Hello,
Agar-agar, a sea vegetable, is used as a substitute for gelatine. You can find it in most health food stores.

Hi, Rose.
I don't have a recipe for marshmallows, but have you considered trying marshmallow fluff from a jar to satiate your craving? The brand that I buy contains corn syrup, sugar, dried egg white & vanillin.

I found a recipe on vegesource.com from someone named Deborah for "Rice Krispy Treats" . . . made with marshmallow fluff instead of the gelatin marshmallows. . . and they are DELICIOUS! I just made more a few days ago. YUM! If you're interested, let me know and I'll type it hear for everyone to see.

Hi Flash,

Even though the fluff doesn't contain gelatin, the egg whites come from an animal and render it unusable for vegans (strict vegetarians).

Paul

Flash --
I would love to see the vegetarian version of Rice Crispy Treats. Thanks!

Make marshmellows? I believe there are "kosher" marshmellows. Try a kosher foods store or your local 7th Day Adventist store.

I make the Rice Krispy Treats with Fluff. I don't really have a recipe but it is simple enough- I take a large container of fluff, throw maybe a half stick of butter (I am not vegan, only vegetarian) with it in a pot and slowly heat it up until it is melty. Then I stir in the Rice Krispies, I don't know the measurement for the Krispies- I just put them in until it looks right. Then I put the mixture into a buttered pan, and push down on them really hard with a spatula. You have to push down really good on them or they won't hold together well. Then I refrigerate for awhile.
Toby- All the kosher marshmallows I have seen are made with kosher gelatin which is not necessarily a vegetarian product. A long time ago I can remember buying vegetarian marshmallows but now I haven't seen them in years. Haven't tried making them myself, though.

Marshmallows are incredibly cool -- not only do they taste good, but by lighting them you can create a great source of light in a dark campsite!

Technically, marshmallows are a confection -- a candy. They've been around in the form we know them since the mid-1800s.

They are called "marshmallows" because part of the early recipe called for sap from the root of the marshmallow plant.

According to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, a marshmallow is:

1: a pink-flowered European perennial herb (Althaea officinalis) of the mallow family that is naturalized in the eastern U.S. and has a mucilaginous root sometimes used in confectionery and in medicine; 2: a confection made from the root of the marshmallow or from corn syrup, sugar, albumen, and gelatin beaten to a light spongy consistency
That word "mucilaginous" means "jelly-like." Later, the root was replaced by gelatin, and that is how modern marshmallows are made.
There is a very cool cookbook called Better than Store Bought that is now out of print but still available in used book stores and libraries. It contains the following recipe for making your own marshmallows:

1/4 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup confectioners sugar
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1/3 cup water
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Sift the cornstarch and confectioners sugar into a bowl. Lightly grease an 8x8-inch square baking pan and sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the cornstarch-and-sugar mixture into it. Tilt the pan to coat the sides and the bottom. Leave any excess in the pan.
Sprinkle the gelatin into the water in a small saucepan and let soak for five minutes. Add the granulated sugar and stir over low heat until the gelatin and sugar dissolve.
In the large bowl of an electric mixer, combine the gelatin mixture, corn syrup, salt and vanilla and beat for 15 minutes on high speed, until peaks form.
Spread the fluffy mixture in the prepared pan and smooth the top. Leave for two hours or until set.
With a wet knife, cut the marshmallow mixture into quarters and loosen around the edges. Sprinkle the remaining cornstarch-and-sugar mixture on a baking sheet and invert the marshmallow blocks onto it. Cut each quarter into nine pieces and roll each one in the starch and sugar.
Place the marshmallows on a cake rack covered with paper towels and let them stand over night to dry the surface slightly. Store airtight; the marshmallows will keep for a month.

So I says, there's got to be a vegetarian marshmellow out there. So I call up my local 7th Day Adventist food store and they tell me they sell a "kosher" marshmellow made from Kolatin gelatin. So, it's made without beaf, right? Right, they say. So then I search on Kolitin on the web, and the d&%$ thing is beaf!!! The Adventists don't even know what the h$%@ they're selling! Sorry.

There's a recipe at
http://www.fatfree.com/recipes/condiments/marshmallows

BTW- The above recipe calls for Emes gelatin (vegan).

According to the Vegetarian Resource Group: "Emes was the only manufacturer of vegan marshmallows and they have discontinued producing them."

I would like the recipe to make the marchmellow confections out of the marsh mellow herb, and not nasty toxic corn syrup.

I can't find the recipe on the net, If anyone can find it, or has it in a old cookbeeok, please let me know.

Well I ran into a march mellow recipe. I dought it is the original one, but here it is.

MARSHMALLOW SWEETS
4 Tbsp. marshmallow roots
28 Tbsp. refined sugar
20 Tbsp. gum tragacanth or gum Arabic
2 cups water or orange flower water
1-2 egg whites, well beaten

Make up a tea of marshmallow roots by simmering them in a pint of water for twenty to thirty minutes. Add additional water if it simmers down. Strain out the roots. Heat the gum and marshmallow decoction (water) in a double boiler until they are dissolved together. Strain with pressure. Stir in the sugar as quickly as possible. When dissolved, add the well-beaten egg white's), stirring constantly, but take off the heat and continue to stir. Lay out on a flat surface. Let cool, and cut into smaller pieces.

Egg white substitute
egg white = dissolve 1 tbsp plain agar powder in 1 tbsp water. Whip, chill and whip again.

found on the web not tried it though.

Flax is also used instead of eggs. can't remember if the whole egg or just the white.

http://veganstore.com

you can buy them here. Locally, i dont know. I live in Northwest Wisconsin, and it is pretty hard to convince stores around here to find something for you. Good luck

Sorry to say, Emes was never actually vegan. And "kosher" definitely does NOT equal vegetarian! However, there is a kosher gelatin which IS vegan, called Kojel. It can be found at any kosher grocery store, or online at www.pangeaveg.com. Supposedly it can substitute regular gelatin in a marshmallow recipe, but the directions on the box should be followed even if the recipe says otherwise.

Kosher marshmallows are not vegetarian. But they are pareve. Pareve means they contains no meat or dairy products.

HOWEVER, in Jewish law, fish is not meat. Therefore, they use fish gelatin to make marshmallows. They're kosher, and meatless according to Jewish law. But if you consider fish to be meat, as I believe most vegetarians do, Kosher marshmallows won't work for you.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kosher marshmallows

Just bought some really nice vegan marshmallows made by Sweet & Sara www.sweetandsara.com
Now I am going to look for recipes to make them myself...

I had never thought about marshmallows being made from animal products... Darn it!!!

I really don't see myself making my own vegetarian friendly marshmallows. I think I'll try the jarred ones that was suggested earlier.

I'm not sure what the link is for, but this is my work site.

Here is a link that might be useful: Palmdale Homes