Move over Sweet and Sara, there’s a new vegan marshmallow in town! And just who would have the smarts, skills, and creativity to make this elusive confection? You! Well, it’s thanks to the innovative folks over at Angel Food and their revolutionary marshmallow kits, but you’re the one who’s actually cooking up these sweet treats, so you can take at least some credit here, right?
Based in New Zealand, they’ve been busily cranking out cruelty-free marshmallows for lucky locals, but when trying to ship them abroad, it seems that those fragile mallows go south quickly. In order to share their creations with vegans abroad, they’ve developed an ingenious way to ensure freshness, no matter how far away; By sending the basic ingredients in two packets for the recipient to put together for themselves. Supply your own sugar, syrup, and starch, and you’ve got yourself a highly economical and crafty indulgence, much more fun than picking up a pack at the store and less pricey (all things considered) than the current alternatives.
Whipping up a steady foam in no time, the most difficult part of the whole endeavor is waiting. Waiting for to achieve soft peaks, waiting for the syrup to boil, waiting for the syrup to cool down, and then waiting for the marshmallows to set. The same could be said for any marshmallow recipe, so patience is perhaps the most important ingredient in this process.
After letting them set up over night, I cut my pristine white slab into small cubes, some of them more ragged than others due to the incredibly soft nature of the marshmallow, but all of them more than edible. In fact, the ugly ones were first to go- I was just cleaning up, after all.
Surprisingly soft, they really were cloud-like, dissolving into an ephemeral sweet whisper onto my tongue with hints of vanilla. Not even the least bit chewy as I expect from marshmallows, they showed no resistance when faced with the most gentle of bites. Simply melting away as if they never existed in the first place, it was easy to keep on popping the pale squares into my mouth one after another, proving them to be dangerously addictive indeed. If it says anything about the marshmallows (or perhaps my sweet tooth) I’m certain I was responsible for at least half of that batch going missing after a mere 24 hours.
The good news is that they get even better with age- Those that I could leave be for a bit longer began to form a pleasant crust around the outside, giving them more texture and substance than those newborn mallows. The bad news is that hardly any of them lived long enough to reach that stage. I would highly recommend hiding the entire pan someplace for at least a day or two before digging in, but trust me, this is much easier said than done.
Being so light and fluffy, I really could imagine these marshmallows as treat that angels might munch on… But now, a little bite of heaven is much more attainable than ever before.