finished marshmallow with marshmallow root

How to Make Marshmallow Using Marshmallow Root

Making marshmallows from scratch is a lot of fun (and in my case makes my entire kitchen turn white…) and gives you unique fluffy white sweet pillows. I’ve made marshmallows and also analyzed them from a science point of view. Those cooking quests used the modern day marshmallow making method: boiling a sugar syrup, adding that to a whipped up egg white and then mixing in gelatin at the end.

However, when looking into the origins of marshmallows, I found out that they used to be made using marshmallow root. So, of course, I set out on a quest to make marshmallows without gelatin and with marshmallow root! In this post I’ll share with you my first findings, I’ve managed to make quite a decent marshmallow root marshmallow.

Recap of how marshmallows are made

Let’s quickly recap on marshmallow and the science of marshmallows. We’ll need it to be able to make marshmallows using marshmallow root (scroll down if you’re just interested in the recipe!).

Marshmallows are made by boiling a syrup of sugar, glucose and water to a temperature of 121°C. The reason we boil to this specific temperature is because we want a limited amount of water in our sugar syrup. The temperature of a boiling sugar syrup is always related to the water content of the syrup (let’s not dive in the details of that one just now, but I’ve written about this before in my post on caramel!). In the meantime we whip up an egg white to incorporate air and thus make a light and fluffy marshmallow.

By pouring the hot sugar syrup in the whipped egg white (while continuously whipping!), we cook the proteins in the egg white. By cooking them they become more stable and better in holding onto the air. We keep on whipping until the bowl is not too hot anymore and add the dissolved gelatin. Gelatin will strengthen the structure further, preventing it from collapsing. We don’t want a marshmallow to collapse since the air will escape and it will loose all its lightness.

set up for making marshmallows using marshmallow root
My set up, ready to whisk up some egg whites. The brown paste in front is the marshmallow root powder. The sugar and glucose syrup are boiled on top of the stove. A stand mixer makes the whole process a lot easier (don’t try whisking a boil of egg whites by hand while at the same time pouring in a hot hot sugar syrup!).

The marshmallow root

In my marshmallow root marshmallow experiment I want to substitute the gelatin that is normally used for making marshmallows for marshmallow root powder. Why substitute gelatin? Simply because that’s the ‘old-fashioned’ method, extra advantage, this marshmallow is also suited for vegetarians! Why use the root? ‘s because I’ve read that especially this root has thickening properties and that’s what I need in my marshmallows. Gelatin stabilizes marshmallows, so my root should take over this role.

That led me to a search on the internet for marshmallow root powder. I had no idea whether this would actually be something that could be bought online.

Soon I ran into loads of websites on herbs and their healing powers. Marshmallow is considered a medicine for quite a lot of health discomforts and even used in shampoos! I’m not an expert on this topic, so wouldn’t know whether it actually works or not, just have a look yourself. Whether or not it is a benefit for your health, these types of websites do sell the marshmallow root powder you’ll need for this recipe. I found the powder in a local little shop selling all sorts of medicinal herbs, spices, etc.

The powder itself is a light brown colour and has a ‘healthy’ smell, it somehow reminded me of sweets you eat when you have a cough. It also reminded me of ‘drop’ a typical Dutch black candy containing liquorice.

Developing a recipe for marshmallow root marshmallow

I set out to come up with a recipe for making marshmallow with the marshmallow root. My first search on the internet for recipes gave a meagre score of two available recipes. Both which I didn’t really trust to make the marshmallow I wanted to make. One from learning herbs (which still contained gelatin, I didn’t want to use gelatin) and one from food.com (which uses gum arabic, that I don’t have in my cupboard).

So, I decided to start from scratch and I revisited the recipe I used to make the regular marshmallows with gelatin. I reasoned that if I would simply substitute the gelatin with marshmallow root powder, I could in essence make the same thing. That’s exactly what I ended up doing. The main trick was to find out how much marshmallow root powder I actually needed.

If you’re also planning to use this recipe, do realize that marshmallow root powder is not a mainstream ingredient, so the different powders can be pretty different. It might be that you need more or less of the powder to get the same consistency. Overall, I really liked using the root powder, it gave a better, smoother, more stretchy, less ‘plasticy’ marshmallow!

Thickening properties of marshmallow root powder

To test for the required quantity I took 1 tablespoon of marshmallow root powder and mixed it with some water. The powder quickly absorbed all water, already showing its thickening properties. By heating this mixture au bain marie (in a boil above a pot of boiling water) I found that by heating it slightly it thickened up a little more.

That led me to the conclusion that one: marshmallow root powder can indeed cause thickening of a mixture (especially if heated a bit) and two: marshmallow root powder can be mixed with water very easily, requiring only a very little bit to become a homogeneous paste.

Since I would be adding the marshmallow root powder to the whipped up egg white + sugar solution I though it would probably be important to make a paste out of the powder before whisking it in. I was afraid that adding a powder would cause it to fly everywhere or form lumps. My ‘ideal’ ratio for making this paste was decided to be 1 tbsp of marshmallow root powder with 1 tablespoon of water.

cutting marshmallow root marshmallows

Making marshmallow root marshmallow

After boiling the sugars, whipping the egg white and whipping the two together (see below for recipe) it was time to add the marshmallow root powder. I only added the powder once the bowl had cooled down enough for me to touch it (not sure if that’s necessary though, didn’t get to test that out). I kept on whipping until everything had come to room temperature (a great advantage of using a stand mixer, your arm would have died from whisking in the meantime). To test the powder properly I decided to make three different recipes:

  • Use no marshmallow root powder (to see whether it actually did something)

Adding no marshmallow root powder led to a very flat little marshmallow. It couldn’t keep its structure and just collapsed once I placed it on a try. It was by far the most dense marshmallow of the three and very sugary. Not a nice fluffly marshmallow. This ‘proved’ that I couldn’t simply leave out the gelatin, something would have to help keep it up.

  • Use 1/2 tablespoon of marshmallow root powder per egg white

This marshmallow was already a lot less runny than the first one. It kept its shape better, though still not very good. It tended to flatten out over time. The marshmallow was also very very sticky and had a very very long pull to it. That was actually pretty cool, you could stretch it out quite a bit. However, don’t even try to cut this one into cubes. All in all, better than the first, not perfect yet.

  • Use 1 table spoon of marshmallow root powder per egg white

What a nice, light and airy marshmallow this was. I couldn’t stretch this marshmallow as much as the previous, but it was still pretty flexible. Again cutting it into squares was hard, but the taste and texture really made up for it. This marshmallow also kept its shape best, it didn’t flow down all the time. For making marshmallows this really is the minimum quantity of marshmallow root powder you need. You might want to increase it a little more if you want firmer marshmallows that would look more like those using gelatin.

A little note here, cornstarch is your best friend during cutting and pouring stage! Make sure to coat your marshmallow straight after making with cornstarch. If not, it’ll attract moisture and become one big sticky mass…

Why does marshmallow root thicken?

In conclusion I can say that I managed to make nice tasting marshmallows using marshmallow root powder instead of gelatin. The last thing I did want to investigate though, is the working principle of this powder. This proved to be harder than I thought and I still don’t have a complete answer I’m afraid. Here’s my best guess, if you know more details, I’d be happy to hear!

The first challenge was to find out which molecules are present in marshmallow root, luckily I found one website with such a list. I wasn’t too sure whether this was all that accurate, since once I started searching on, I found various websites with the exact same text. Was the text copied from somewhere? And if yes, what’s the source? I wasn’t too sure. However, in the list I saw one ingredient that could cause the thickening, which is ‘mucilage’. When looking into this further, I reasoned this could well be the substance causing the thickening.

Mucilage is a pretty common substance and can be found in various plants, for example okra and cacti. It is a mix of complex carbohydrates, proteins and sugars, which exactly, will differ per plant. Mucilage is used by the plants to hold on to water. It seems as if the more well known thickening agent agar-agar also contains quite a bit of mucilage. So, this mucilage seems to be able to cause quite some thickening of moisture containing substances (you could also see this when adding water to the marshmallow root, it simply all disappeared).

finished marshmallow with marshmallow root

Marshmallow root marshmallow

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes

Marshmallows made with marshmallow root instead of gelatin. Marshmallow root is way more finicky than gelatin and less standardized so may work a lot less predictable than regular gelatin.

Ingredients

  • 75 ml water (if, by accident, you've added more, no problem, it will just take a little longer for all the extra water to boil off again)
  • 125g sugar (regular granulated sugar)
  • 75g glucose syrup (or corn syrup)
  • 1 egg white
  • 1 tbsp marshmallow root powder
  • Cornstarch + icing sugar

Instructions

  1. Boil the water, sugar and glucose in a pan to 121C.
  2. When it's close to getting to that temperature, start whipping up the egg white until it has nice firm peaks.
  3. Keep on whisking while adding the boiling hot (HOT!) sugar syrup (it's easiest with a stand mixer).
  4. Keep on whisking at a high speed until the bowl has cooled down to body temperature.
  5. In the meantime, mix the marshmallow root powder with 1 tbsp of water. Once the mixture in the bowl has cooled down, add the paste. Keep on whisking for a little while until it has been incorporated.
  6. Pour out onto a sheet of baking paper and coat with corn starch (or a mixture of corn starch and icing sugar, depending on how sweet you like it). Leave to set for a couple of hours.

Good luck making the marshmallow root marshmallow! If you’ve managed to make something, let me know, I’d be so curious!

Making old fashioned gelatin free marshmallow using marshmallow root

Further reading

Having trouble finding the translation for marshmallow root to your own language? Use the latin name in your search: Althaea officinalis. For the Dutch readers, marshmallow root is heemstwortel in Dutch.

Just a little warning here, as far as I could find the quantities I’ve used in my recipe do not pose any health risk. However, do check whether your supplier is trustworthy and whether you might have any allergies, etc. I’m not an expert on this topic, I focus on the science of its use and am not liable for the recipe/information given here, always use an expert’s advice.

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77 Comments

  1. Hi, thanks for the great post. I want to try this, also I want to try it without the egg white though and see how that goes.

    • Hi Jill, Great that you want to experiment a little more! If you decide to leave out the egg white be sure to add something else that you can foam, just water or milk won’t be enough. I had a quick look online and there are some substitutes out there, often with quite some proteins as well to stabilize the foam (for instance: http://www.molecularrecipes.com/hydrocolloid-guide/versawhip/). I haven’t tried a substitute myself (yet) but I’d be curious to hear how it went! Have fune!

      • Odd, the recipe I’ve always followed for marshmallows is like the one from Crumbs & Doilies (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jOCykVBDwc&t=56s) — no egg whites involved. The hot gelatin will whip up quite nicely, all by itself. I’ve used egg whites to make marshmallow cream (Italian meringue icing — just leave out the butter in this buttercream recipe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP2XJ_0g-Ik). I would have thought that the marshmallow root, once called marshmerrow, would have enough long-strand protein in it to hold the bubbles without the egg whites, just like the long-strand proteins in gelatin (generally made now from chicken marrow) works.

        • Hi,

          Thank you for sharing your methods! The egg-less recipe from Crumbs & Doilies looks great, makes very light and fluffy marshmallows as well.

      • I just tried this and even before I put in the root it got super hard and not able to work with- do you know what happened?

        • Hi E,

          I’m sorry to heat that! The only thing I can think of is that your sugar was maybe cooked to a slightly too high temperature and/or cooled down too quickly when adding it to the bowl. Too much sugar and/or too little water will drastically impact the texture of the marshmallow. If you’re cooking at high altitude, keep in mind that this will influence results, just in case that might be the case for you. If you run into the same problem again, try cooking the sugar to a slightly lower temperature, that will ensure there’s a bit more water left behind, making it softer and more moist.

          Hope your next try is more successful!

  2. What about using a little cream of tartar to help the egg white foam up nicely? It’s used in a lot of meringues.

    • Hi Nick, thanks for the suggestion. I’ve never tried cream of tartar myself (I should though, I’ve put it on my try-out list straight away!), but have definitely read about a lot of examples where it’s worked. It will surely help in forming an airy structure that is more stable and less prone to breaking apart.
      If you want to use it instead of gelatin or marshmallow root though, I’m afraid it won’t be strong enough. Cream of tartar will help the proteins hold on to moisture on the short run, but the forces of moving air and moisture will win from the cream of tartar.

  3. A couple questions about your receipe:
    – Can you translate the amount of granulated sugar and glucose syrup in to other measuring units (cups, oz, tbls, etc)?
    – What brand marshmallow root powder did you use? Or where did you get it?
    I tried using a marshmallow root powder (Microingredients Organic Marshmallow Root Powder) that turns out to be made of marshmallow extract 5:1. Considering my first attempt didn’t turn out, among all of what I could have done wrong, I wonder if the marshmallow root powder I used was not appropriate for the recipe.
    Thank you for publishing this! I’m looking forward to getting it right.

    • Hi Matt, great that you’re trying out the recipe, curious to hear how you’re managing.
      The amount of sugar in this recipe will be 1/2 cup and the amount of glucose syrup is 1/4 cup.
      It was a challenge to get a hold of marshmallow root powder, in the end I found in a small natural foods store. The product wasn’t branded, they had clearly packed it in-house. It wasn’t an extract though, it was actual milled marshmallow root. On amazon I did find a few similar looking powders. That said, marshmallow root is by far not as standardized as gelatin is. In other words, when you buy a same type of gelatin you can expect it to behave similarly every time. With marshmallow root I do not think that’s the case.
      A useful test to do at the start is to mix some with some water and try and see how it binds and thickens. It will give you some sort of indication of how it works. If the marshmallow doesn’t hold its shape at the end, try adding some more to thicken it up.
      Good luck and hope these few tips help you to get it better!

  4. Have you tried it with aquafaba? I might. There’s a really expensive seaweed that the lady who wrote marshmallow madness used but I will take your recipe and use the cooking water for garbanzo beans. Thanks!

    • Trying aquafaba has been on my to-try list for a long time, but unfortunately, it’s still there, didn’t get to try it yet. I’d love to hear how it went and don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Good luck!

      • Aquafaba is just the liquid from canned chickpeas; freezes well too.
        So next time you crave hummus, keep the liquid from the can. As is! Don’t water it down!
        Freeze it and when you have enough (or just buy the industrial kitchen size cans) try it!
        I made Vegan Pavolas using it..Definitely ad cream of tartar, and Do NOT open the oven door during the process (one of my cooks did this and they all collapsed!
        It essentially acts the same as egg whites, buy vegan …. and you can’t over whisk them! I tried this… it’s nearly impossible!!

  5. Having gone to the trouble to make the digestive biscuits for the rocky road bars, the least I could then do was make the marshmallows but it took a bit of research before I find your recipe and can’t wait to try it. One question though. would the resultant marshmallow mix go thought a biscuit press?

    • Hi! That’s sounds like a fun project and great ambition! Yes, you can use this marshmallow for rocky road bars, I would give it a pre-test, the main trick will be to make them firm enough to indeed withhold a press or mixing process. In order to get it firm enough I would advise increasing the amount of marshmallow root powder. This type of powder can be quite finicky and you might need to adjust your quantities compared to the recipe given above.
      Another alternative is to use gelatin which makes it a little easier to create a consistent firmness, for example in this recipe.

      • Thanks a million for getting back to me. The gelatin option isn’t really viable since I am a vegetarian so will do your basic recipe first to get comfortable with the process before I start experimenting. One other thing though, When I went researching marshmallow root, quite a few of them were unpeeled if that makes sense and here in Dublin, I could only find what looked like marshmallow bark, which I put through the coffee grinder followed by a very fine sieve and hopefully I will find out this weekend if it works! Éilis

        • I found the marshmallow root powder in a store selling all sorts of health ingredients, but indeed, it’s not easy to get your hands on some! Since you’ll be using the marshmallow in Rocky Road using agar agar could be a back up option as well. It does give a slightly firmer marshmallow, but since it’s part of the rocky road, that shouldn’t bother that much.
          Very curious how it will work out, good luck!

          • Hiya, just to let you know that our first attempt failed, but not entirely. It looked like marshmallow on the outside but resembled meringue on the inside so figured that I may have over whipped it and knocked all the air out of it. I’m hoping it will be better if I whisk in the syrup followed by the marshmallow for less time on a slower setting? It is a juggling act in trying to maintain the airiness of the whipped egg white whilst trying to incorporate the rest of the wet ingredients. Will give it another go though as not such a disaster as to put me off experimenting! Also wonder if it was partly because I had to use golden syrup instead of corn syrup, but given that they are similar in consistency I thought I could substitute it as corn syrup is not the easiest of ingredients to find. Éilis

          • Hi again! Great to hear from you again, it feels like we’re doing the experiment together ;-). I’ve been thinking about the whipping, hope these few tips might help:
            – When whipping the egg whites before adding the sugar, whip them until they have formed a nice consistent foam. Indeed, don’t overwhip them.
            – If you’re sugar syrup isn’t ready yet when the egg whites are, stop whipping the egg whites. Just before you start adding the syrup, turn on your mixer again to whip them back if (if they sunk in a little).
            – You should keep whipping at at least a moderate speed while pouring in the syrup, if you don’t, the syrup won’t mix in properly and you might end up with pieces of sugar spread around. Certainly whip and pour in at the same time (ask for someone to help, or use a stand mixer).
            – While pouring the syrup, the syrup should be cooking the eggs and as a result they should be less prone to overcooking. That said, once the sugar syrup has been incorporated completely, you may turn down the speed of the whisk if you’re afraid it’s too fast. Do keep it whipping to ensure and even product. Only stop once the mixture has reached room temperature.
            – Last but not least, really take care you’re cooking that syrup to the right temperature (121C or 250F). If you don’t it will be too watery and the foam won’t be strong enough to hold onto itself anymore!

            Then you’re second question on corn syrup (or glucose syrup) vs. golden syrup. In the Netherlands, none of the two are very common, I haven’t used golden syrup before to be honest. There does seem to be a difference though. Golden syrup is essentially inverted sucrose (regular) sugar and contains mostly fructose and glucose. Corn syrup on the other hand contains a lot more larger carbohydrates which will mostly likely make it better at stabilizing a foam such as marshmallow. That said, I’ve read online that it worked well for others. If you think your syrup might still be too thin, it might be worthwhile to try and boil it to a slightly higher temperature (just a few degrees will do it).

            Last but not least, marshmallow root can be highly variable, some are stronger than others. You might have to give to increase that, but that’s only if you see the foam is nice and foamy in your bowl and only loses its consistency at the end, when pouring it out.

            Hope that helps, good luck!

  6. Thank you for the post. I have been trying to find a marshmallow recipe that used just the marshmallow root and not the gelatin. I know marshmallows were originally made from marshmallow root and not gelatin. It had medicinal uses before the marshmallow root was replaced with gelatin. Plus I love marshmallows but I know most ingredients put in them now are really bad for you. I am looking for more natural ways to make them for my family.

  7. Fascinating post, they look really soft!
    I’m curious as to whether you could taste the marshmallow root when it was in the marshamallow, if so was it nice?
    Thanks

    • Hi Bob, thanks :-)!
      They actually tasted just like marshmallow, they were somewhat less overly sweet, I think the marshmallow root did that but it did not give any off-flavour!

  8. hi – nice reading….
    having a question – do you thing this powder was an ingredients in the old time “negro kisses” – so you could form the foam by hand, place the foam on a biscuit and cover it all with chocolate?

    in other words – i seek something making the foam form able and still be soft and smoothy.

    anybody any ideas???

    • Hi Kirsten,

      Great question. I wouldn’t recommend forming the marshmallows by hand. Instead, I would recommended using a piping bag to pipe the marshmallow onto your cookie. That way you don’t have to touch the marshmallows by hand which would guarantee plenty stickiness! If you want to pipe the marshmallow you might have to add a little bit more marshmallow root (or use gelatin, the nowadays ‘regular’ way to make marshmallows) to make them a little more firm and hold their shape. I must say, I haven’t tried this myself, so you might need to adjust as you go!

      Hope that helps, good luck!

  9. Hi – the whole idea is to make those the old fashion way – before everything got streamlined.

    stickyness – just use nitril gloves.

    but thanks for reply

  10. Thank you for this excellent work.
    I am growing marsh mallow plants (Althea officianalis)in my garden and if you break a root you get a slug- like slime – doesn’t sound attractive I know-but I’m going to try using it fresh to make marshmallow. Unfortunately I’ll have to wait a month or so until the plants are big enough to survive the harvesting . I will post again after I’ve had a go at marshmallow production.

    • That sounds super interesting Annie! I’ve never grown these plants so curious to hear how you go.

    • ive doine the same I found that harvesting the roots, and breaking of the sproutiung points with a bit oe extra root, I now have many more plants that I had lookme up on eddie.the.gardencoach.

      • That’s fascinating Eddie, what did you do to process the roots into the final powder? Just grind and dry them?

  11. Yay! I’m super excited to try this recipe! Thanks for going so in-depth. Very interesting article. 🙂

  12. I tried this today and it was a fail before I got to the root bit. My sugar got up to 125 while I was getting the egg white to foam. Then as I poured it looked good and fluffy for a second and then collapsed into a more liquidy goo. Did I over beat? I haven’t made anything like this before so it’s hard to know. I’m going to let it set up (or try to) but it was a pretty thin little puddle so I don’t have high hopes. How big a problem is the overheating?

    • Hi Jessica, I’m sorry to hear your first try didn’t go as planned! Here’s a few tips to help your next time succeed.

        As you had asked, yes, the cooking temperature is very important to get correct. Even though 4C might not sound like a big difference it can have a big impact on the final product. If in a next try you go too high again, just pour in a little extra water, it will bring the cooking temperature down again. Do take care, it’s very hot so might splatter a little. Once the water is added, stir it through and re-heat until you’ve reach the correct temperature.
        That said, I don’t think that was necessarily your main problem. Could it be that you didn’t full whip the egg whites yet? It is pretty hard to over whip the egg whites for this recipe (although it definitely it possible). Whip them until they form firm peaks (if you hold a bowl upside down it should just stay in place). If they aren’t properly whipped they will just collapse when additional moisture (= sugar syrup) is added.
        Did you pour in the syrup while you were whipping? If you don’t have a stand mixer you might need an extra pair of this because it is important that you whip while your pour. The sugar cools down quite rapidly and will then solidify and not mix properly if you don’t beat while adding it all in. Once you’ve poured the sugar in you can continue to whisk at quite ahigh speed without running the risk of over whisking. If you stop whisking though it can collapse.
        As with any sugar candy the humidity in your house can impact your results. I don’t necessarily think that was the case for you, but keep it in mind.
        If you make this recipe at a higher altitude keep in mind that you will need to adjust the boiling temperatures. For every about 300m elevation you need to subtract 1C from the temperature due to the lower atmospheric pressure and different boiling temperatures.
        Last but not least, you’ve probably done this right, but just in case. Did you heat it to 125 Celsius and not Fahrenheit?

        Hope that helps! Marshmallows definitely aren’t the easiest sugar candy to make with all the hot syrups, so a little trial and error is normal. Good luck :-)!

  13. Hello,

    I have an idea that would use the marshmallow as a cake topping. I have a chocolate syrup. Do you think I could add the syrup to the marshmallow at the end without ruining the consistency?

    • Hi Teri,

      Great questions! If the chocolate syrup isn’t hot (so it doesn’t melt the marshmallow), it shouldn’t be an issue to pour this over. In general, I would suggest pouring over syrups towards the end, or just before serving because it would prevent something from becoming sticking or absorbing moisture. Hope that helps!

      • First try was a failure. My mixer has a metal bowl which can make it hard to feel the temp because it stays hot longer it seems. Might have been too cool because wierdly it started turning grey and a bit dry before the marshmellow root. The root liquefied it some but in the end I had a grey splat of what sort of tasted like a marshmellow but too thin and chewy.

        Second try looks much better. Hope I got it to the right consistency to set. It’s currently cooling at room temp. Now it’s pretty close to white. The marshmellow root is brown so it has some brown specks but looks soooo much better. Cross your fingers it sets!

        Maybe mentioning what it should look like in the recipe or a picture when the mixture is ready to pour…might help. I’ve never made any kind of marshmellow so I had no idea.

        • Hi Mombe,

          I’m glad your second try was a lot better than the first! Good suggestion, next time I make marshmallow I’ll try to get some better photos.

    • That’s great Delicia, thanks for coming by!

      We did indeed turn off sharing functionality, but we might consider putting some sort of it back on :-).

  14. Thank you for experimenting and sharing this information! I appreciate the science and look forward to making natural marshmallows without all the guesswork. Thank you for creating and publishing this content. My family will enjoy real marshmallows for years to come because of you.

  15. I was wondering if some of the thickening is from pectin. Pectin is found in, I think, all plant cell walls and plays an important sticky role helping to hold each individual cells together with their neighbors. Jams and jellies are made gelatinous with pectin (rather than gelatin).

    It makes sense that marshmallows (the plant) would have a lot of milage, since both it and okra are in the same family (malvaceae)

    Someone may have already said this, fwiw.

    • Hi Jennifer,

      That could well be true indeed! I didn’t find hard evidence, but using your suggestion I did some searches and pectin-like molecules do seem to play an important role in mucilage of plants. Also, pectin plays a similar role in pumpkin & cranberries which might help confirm that is may at least be part of the mechanism that’s going on!

      Thanks for helping us understand this 🙂

  16. Could you make these in candy molds dusted first with corn starch? I will be growing marshmallows herbs this summer and have been wanting a kosher marshmallow. Can’t wait to try these. Thanks

    • Hi Jilliane,

      Growing your own sounds like a great idea, I’m curious to hear how they work out!

      You could possibly use them in candy molds. However, since marshmallows stay soft, it tends to be hard to get them out. Whereas you can push and force harder candies out quite easily, that is less the case for these. Also, the marshmallow mixture will be quite thick and stretchy, it doesn’t pour easily into moulds like a sugar syrup would. It is why we made a slab of the marshmallow and then cut it into pieces (and it is also why a product like nougat tends to be made that way as well). That doesn’t mean it’s impossible though!

      Hope that helps and good luck!

  17. I found that aquafaba works well for a substitution of gelatin and eggs for a vegan, cruelty-free recipe, and then just add the marshmallow root! Thanks so much!

  18. If you want Vegan one cannot use egg white. But you can try Garbonzo Beans liquid. It’s used to make Vegan Swiss buttercream frosting. And it whips just like egg white. Agar Agar can be used to make Vegan Marshmallows too. This is what most Vegans and Vegetarians use to make Marshmallows. You cal also use part Marshmallow root and part Agar Agar too. Too make it completely Vegan use the liquid from canned Garbonzo Beans. I would say experiment.

  19. I have certified organic marshmallow root powder on my website. Grown in Washington state. Sourcing herbs grown in your country will help the quality. Althaea officinalis is a fairly easy to grow and has lovely flowers. The root is white and yes- very slippery. It is considered a demulcent… demulcere means ‘to caress’ in latin. Soothing for throat and stomach tissue, and used in facial products too. I use it in tea and am excited to try making marshmallows! Thank you for your time creating this recipe. thewheelherbfarm.com

  20. I tried this for Easter 2019 to make marshmallow Easter eggs. It didn’t work-made a gooey mess. I discovered that I had purchased marshmallow extract. I regrouped and ordered powdered marshmallow root. This year, 2020, with the correct ingredients it came out perfect the first time. The marshmallow has a wonderful soft texture unlike the springy texture that comes from using gelatin. There is a slight but delightful floral note. I will never make gelatin marshmallow again and this is going to be a seasonal standard in our family. Everybody raved about it. Thank you so much for a wonderful recipe.

    • Hi Bill,

      I’m so happy to hear it came out good! It’s a great idea to use the recipe to make marshmallow Easter eggs. Thanks for coming by!

  21. Hi,
    I just ran into you recipe. In my country everybody drink Marshmallow root tea when sick or coughing, so I was amazed when learned that long time ago Marshmallow sweets was actually made from “beli slez” herb Althaea officinalis, and had healing properties. I wish they still made it all fashioned way, but I am ready to try your recipe 🙂
    No Althaea officinalis in powder here, but I hope I will be able to cut small pieces in food procesor and make powder.
    Thank you for the recipe 🙂

    • Hi Smilla,

      Thank you for sharing that! I wasn’t aware that marshmallow root tea was still widely used in areas, that’s so nice to hear. Hope your marshmallows turn out good!

  22. Is it possible to substitute the corn syrup with honey or maple syrup? Just harvested a crop of Althaea officinalis roots from my garden and can’t wait to make something tasty with it!

    • Hi Elizabeth,

      Yes, you should be able to use other sugar syrups. You might need to adjust the recipe slightly, keep in mind the following:

      • Keep in mind that both of the syrups you mention are very different in composition than glucose/corn syrup. They contain more ‘smaller’ sugars than glucose/corn syrup does. As a result, they will likely be a bit more sticky and less stretchy in texture.
      • Especially honey doesn’t do very well when heated to very high temperatures. Instead, you could heat just the sugar and water mixture and heat it just a few degrees higher to drive off even more moisture. Then add the honey and hot syrup to the egg whites together. You might need to lower the amount of honey compared to corn syrup since it might contain too much moisture. If you’re marshmallows stay quite liquid and flowy you used too much moisture and will either need to cook your sugar to a higher temperature or add less liquid syrup.

      Curious to hear how it goes and what quantities worked best for you!

  23. I just ordered Marshmallow root through Amazon. I havent open the bag but it feels like actual roots and now powder. Should I return this, find Althea Officinalis was difficult in Amazon. Can I use a blender and turn it into powder, perhaps?

    • Hi Francisco,

      Thanks for coming by!
      I have no experience myself in making powder from the roots and as such I’m not sure if a regular blender would work (you’d want to make sure you work as dry as possible to prevent the mucilage in the root from thickening liquids), but it can be worth a try! Also, have a look at your instructions, I’m not sure if you’d have to prepare the root before blending. If you’re looking for powders, just came across this one, so there are powders out there (haven’t used this myself and hove no expertise in the claim health benefits, just the technical use in marshmallows).

    • Grow marshmallow plants and get the root syrup. Powder is a cheap way for health food stores to keep it on the shelf forever. You can extract your own pure root syrup and steam the water out slowly and have a pure sugar like syrup that is high in soluble fiber and tasty.

  24. Okra is used as a necessary ingredient in delicious creole gumbo. It is a thickening agent. A fresh okra is a very slimy slightly sweet vegetable in the mallow family. The slime is a complex carbohydrate and dietary fiber. It is similar to inulin wich is concentrated chicory root fiber in a syrup form. It is very similar to homemade marshmallow root syrup from the fresh plant wich would be ideal for real marshmallows. Second best would be to maybe cook the powdered root in water to get the syrupy texture back. But I would recommend growing fresh marshmallow plants and extracting the slimy syrup rather than use powder. You could maybe even use okra?? But I would find a recipe for extracting the fiber /carbohydrates syrup from fresh marshmallow roots to be the most authentic. And I bet it will taste better. It’s like using powdered ginger in stir fry instead of fresh ginger root. It may make all the difference in the world.

  25. Hey another Dutchie here, from which store did you get your heemstwortelpoeder?

    I can’t find any store that has this in powder form 😭

    • Hi Cemile,

      Always nice to ‘meet’ another Dutchie ;-)!
      I bought it at a small local store selling herbs and spices. Maybe try your luck online? This store seems to sell some, though might be worth to double-check whether it’s suitable for consumption (they focus on shampoos etc.).

  26. Hey there, do you think adding fruit puree to the sugar and making a syrup with that will interfere at all with the thickening of the mallow root?

    • Hi Andres,

      Adding a fruit for some extra flavor is a great idea flavor-wise, however, be careful! Fruit purees are prone to burning, I doubt you’d be able to reach the required temperature (121C) to get the final syrup thick enough.
      If you want to give it a try, I would probably suggest you try to add some of the fruit puree to the whipped egg white (maybe use an egg white powder instead of liquid egg white to reduce moisture content). Combine that with boiling the sugar syrup to a slightly higher temperature, to drive off more moisture. You might need to play around with ratios and quantities a bit here. If you try, let us know!

      • You can use fruit powders very effectively to add fruit flavour. Can be made easily too by dehydrating fruit then grinding it up

  27. Love how you’re still replying to messages after so long, how fun to do food blog to enjoy such engagement!

    If you like a challenge, I’m intolerant to corn based products and as such haven’t eaten marshmallows in many years, how would you change the recipe to exclude corn? 🙂

    • Hi K!

      Just want to let you know I haven’t forgotten about your question, just haven’t gotten to actually making the corn-free marshmallows. I’m planning on testing honey (I’ve made nougat with honey instead of corn syrup), to see whether that might work.
      Also, depending on where you live you might be able to find glucose syrup (which is what corn syrup is as well) that’s not made of corn. It’s not easy though, I just tried and often they don’t say what the glucose syrup is made of. But there do exist versions that are made from potatoes for instance!

      To be continued 🙂

    • Hi K!

      So, you had to wait a while, but I’ve finally gotten to properly answering your question :-). I’ve successfully made marshmallows without using corn syrup. I used the recipe above but swapped the corn syrup for honey. Yes, the marshmallows did taste a little like honey, but their texture still worked out very well. Do keep in mind that honeys vary quite a bit in their composition, so depending on your honey you might have to tweak it a little, but it’s very doable in my experience.
      Just in case you can’t have eggs either, you can leave those out too (I added a few notes to the recipe to explain both these scenarios).

      Hope you’ll get a chance to make them sometime in the future. Good luck 🙂

  28. Hi! I’ve been slowing growing my medicinal herb garden, and I came across this article with the interest in making “medicinal candy” from my marshmallow roots (I haven’t grown them yet but will be planting them soon). My question was, have you heard of using the roots whole? I read another article of chopping up the roots into “mini marshmallows” and essentially just boiling them in sugar water to make old-fashioned marshmallows. I was thinking if one had fresh roots, it would be the easiest (but probably not the tastiest!) way to do it! Drying and grinding the root for a recipe like yours may keep more of the medicinal properties in tact as opposed to boiling them. Really curious about both methods! 😊

    • Hi Grace,

      I personally have no experience using the roots as a whole. But, I suspect that the powder I used at the time was simply ground up root. Not sure how they ground it up (they might have dried it first?).

      That said, I think the idea of ‘candying’ little pieces of root might be an interesting way to start as well! It won’t be light and fluffy marshmallows, but I’m pretty sure they’d become sweet.

      I’m no expert on medicinal properties, but yes, generally speaking heat destroys certain (beneficial) molecules, though not everything is sensitive to heat, it all depends :-).

      In any case, do let me know once you’ve grown and tested with the roots! I’m curious to hear what will happen!

  29. I’d love to learn the technique to make multiple colors/layered marshmallows.
    Is it as simple as just making different colors/flavors, and pouring then into the pan one after another?
    Give me ideas for stuffed marshmallow! Imagine that campfire roasted (or on fire in my case as a kid), but the center is a creamy milk chocolate? Or Dulche de Leche??
    …. I can feel my blood glucose rising right now! 🤣

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