Healthy Homemade Sugar Free Marshmallows
These Healthy Homemade Sugar Free Marshmallows have everything you could ever want in a marshmallow — they’re light, they’re fluffy, they’re springy, they’re sweet, and they’re delicious! They just happen to be all natural, fat free, sugar free, low carb, eggless, and gluten free too!
Please please pleeeease don’t laugh at me, but it took me thirteen trials to perfect these stupid Healthy Homemade Sugar Free Marshmallows (!!!)
*rolls eyes*
I started from scratch and tried developing a brand new recipe. I omitted the vegetable glycerine and tried using granulated erythritol instead. The marshmallows looked really good as I spread them into the pan — I was so excited to slice them! After they had set and I sliced them all up, I took a bite.
They were terrible.
Well, they actually tasted amazing but the granulated erythritol stayed granulated. The marshmallows were crunchy. Gross. I did some research and found out that cream of tartar could prevent this so I tried that in a couple more batches. Didn’t work. Just my luck!
I then tried a couple batches using both vegetable glycerine and granulated erythritol. They turned out alright, but the marshmallows deflated and the erythritol always stayed granulated! Oh, my poor broken heart…
I was fresh out of ideas. Or at least I was until I referred back to my original marshmallow recipe. I decided to use vegetable glycerine instead of the agave, use powdered erythritol, and add a bit of stevia.
It worked out perfectly!! I was SO so happy I almost ate half of the entire batch in one sitting, hehehe. I couldn’t believe the marshmallows finally turned out. I was honestly expecting to make another flop, as sad as that is. These marshmallows are light and fluffy, yet firm enough to slice. And they’re sweet with just the right amount of vanilla, but not overly sweet like the storebought kinds.
If you are craving marshmallows but don’t want all of the calories, sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, and artificial food dyes, you’ve gotta give these Healthy Homemade Sugar Free Marshmallows a try!
Healthy Homemade Sugar Free Marshmallows
Ingredients
- ¼ cup (40g) Unflavored Gelatin
- 6 tbs Cold Water
- 107g (⅓ cup) Food-Grade Vegetable Glycerine
- 70g (½ cup) Powdered Erythritol
- ½ cup Water
- 1 tsp Vanilla Paste
- ½ tsp Vanilla Creme-Flavored Stevia Extract
- ⅛ tsp Salt
- ⅓ cup Arrowroot Starch
Instructions
- Spray an 8x8″ brownie pan with cooking spray and line with parchment paper one way for easy removal later.
- In a large stand mixer bowl with whisk attachment, add the gelatin and water. Mix on low until all the gelatin has soaked up the water, then turn the mixer off.
- In a small saucepan (I used a 2-quart pan), whisk together the glycerine, erythritol, and water. Add a candy thermometer to the pan and place over medium-high heat. When the temperature reaches 175°F, cook for 3 minutes, then increase the heat to high. Cook until the temperature reaches 200°F then remove from the heat.
- Turn the stand mixer on low speed. Carefully and slowly pour in the hot syrup. Increase the mixer speed to high. Beat for 4 minutes, or until very thick, shiny and voluminous.
- Add the vanilla paste and salt and beat for 2 more minutes. GET READY. STARTING NOW, YOU MUST WORK QUICKLY. If not, your marshmallow will immediately start to set and be impossible to spread into the pan.
- The second you turn off the mixer, scrape down the whisk attachment, and scoop the mixture into the prepared pan. Spread it out using an offset spatula. My marshmallow was already starting to set in the pan so I ended up pressing the offset down on the marshmallow to level it out and try to get rid of air pockets. Cover with a sheet of parchment paper and another brownie pan the same size. Place something heavy on the top-layer brownie pan (I used a 5lb weight). Let sit for overnight.
- Transfer the marshmallow out of the pan and onto a cutting board. Slice the marshmallows and toss them in a bowl with the starch. Enjoy!
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With love and good eats,
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– Jess
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Indulge − no strings attached!
Made these today they turned out great
These look great! I’ve really cut way way back on sugar, so I always enjoy finding stevia sweetened recipes.
Hi just wondering if corn starch is okay to eat since I follow the Wheat Free and Maria Emmerich’s blogs I thought it wasn’t good for you! Please advise. Thanks
Yes same brand I used- oh well its not noticeable with small bites and eating only one
Hi Jessica, I just came upon your website as I was searching for some low-carb, sugar-free recipes. I have had symptoms of Type II diabetes for about a year and a half. It was confirmed last January that I do indeed have it. I am on medications, trying to watch my diet – especially carbs, and exercising more. My numbers have come down some, but not where they should be. It’s a pretty scary disease. I thought I knew a lot about it because my ex-husband has diabetes and his father (now deceased) did too. I just wanted to tell you how happy I am to find your website. I already see a lot of recipes here that I think will offer me healthy alternatives to desserts that I thought I probably could never have again. I thank you for all of your hard work. I’ve bookmarked your site, and will visit often.
Hey Tammy!
Thank you so much for your kind comment 🙂 I am so sorry to hear that you were officially diagnosed, but I am glad to know that you can control your symptoms now that you know the cause and have the medication to help. It’s awesome to know that you are eating healthier and exercising too! That’s great 😀
I hope you like everything my blog has to offer. Feel free to comment on my Recipe Wishlist page to add a typically guilty dessert to the list for me to healthify.
I wish you and your family the very best with health and happiness 🙂
-Jess
can you please tell me how many grams are in one packet of gelatin?
or better yet…was is the total number of grams of gelatin used in this recipe?
thanks!!!!!
as for angie n:
http://impruvism.com/why-calories-count/
don’t believe everything Maria says…
I haven’t made these marshmallows by weighing the gelatin, but one packet of Knox gelatin should be about 7g. I hope you like the recipe!
-Jess
12 trial and error attempts before perfection? Now, that’s dedication and perseverance. Looking at the delectable goodness, I can imagine a lot of good memories resurfacing after trying one of those.
Some people may call that thing, dessert with benefits!
Hi.
I’m wondering if you can substitute these in baking and cooking recipes. I’m thinking about rice krispie treats 🙂
Thanks.
I haven’t tried baking with these but I have tried making rice krispy treats… It didn’t really work out for me 🙁
Hi there! I love how you have the recipes added directly to the page! I was wondering how you actually added them, or did you end up doing all the coding and such yourself? Thanks in advance!
Have you tried these in sugar free hot chocolate? How do they melt?
I haven’t tried these in hot cocoa, however, I do know these melt pretty well. I tried using these marshmallows to make krispy treats but for some reason these just don’t work in that!!
I was wondering, could I swap out the vegetable glycerin with a sweetened flax gel? Or is the vegetable glycerin necessary for some other reason? I was just wondering because I found another marshmallow recipe that swapped out egg whites meringue for a flax gel ‘meringue'(<-mix for 10-15 min) and was just wondering if that might be a reasonable 'liquid' substitute for the vegetable glycerin. I would sweeten mine with erythritol or stevia, I think.
The vegetable glycerine is an all-natural sweetener that is sugar-free and low-carb. It is not as sweet as honey or agave, though. I wouldn’t recommend substituting the ingredient because it is the main ingredient and I haven’t tested out any replacements. I have made over a dozen of failed sugar-free marshmallow batches and I’ve been disappointed every time before I made this recipe… but, if you’re the type to try new things and aren’t afraid of failure, go ahead and try the sweetened flax gel mixture!
Just a note, I’ve tried using granulated erythritol to make a simple syrup to make sugar-free marshmallows and it ended up crystallizing as the marshmallows cooled on the counter… but it wasn’t a total waste, I melted them all into a giant pot of homemade hot cocoa 🙂
I realuze this is an old post, but I just wanted to double check the vegetable glycerin. The link goes to ‘now solutions 100% pure versatile skin care’ vegetable glycerin. Is that the o e you used? It doesn’t say anything about being edible. Other brands I looked at said ‘not for internal use’. This says nothing either way….thank you!
There are 2 kinds of vegetable glycerin — one is for beauty products and one is for food products. Food-grade vegetable glycerin is safe to eat and is used quite often in storebought foods… Now Foods is food-grade (“The vegetable glycerine contained in this product is considered food grade”)
If you are looking at getting a different brand, just make sure to get the food-grade version. Always read the label to be sure, though 🙂
-Jess
You know, I just read your last comment, about rice krispies, and I believe I read somewhere that another lady made them by adding the rice krispies into the marshmallow at the end of(or part of the end of) the marshmallow making process, before they set. I haven’t tried that myself, so I don’t know how that process works, exactly.
…Or maybe use less gelatin in the recipe to make the marshmallow more like fluff…hmmm.
The only reason I was asking is because I can’t seem to find any vegetable glycerin in my area. Good advice about the erythritol, though. Thanks. I have had vegetable glycerin in the past but not now. :\ I’ll see what I can figure out. Thanks for the reply. I really wanted to try YOUR recipe, and I’ve got everything BUT vegetable glycerin. lol 🙂
Hi 🙂 I’m a vegetarian, so I was wondering, is there any replacement for the knox geletin.. such as aggar aggar (carrageanan)
Hmmm, I haven’t tried agar agar yet in marshmallows. I bought a bag thinking I was going to make a vegan batch but I read on a couple blogs saying different things… one said that it doesn’t work and one said it does. I also ran out of both agave and vegetable glycerine so I haven’t been able to try it out.
If you decide to make the mallows with agar agar, I’m crossing my fingers it works for you!!!
-Jess
Only 12 trials?
I tell you I get appalled looking for recipes by bloggers where it’s clear they only did ONE trial run before posting their recipe…
Hey! I’ve just discovered your website (through googling “sugarfree sprinkles recipe”… THANKS by the way!) and I’m wondering how many calories are in this recipe? Without the chocolate, that is.
So glad you found my blog too! The entire recipe (without chocolate) should have about 1000 calories. As a reference, a regular marshmallow recipe with sugar and corn syrup will have 2400+ calories. Hope this helps!
-Jess
What’s a substitue for vegetable glycerine that has fewer calories? I know that glycerine doesn’t affect the blood sugar like sugar, but it still has more calories than I would prefer.
There isn’t another sugar-free substitute for the glycerine, sadly 🙁
If you don’t mind sugar, you can follow my Original Homemade Marshmallows recipe, where you can use agave nectar, honey, pure maple syrup or brown rice syrup! 🙂
-Jess
If you’re low-carbing, you usually don’t have to worry a lot about calories. If you’re not low-carbing, maybe cut from somewhere else and then just enjoy these marshmallows anyway.
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I love your blog and have made a few of your recipes and they always turn out great! I want to make these for Thanksgiving dinner but was wondering how long do you think the shelf life of these would be?
Dafna-
Awww thank you so much!! I’m so glad you like the recipes 😀
I’m not sure exactly how long these marshmallows last, but I would say about 5-7 days if stored in a tightly sealed container in a cool, dry, dark area 🙂
I hope you like the recipe!
-Jess
I’m looking for a keto divinity recipe. Several of your “failures” look like they might work for modification into divinity. I’m a chemistry teacher, but I loathe spending money on ingredients that don’t work, or new cooking utensils that can’t be salvaged, so I don’t do much of the experimenting myself.
So, do you think that this could be beaten into a divinity-like substance?
k
I just made these exactly by your recipe. Waiting for the set time to try. I will be anxious to try after they set up. Thanks for your recipes and hard working.
The all important question………… how do they roast over a camp fire?!?!?!?!
Hi,
What grain-free alternative could I use for your marshmallows’ coating instead of corn starch? LBG? Arrowroot? And could I replace Erythritol with Stevia granules? Thank you. P.S. Love your recipes btw!!!
Antya-
Yup, any other starch can replace the corn starch! I would recommend arrowroot, since that’s the other starch I use and it works fine here.
I haven’t tried replacing the erythritol with stevia but it MIGHT work… as long as your stevia granules substitute sugar at a 1:1 ratio, it should work fine. But, if it’s the kind of stevia that’s 2x as sweet as sugar, you can try cutting it in half? I hope this works, and I hope you like the mallows! 😀
-Jess
I used arrowroot flour for a different marshmallow recipe and it worked beautifully!
I know it was a long time ago, but could you explain in what way this recipe Did Not work for rice krispie treats. I am looking for a sugar free marshmallow recipe that is hefty enough to hold together so that I can add a low carb cereal to it. I don’t intend to set the marshmallows first and then make the treats, but to get to the end of the marshmallow process and stir the cereal in before setting the marshmallow. Do you think this would work with your recipe?
The rice krispies seemed to absorb all of the marshmallow’s liquid and turn all soft… they weren’t crunchy at all! 🙁
The marshmallow batter also sunk to the bottom of the pan, leaving the top of the rice krispy mixture lightly coated with marshmallow and the bottom totally white and marshmallowy. Seeing as how horribly my batch turned out, I wouldn’t want you to test your idea and end up with a failed batch. Maybe I’ll come up with a successful recipe in the future, but I’ve tried making sugar-free krispy treats way too many times to count. All failures!
I really appreciate your reply. Thanks for the clarification. That was very detail and exactly the information I need to make an informed choice to NOT do that! LOL. I guess 6 T of water is a lot more than it seems. I’m sorry to hear that you’ve had failures, but your current recipe sure looks good, so thanks for all the effort and publishing!
Hi, is vegetable glycerin safe to eat? The link you provided has this in Bath and Beauty section..
Thanks!
Hi Kseniya!
There are 2 kinds of vegetable glycerin — one is for beauty products and one is for food products. Food-grade vegetable glycerin is safe to eat and is used quite often in storebought foods… Now Foods is food-grade (“The vegetable glycerine contained in this product is considered food grade”)
If you are looking at getting a different brand, just make sure to get the food-grade version 😀
Best,
-Jess
This looks really great! Thanks for trying so hard to make this recipe. You are divine. I am trying to go sugar-free, so this will be a good alternative.
Hi, thanks for sharing. Do you have a total carb count (net carbs or total carbs and fiber)? I noticed calories were at 1000 for the entire pan. Thanks!
I didn’t calculate the nutrition for this recipe so I don’t know. But, most of the calories here are from carbs so by your calculation, that would be ~250g carbs for the whole pan.
I was just wondering if these sugar free marshmallows can be used in recipes like crispy treats ?
I tried using these in Krispy Treats and sadly they don’t work! They melt well but the rice cereal absorbs too much of the liquid and turns soft 🙁
Love your sugar-free recipes! Have tried the gummy bears and marshmallows and both worked brilliantly compared to a few failures from other sites. I split the marshmallow batch in two. I flavoured one half with vanilla and the other half with rosewater and a few drops of red food colouring. Both batches taste great and I love the pink colour. As I cannot use starch, I coated the marshmallows in almond meal. It does not affect the taste at all. I was wondering if you would be willing to test a recipe for turkish delight, seeing as your recipes are such a success.
Thank you so so much Cornelia!! I’m so glad you liked both recipes. Your rosewater addition sounds AMAZING, I seriously need to try that!! And great idea with the almond meal instead of starch, I never would’ve thought that would work… learn somethin new every day 😀
I’ve never had turkish delight before so I’m not sure how it’s supposed to taste, but I’ll put that on my to-do list. From what I’ve seen, it looks pretty complicated to make, so I can’t promise anything… but I’ll definitely try to healthify it! 🙂
Thanks,
-Jess
Thank you for all your dedicated sugar-free marshmallow research…this recipe is fantastic! I’ve tried twice to tweak it and make a chocolate version (the first time with a little melted chocolate, second time with a little cocoa powder, each added at the end when the salt and vanilla goes in). Unfortunately it didn’t work very well in either case. The end product turned out too dense/firm, more like regular gelatin than a “marshmallow.” Alas I think a chocolate version would be great. But until someone figures out how to make those – the vanilla version dipped in dark chocolate is my favorite way to have these. I like to sneak them into the movie theater, lol.
Sorry about the chocolate fiascos, I’ve never made chocolate marshmallows for that exact reason… sounds too daunting! Definitely keep me updated on how it goes sneaking these into the theater! 😉
No biggie! It was kind of a fun experiment, anyway. On a separate note – forgot to mention that I tried toasting the vanilla mallows with a culinary torch. Doesn’t work! Apparently without sugar the melting point is too low. Before they ever “toast,” they just melt into a puddle. Haha!
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curious if you could substitute gelatin for agar agar? or some vegetarian alternative. any experience with that? thank you
I have yet to try making vegan marshmallows! I recently bought some agar agar powder and it’s on the to-do list, but I’m a little nervous to try it out. I’ve seen agar used as a gelatin replacement though, so feel free to test it if you like! 🙂
hi how are you? im from colombia, and erithritol isnt easy to find here, did u tried another type of swetner, maybe stevia? i know the recestent to the heat is difrent but maybe you know if it works
maybe you can put the cocoa powder in the syrup, beacuse when you heath the cocoa, it abrsobe moist, and disolves with all the ingridients
thank you
I’m afraid this recipe is almost impossible to alter… it took SO much trial and error just to get these to turn out, so I’m hesitant to give out any ingredient substitution recommendations. Since cocoa is very bitter, it might make the marshmallows not sweet.
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Great recipe! The whole family loves them, and they barely have any affect on my daughter’s sugar! (She’s a type 1 diabetic.)
Oh my gosh! That’s amazing Sharon! I’m so glad your daughter can indulge in marshmallows again without having an effect on her blood sugar 😀
Thanks so much for letting me know you made the recipe!
Hello! I notice in the nutrition facts the carb count is 7g per serving – how many of those 7 carbs are from sugar alcohols? Thanks!
Hi, Just stumbling upon this recipe. I have a question. In one of your trials, did you try just using the glycerin without the Erythritol? Questioning what purpose the Erythritol other than adding additional “sweetness” to the mix.
Thanks
I did try using just glycerine and it wasn’t good at all. The mix of glycerine and erythritol tastes way better than glycerine alone! 🙂
I made the marshmallows last night and they’re quite delicious. Thank you for posting the recipe!!