Oh my goodness these turned out so cute! I’ve been playing around with homemade marshmallows recently for an upcoming story for TheInspiredHome.com and decided to have some Valentine’s Day fun with my recipe. What I ended up with are these adorable, fruit-flavored conversation heart marshmallows.
My homemade marshmallow recipe is super easy to make with just 4 ingredients, but I wanted to do something really unique…so I added freeze dried fruit for gorgeous color and amazing flavor. At first I thought the strawberry flavor was sure to be my favorite…such a pretty pink color and yummy, bright strawberry flavor. But for me, the banana flavor is amazing! With their soft fluffy texture, they taste just like a banana cream pie. Insanely good.
Even better, these are super easy to make. All you need is sugar, water, gelatin, freeze dried fruit and a little cooking spray. The marshmallow fluff is ready in under 20 minutes. They do require a few hours of drying time before you’ll be able to write on them (I used edible marker), so its best to make them the night before you plan to use them. However, once they’ve dried they cut easily and taste wonderful.
I can’t wait to drop a few of these into cups of cocoa (or put them on lollipop sticks) for the kids on Valentine’s Day. Talk about sweet!
Fruity Marshmallow Conversation Hearts
Makes about 36 marshmallows
Ingredients
1/2 cup freeze dried fruit (such as strawberries or bananas, available at Trader Joe’)
2 packets unflavored gelatin
2/3 cup water; 1/2 cup water (divided)
1 cup granulated sugar
confectioner’s sugar for dusting
Red Food-safe marker
Instructions
- Place freeze dried fruit into a food processor and process until fruit is a fine powder. Pour fruit powder through a sieve to remove any remaining large pieces or seeds. Set powdered fruit aside.
- Combine gelatin and 2/3 cup of water in the bowl of a stand mixer and let stand for about 5 minutes, until softened. Line a 9×13″ baking pan with parchment paper, then spray with cooking spray.
- In a small saucepan, combine the remaining 1/2 cup of water and the granulated sugar. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Boil for 2 minutes.
- Remove saucepan from heat. Using the whisk attachment, turn mixer on to low speed and slowly begin adding the sugar water to the gelatin mixture. Once all of the sugar water is combined, turn mixer to medium high speed and beat until thick and cool, about 10 minutes. Add fruit powder and continue whisking the mixture until it is white and thick and starting to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
- Using a rubber spatula sprayed with cooking spray, spread the mixture into the prepared pan and let stand until firm. Allow marshmallow mixture to set, uncovered, for 8 hours or overnight.
- When the marshmallow is firm, spread a piece of parchment paper over your work surface. Sprinkle confectioner’s sugar liberally over the top of the marshmallow then turn out onto the parchment paper. Peel the top layer of parchment from the marshmallow and sprinkle top with additional confectioner’s sugar.
- Use heart shaped cookie cutters, sprayed lightly with cooking spray, to cut out marshmallow hearts. Use a food safe marker to carefully write conversation heart slogans on the marshmallows. Store marshmallows in an airtight container for up to one week.
