I’m thinking you have some marshmallow needs in this cold weather. Since my DNA is 50% Texan and 50% Californian, let’s just say that I am not handling the cold in the Midwest very well right now. Hot cocoa is practically a food group in my house this week, and I’m not even ashamed. I make Camille a kid-friendly version of hot cocoa (2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder + 2 teaspoons coconut sugar mixed into about ⅔ cup of warm almond milk), and she loves it. Well, I thought she loved it, until she had a few marshmallows on top and then I really saw her exude love. The truth is, I’ve started letting Camille have sugar. It’s not every day. I can’t even remember when it happened. I think it was when my mother-in-law was in town. While shopping at Trader Joe’s, I was eating mango gummy candies (gummy candies are the way to my heart–not chocolate, not cake, not ice cream, just GUMMIES). Camille was in tow with us, and I just felt bad eating in front of her. I gave her a little tiny bite. She liked it and reached her hands up for more. All in all, she probably ate half a gummy (and I was half-way full of guilt for days).
Fast forward a few weeks ago, and I’ve got a bag of mini marshmallows in the car, and she was being so good and patient while I put her in and out of the carseat a million times during errand running, and I decided to fill up her little paw with a few of them. You guys, she went crazy for them! Real sugar does that, I guess. My Mom quickly clued me into what an extreme choking hazard mini marshmallows are, and I never let her have them again. In my gut, I know that Camille loves food so much, she would never choke on it and waste it. Seriously, have you seen my instagram where she eats brussels sprouts, entire bowls of broccoli and fennel salad? This kid, I tell ya. She deserves a dang marshmallow. So, I made my regular marshmallow recipe with maple syrup in place of the corn syrup. There’s still a bit of regular granulated sugar in these babes, but I think it’s fine in moderation. We love these homemade marshmallows without corn syrup. Camille calls them ‘ma-marshes,’ and I’m sorry I just shared that with you. One of my pet peeves is adults repeating words the way kids say them, and I swore I’d never do that. But I just did. And according to every parenting book, I’m supposed to correct her to say ‘marshmallows,’ but really, I call them ma-marshes now, too.
I haven’t tried subbing maple syrup for corn syrup in all of my marshmallow recipes yet (but I’d like you to meet: vanilla bean marshmallows, chocolate marshmallows, mixed berry swirl marshmallows and raspberry marshmallows. I will say that a maple syrup marshmallow has a slight graininess to it that gets more pronounced over time. If you make and eat these the same day, you won’t notice it. If you hoard them in the pantry and dole them out two-by-two to your kids, they’ll get grainier as they sit. But the good news is that you won’t find a kid that won’t eat them, even on day 5.
You can scoop the marshmallow fluff with a cookie scoop into little mounds (that set faster), or, you can spread them into a 8x8" square pan, and let them set for 3 hours before dicing into cubes with a powdered sugar-dusted knife. Your choice. Just make these homemade marshmallows without corn syrup recipe, and let me know how they go! You can also let me know how your kid says ‘marshmallows.’ I’ll tolerate it.
Yep, this homemade marshmallows without corn syrup recipe is from last year, but I snapped a new photo (the one with Camille’s little baby hands) an wanted to re-share. Thanks for re-reading.
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