemade chocolates.
Use these healthy homemade marshmallows for s’mores, hot chocolate, rice crispy squares, and chocolate bark, too. Once you’ve tasted homemade marshmallows you won’t go back to store bought. Light and exceptional, they are also healthy and gluten-free. (Paleo, corn-free, gluten-free, grain-free, sugar-free, GMO-free, dairy-free, egg-free, and nut-free) When you are cooking for people with food allergies homemade marshmallows are an excellent choice for a light, but fancy dessert.
Equipment needed for homemade marshmallows:
A stand mixer with whisk attachment or a mixing bowl with hand held beater with whisk attachment
A 2 quart saucepan with heavy bottom
Tea pot with wire strainer
Print
Healthy Homemade Marshmallows — Rose Marshmallows
- Prep Time: 10 min
- Cook Time: 30 min
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 36 1x
- Method: Candy making
Description
These healthy homemade marshmallows get their pink colour from hibiscus tea. Rose is astringent and helps uplift the spirit and reduce anxiety and inflammation. These are lovely served with tea on a dessert tray.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons of tapioca starch for dusting (divided)
1 cup of water, boiling
1 tablespoon unsprayed rose petals, dried
1 tablespoon hibiscus flowers, dried
½ cup of rose hydrosol
3 tablespoons beef gelatin
1 ½ cups of honey
¼ teaspoon Himalayan salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon rose water, culinary
Instructions
Grease a 9 x 9 pan. Line the pan with parchment paper in two directions. Lightly dust the parchment paper with 1 teaspoon of tapioca starch.
Pour boiling water over hibiscus and rose petals in a tea pot. Steep the herbal tea for 10 minutes. Reserve ½ cup of hibiscus and rose tea for this recipe. Use the rest for another recipe.
Add ½ cup of rose hydrosol and gelatin to the mixing bowl of your stand mixer. Let the gelatin soften and bloom for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, add the hibiscus-rose tea and honey to a 2 quart saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Continue boiling until the honey reaches 240°F on a candy thermometer. Don’t leave the boiling honey unattended. If the honey boils up remove it from the heat and stir it until it stops bubbling up and then return it to the heat. The bubbling is the water from the tea evaporating from the honey mixture. Once the syrup reaches 225°F you can turn up the stove a little to speed the process. Once the syrup reaches 240°F, the soft ball stage, remove it from the heat.
Trickle the hot syrup into the softened gelatin mixture while beating the syrup-gelatin mixture on low, being careful not to splash yourself with hot syrup. Add the salt, vanilla extract, and rose water.
Turn the mixer on high and beat for 10 minutes until the mixture is glossy and has the consistency of thick marshmallow cream. When it’s ready a line of marshmallow cream will remain on the surface of the marshmallow without sinking back in. A trickle of marshmallow cream will fall very slowly off a spatula into the bowl, making a long ropey string of marshmallow. You don’t want stiff peaks.
Turn off the mixer. Transfer the marshmallow cream to the prepared pan. Smooth the top. Dust with more tapioca starch.
Allow the pan to sit at room temperature to set for 4 hours or overnight.
Dust the cutting board with tapioca starch. Flip the marshmallows onto the cutting board and cut with a buttered and starch-floured very sharp chef’s knife.
Remove the misshapen sides of the marshmallow block, so that the block has clean edges all around. Slice these removed sides into ½ inch mini-marshmallows.
Now cut the large block into 6 strips. Dust the cut edges with more starch as you work. Periodically clean and dust the knife with more tapioca starch. Slice with a straight cut. Don’t saw the block back and forth. Cut each strip into 6 marshmallows, rolling each one in the tapioca starch to keep them from sticking together.
Place the marshmallows on a rack or a plate and let them air for 2 to 4 hours. This will seal the edges and keep them from sticking together.
Store in an airtight container at room temperature. Don’t refrigerate or freeze these marshmallows. They are best stored at room temperature or above 50°F. (Shelf life: 3 weeks)
Homemade Rose Marshmallows
These healthy homemade marshmallows get their pink colour from hibiscus tea. Rose is astringent and helps uplift the spirit and reduce anxiety and inflammation. These are lovely served with tea on a dessert tray.
Yield: 36 1 ½ inch marshmallows
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons of tapioca starch for dusting (divided)
1 cup of water, boiling
1 tablespoon unsprayed rose petals, dried
1 tablespoon hibiscus flowers, dried
½ cup of rose hydrosol
3 tablespoons beef gelatin
1 ½ cups of honey
¼ teaspoon Himalayan salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon rose water, culinary
Directions:
Grease a 9 x 9 pan. Line the pan with parchment paper in two directions. Lightly dust the parchment paper with 1 teaspoon of tapioca starch.
Pour boiling water over hibiscus and rose in a tea pot. Steep the herbal tea for 10 minutes. Reserve ½ cup of hibiscus-rose tea for this recipe. Use the rest for another recipe.
Add ½ cup of rose hydrosol and gelatin to the mixing bowl of your stand mixer. Let the gelatin soften and bloom for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, add the hibiscus-rose tea and honey to a 2 quart saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Continue boiling until the honey reaches 240°F on a candy thermometer. Don’t leave the boiling honey unattended. If the honey boils up remove it from the heat and stir it until it stops bubbling up and then return it to the heat. The bubbling is the water from the tea evaporating from the honey mixture. Once the syrup reaches 225°F you can turn up the stove a little to speed the process. Once the syrup reaches 240°F, the soft ball stage, remove it from the heat.
Trickle the hot syrup into the softened gelatin mixture while beating the syrup-gelatin mixture on low, being careful not to splash yourself with hot syrup. Add the salt, vanilla extract, and rose water.
Turn the mixer on high and beat for 10 minutes until the mixture is glossy and has the consistency of thick marshmallow cream. When it’s ready a line of marshmallow cream will remain on the surface of the marshmallow without sinking back in. A trickle of marshmallow cream will fall very slowly off a spatula into the bowl, making a long ropey string of marshmallow. You don’t want stiff peaks.
Turn off the mixer. Transfer the marshmallow cream to the prepared pan. Smooth the top. Dust with more tapioca starch.
Allow the pan to sit at room temperature to set for 4 hours or overnight.
Dust the cutting board with tapioca starch. Flip the marshmallows onto the cutting board and cut with a buttered and starch-floured very sharp chef’s knife.
Remove the misshapen sides of the marshmallow block, so that the block has clean edges all around. Slice these removed sides into ½ inch mini-marshmallows.
Now cut the large block into 6 strips. Dust the cut edges with more starch as you work. Periodically clean and dust the knife with more tapioca starch. Slice with a straight cut. Don’t saw the block back and forth. Cut each strip into 6 marshmallows, rolling each one in the tapioca starch to keep them from sticking together.
Place the marshmallows on a rack or a plate and let them air for 2 to 4 hours. This will seal the edges and keep them from sticking together.
Store in an airtight container at room temperature. Don’t refrigerate or freeze these marshmallows. They are best stored at room temperature or above 50°F. (Shelf life: 3 weeks)
Serving ideas for homemade marshmallows:
Rose marshmallows make a strong statement at a bridal shower or a wedding dessert table. They are wonderful additions to potluck menus. For homemade s’mores pair them with rose scented pizzelles. Grab the recipe here.
Roses are cooling, astringent, and lift the mood. They are romantic and go well with romantic occasions like Valentine’s Day, anniversary celebrations, weddings, and bridal showers. This recipe offers triple rose benefits, from rose petals, rose hydrosol, and rose water. Find out more about the health benefits of roses here.
While you can make mini-rose marshmallows by cutting the off-cuts into smaller marshmallows, for a chic presentation, fill a piping bag with the marshmallow fluff, use a 1/2 inch round tip, and pipe a thick rope of marshallow onto greased and starch-floured parchment paper. These marshmallows will be ready to cut in an hour. Line up the ropes of piped marshmallows and slice through several ropes at once using a greased and starch-floured pizza wheel. Shake the mini marshmallows in starch. Shake off excess starch and put them in a sealed container, keeping like flavors together. Rose is a strongly scented marshmallow flavor and may transfer to other lightly flavored marshmallows if packaged together.
Herb infused homemade marshmallows
Homemade marshmallows offer several options for infusing herbal goodness into a sweet treat. Herbal tea, decoctions, alcohol or glycerine based flavoring, juice, herb infused honey, and dry, powdered herbs can be used to advantage when making healthy herbal marshmallows. They are a tasty way to bring the benefits of herbs to your family members, even those who may be wary of using herbal remedies.
Leave a Reply