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Sugar Free Peppermint Marshmallows – Keto Recipe

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Homemade sugar free marshmallows are easy to make and so fun to eat. These keto friendly treats are perfect in hot chocolate and delicious on their own. And they are almost completely carb free! You’re going to love this keto marshmallow recipe.

Sugar Free Marshmallows in a mug of keto hot chocolate

Why, why, WHY haven’t I tried homemade marshmallows before? Seriously kicking myself. Hard. Ouch! That hurt.

No really, I am absolutely astonished at how easy it is to make sugar free marshmallows, and I can’t believe I waited this long to try my hand at it. Especially since so many of you have been asking me for a recipe for a very long time.

The truth is that I don’t like marshmallows all that much. Let me rephrase that. I don’t like conventional marshmallows all that much and I never have. I find them way too sweet and lacking in any flavor. And the packaged sugar free marshmallows on the market are kind of scary.

Maltitol, and sorbitol, and sucralose, oh my! Causing you to run to the toilet multiple times after eating. I am not kidding.

Homemade peppermint marshmallows top down photo on a blue backdrop

Don’t go there. Just don’t.

But now you don’t have to, because this homemade marshmallow recipe will blow your mind. It’s so easy to make and I have to say, the results are absolutely wonderful. And delicious!. I love them, my kids love them, and I even put them into a fudge I was taking to a Christmas party. It was met with enthusiastic approval by all who tried it.

Seriously, I am just so excited about this. It opens up a whole new world of delicious keto desserts, and I have lots of plans for these homemade marshmallows.

Powdered sweetener being dusted over sugar free marshmallows

Homemade Marshmallow Recipe Inspiration

I don’t know what inspired me to finally give marshmallows a go but once I made up  my mind, I did a fair bit of recipe research. I honestly had little to no idea what marshmallows were even made of, besides copious amounts of sugar.

Turns out that many conventional marshmallows are made with both sugar and corn syrup, which clearly isn’t an option for those of us on a keto diet. But I did come across several recipes that were corn syrup-free. This is the regular marshmallow recipe I decided to follow, in terms of the overall method method. Her instructions were clearly written and easy to comprehend.

A pile of homemade marshmallows on a black plate

Once I realized that marshmallows are basically just gelatin, water, and sweetener, I was eager to try them. I’ve seen some keto recipes that use egg whites and I didn’t want to go that route so I took my chances on the gelatin only version.

However, I did a couple of things differently. I used a bit more gelatin and quite a bit less sweetener than the recipe called for. Conventional marshmallow recipes call for 2 cups of sugar and I used what amounted to 1 1/3 cup of sweetener.

And it worked like a charm! Hooray! I think I liked them so much more than regular marshmallows because they are less tooth-achingly sweet.

Top down photo of sugar free homemade marshmallows in low carb hot chocolate

How To Make Sugar Free Marshmallows

I’ve made these several times already and I learned a few things along the way. So I figured I’d pass these tips on to you.

  1. Combine the gelatin and half of the water and let it “bloom”. Grassfed gelatin brands like Great Lakes or Vital Proteins doesn’t need blooming the way regular gelatin does but in this recipe, it actually helps to allow the gelatin to combine properly with the syrup.
    • Also remember that gelatin and collagen are NOT the same thing. Collagen will not work in this recipe because it does not have the gelling powder of gelatin.
  2. You need a combination of sweeteners for the “sugar” syrup. Erythritol based sweeteners such as Swerve will recrystallize if used on their own. And sweeteners like Bocha Sweet or allulose will leave you with a goopy mess that may not firm up properly. So using them in combination is best. I used half Swerve Confectioner’s and half Bocha Sweet. Although I haven’t tried it, you can probably use allulose or xylitol in place of the Bocha Sweet.
  3. Use a stand mixer for whipping the mixture. This allows you to pour the syrup slowly into the gelatin as you whip. It also needs whipping on medium high speed for quite some time so a stand mixer means you don’t wear out your arms!
  4. Work quickly once your mixture is thick and white. Very quickly pour it into the prepared pan and spread it. If you wait too long, it starts setting and you will get a lumpy glob that you can’t spread or smooth out.
    • I learned this the hard way. The second time I made them, I waited too long, thinking that the mixture needed to be like whipped cream or egg whites and stand at stiff peaks. I ended up with a glob that I had to re-warm to spread out.
    • You CAN actually save it if this happens. I simply re-warmed the whole thing by putting the pan in a 300F oven. Once it began to melt again, I could spread it out more easily.
  5. Even if you line your pan with parchment, grease the parchment. It will help a lot when you go to get the marshmallows out of the pan and cut them up. The bottom will be quite greasy but it dries out overnight.
  6. Conventional marshmallow recipes tell you to dust them with cornstarch and powdered sweetener. But I found that if I just left them exposed to the air overnight, they firmed up and dried out enough so that the surface was no longer tacky at all.
  7. Use whatever flavoring or extract you desire. The peppermint was fabulous but I’ve also made them with vanilla and it was delicious too.

Hand on a mug of hot chocolate with a sugar free marshmallow floating in it.

One more little note: If you care to dip them in chocolate or put them in fudge, freeze them for a few hours first. They won’t freeze rock hard but it does allow you to dip them or combine them with warm chocolate, without having them melt into goo.

I have yet to try roasting them. But just you wait until next summer!

Ready for the best sugar free marshmallow recipe?

5 from 15 votes
A pile of homemade marshmallows on a black plate
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Sugar Free Marshmallows
Prep Time
20 mins
Cook Time
5 mins
Resting Time
4 hrs
Total Time
25 mins
 

Homemade sugar free marshmallows are easy to make and so fun to eat. These keto friendly treats are perfect in hot chocolate and delicious on their own. And they are almost completely carb free!

Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: marshmallow recipe, sugar free marshmallows
Servings: 10 servings (about 20 marshmallows)
Calories: 14 kcal
Ingredients
Instructions

  1. Line an 8x8 pan with parchment or waxed paper and lightly grease the paper. 

  2. Attach the whisk attachment to a stand mixer. Pour half of the water into the bowl and sprinkle with the gelatin. Let stand while preparing the syrup.

  3. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the remaining water, the sweeteners, the cream of tartar, and the salt. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sweeteners. 

  4. Using a candy thermometer or an instant read thermometer, bring the mixture to 237F to 240F. Remove from heat. 

  5. Turn the stand mixer on low and slowly pour the hot syrup down the side of the bowl. Once all of the syrup is mixed in, add the extract. Turn the stand mixer to medium high and beat until the mixture is lukewarm, thickened and white. This can take 5 to 15 minutes. 

  6. Working quickly, pour the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Let set for 4 to 6 hours, until the top is no longer tacky to the touch.

  7. Flip out onto a cutting board and cut to the desired size. Dust with powdered sweetener, if desired. Let sit for a day exposed to the air to dry out a bit, then store in a covered container. 

Recipe Notes

You really need the combination of two sweeteners here. One should be erythritol based, like Swerve or Lakanto. The other should be one of three possibilities: Bocha Sweet, Xylitol, or allulose. 

Nutrition Facts
Sugar Free Marshmallows
Amount Per Serving (1 serving = 2 marshmallows)
Calories 14
% Daily Value*
Carbohydrates 0.1g0%
Protein 1.5g3%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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Nutritional Disclaimer

Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.

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Comments

  1. You’re fantastic! Thank you!
    I’ve seen a few of these recipes online and wanted to try, but worried how it would turn out or how hard it would be. However, I trust your recipes, especially when it comes to desserts. So, thanks and Merry Christmas!

    Reply

  2. Thank you so much for creating a marshmallow recipe. I have missed them so much. I think I might have to make these today. Also I made your gingerbread yesterday and the whole family approves. Thank you and Merry Christmas.

    Reply

  3. Carolyn you saved me again!!! I was trying to figure out how to manage without marshmallows and you timely shared your recipe. Thank you!

    Reply

  4. OMG! This is going to happen at my house either today or tomorrow. My daughter will be so excited! Who am I kidding…I’m so excited!!!!

    Reply

  5. 5 stars
    This!!! Love love love! Marshmallows are a must in hot cocoa. Can’t wait to try your recipe. A healthier for you optio.

    Reply

  6. As I was reading your recipe about buttering the parchment paper, I remembered something Alice Medrich does for her brownie recipes to make them easier to get out of the pan and cut them. She lines the pan with foil. Then you lift the foil out by the edges. You can unfold the foil and just cut straight across. Use a cake server or spatula to lift the marshmallows from the foil. You can butter the foil to make that easier. I’ve used that technique for lemon bars, too. Here’s a link to her instructions on Foof 52: https://food52.com/blog/7716-the-case-for-lining-brownie-pans

    I want to make this one, but my peppermint flavoring is in transit. Marshmallows are one of the things I miss. So, as soon as my peppermint gets here, I’m doing it.

    Reply

  8. Oh YASSS. I make peppermint marshmallows all the time during the Christmas season and have longed for some keto/lc ones! You are a Rock Star! I am so excited to try these. As usual with your recipes, I have everything in my pantry to make them right now ! Wooot. I also make gingerbread marshmallows – which are fabulous…. hint, hint. They are made with molasses, so might be a bit of a challenge. (I am ever-so-subtly laying down the gauntlet!) HA.

    Reply

      • YAY! Even if it takes until next year (because – almost at the end of gingerbread season), I know they will be worth the wait. =))

        Reply

        • I’d forgotten all about that, to be honest. But I did some strawberry flavoured ones in the summer. I think you could add gingerbread spices into this so easily. Plus maybe a wee bit of molasses (like only a teaspoon) to get the right color.

          Reply

  9. 5 stars
    Saw this recipe today and had to make them. I didn’t read closely enough and used Granular Swerve instead of Powdered. But, they seem to look like the right texture (I’ve made other Keto/LC marshmallows) so I think they’ll be fine. The magic started happening at the 10 minute mark when I was whipping them. They turned white and started getting nice and fluffy. It took 13 minutes to get to the right texture. Cannot wait to try these!!! Thanks for another great recipe.

    Reply

      • 5 stars
        OMGosh!!! Soooooo good! I can’t even tell you how happy these made me. After the full drying process they had such a great texture! Of the various marshmallow recipes I’ve tried, these are the closest I’ve ever come to store bought marshmallows, which I used to love. Even though I used the granular Swerve instead of powdered, and I used Allulose for my 2nd sweetener, they seemed to turn out just fine. I was beyond thrilled with these. Thanks again for all of your wonderful recipes!

        Reply

  10. Hi Carolyn, do you think these marshmallows would work for making Rice Krispie bars? If so how many do you think it would take? Thank you.

    Reply

      • 5 stars
        You can just add the cereal straight to it rather than melt them again. We’re using this for our Cornflake bars. Add butter after the syrup is beaten We love your recipes Carolyn! We do Keto and Modified Atkins for health reasons around our house. A lot of your recipes have been our favorites.

        Reply

  13. Do you think that a sweetener that is erythritol and monkfruit would work for this? Lakanto has been my sweetener of choice for a while, and that’s what theirs is a blend of, but the powdered Lakanto is a 2:1 sugar replacement, so I’m not sure how that would affect it either.

    Reply

    • No, I am sorry. I am pretty clear in the blog post that you need an erythritol based sweetener (like Lakanto) AND a sweetener like Bocha Sweet or xylitol.

      Reply

  14. Does this Boca Sweet truest have no aftertaste? I haven’t found a sweeter yet that doesn’t taste strange to me. Even the Swerve So I am desperate. And dying for marshmallows. Just orders some Boca from their website as it seems impossible to find locally or on Amazon.

    Reply

    • Yup. Because that spikes my blood sugar (as it does with most people’s) and I think I proved with this recipe that any kind of syrup is utterly unnecessary.

      Reply

  18. Hi, what can I use instead cremor? I can’t find it in Sweden. This will be a challenge because there are another brands here but I will try it and we will see what happen
    Merry Christmas or Godjul in Swedish!! I am ur fan

    Reply

  20. 5 stars
    Unfortunately, in my country Bocha sweet and allulose are not allowed yet, so I can’t find them, and xylitol spikes my BG sky-high and causes me GI issues… so I’d really need to find an alternative sweetener to combine with the erythritol… I was thinking about a blend of stevia and erythritol, but you’ve already excluded lakanto as a blend of erythritol and monk fruit, so I suppose it wouldn’t work properly. What about adding just monk fruit extract?

    Reply

    • Sorry, I am pretty clear in the blog post. You can try all erythritol or a combo of erythritol and stevia or monk fruit but I simply cannot guarantee your end results. I have no control over what is available in your country or not.

      Reply

  25. 5 stars
    Wow, Carolyn…these are actually marshmallows! 😄 I am so impressed. I made mine vanilla, using extract and paste together. My sweeteners were a heaping 1/3 cup, actually probably about 1/2 cup, of powdered Lakanto (which is supposed to be twice as sweet as sugar) and 2/3 cup allulose. I used a plastic bowl and my hand mixer, and it took 5-6 minutes for the mixture to turn white and thick. I think the plastic bowl helps it cool a little faster. The flavor and texture are just spot-on! The two sweeteners together taste like sugar, and the sweetness is perfect. I don’t know what impressed me more: how authentic these are, or the fact that the sticky liquid marshmallow cleans up completely with just water because it’s sugar-free. 😄

    I’m hiding them from my husband so I can dip them in chocolate and surprise him for Valentine’s Day. (He didn’t want chocolate-covered strawberries this year, can you imagine?) I have no doubt he’ll be thrilled with these. If I weren’t dipping them, I think I’d toss them with just a touch of tapioca starch. It’s a little humid here, so they’re not drying very much.

    Thank you so much for this recipe, Carolyn. What a smashing success!

    Reply

    • Also, I did toss some of the undipped marshmallows in tapioca starch. They don’t stick to anything and the slightly powdery texture is reminiscent of bagged marshmallows (but delightfully fresher in flavor). It doesn’t take much; 1 T tapioca starch (7 nc) would easily coat a whole batch of marshmallows.

      Reply

  26. Will be trying this for the grandkids’ hot chocolate!

    I will say, though, that I find that Great Lakes gelatin DOES need to be bloomed. I wouldn’t use any other, but when I have tried using it without blooming it, I end up with un-dissolved clumps, and a poor end product.

    Reply

    • Hi J, I’ve found that Great Lakes gelatin dissolves better when liquid is added to it all at once. Rather than slowly sprinkling the gelatin over standing liquid, I put the gelatin in a bowl and pour liquid over it, briefly mix with a fork to combine, and proceed with the recipe. It’s worked in every application so far, whether or not the gelatin is heated.

      Reply

  27. Hi Carolyn, I had an interesting experience while attempting flavored marshmallows today, and I wonder if you have any input. First I made raspberry marshmallows, in which I used raspberry extract and natural pink and red food colorings, and they worked up just as well as the usual vanilla. So I tried orange marshmallows next, but they did not turn out at all. After I added the orange extract and colorings and began mixing, the frothy texture dissipated immediately, and it just wouldn’t whip into marshmallow. As the gelatin cooled, the mixture did thicken some and turn opaque, but it wouldn’t hold air. Whenever I stopped mixing, the bubbles just rose to the surface and popped rapidly. No marshmallows from this stuff.

    I used Nielsen-Massey orange extract and natural yellow, pink, and red food colorings. The only unique ingredients in this batch were the orange extract and the yellow coloring. I thought maybe the coloring had bromelain in it, which breaks down protein and inhibits gelling, but it’s just turmeric in liquid base. The orange extract contains alcohol, orange oil, and water.

    I don’t blame the recipe at all, which has worked perfectly multiple times. I’m just really curious about what went wrong, y’know? Any thoughts?

    Reply

    • Interesting! What is your raspberry extract made with? The peppermint extract I use is oil based so I wonder if the alcohol is actually an issue. It shouldn’t be, though, since many marshmallow recipes, which this is based on, use any old extract and don’t have issues.

      Reply

      • It’s OliveNation raspberry extract: alcohol, red raspberry concentrate, glycerin, natural raspberry flavors, water. My vanilla has alcohol in it too, so I don’t think it’s that.

        Isn’t that the most peculiar thing? My prime suspect right now is the acidity of the orange extract. Not sure what else it could be. Same base recipe, same method, and even less additional liquid in this one than in the raspberry marshmallows, because of less extract. When I have more allulose, I think I’ll try again with another acidic flavoring agent, perhaps some instant espresso dissolved in a tiny bit of water. I could try orange again, but first I want to make sure the salvaging dessert I made with it is edible, just in case. I added more water and gelatin, some clementine Bai, cream, and vanilla, and poured it into a loaf pan to set. Creamsicle gelatin! It did set too, so it’s not the gelatin at fault. Very intriguing…

        Reply

  29. Unfortunately I was a dummy and used granular swerve instead of powdered – so they have a slight grit to them – but goodness they are tasty and pretty close to regular marshmallows! I think they’d be perfect, had I used powdered. I’m going to need to make more tomorrow at the rate my kids are eating them! Thank you!

    Reply

  30. Try rolling in straight cocoa powder. Sift it first but that is how I always did my regular marshmallow. Just made these and they are firming up I used granular swerve and xylitol. No cream of tartar. But I have a Bosch mixer so needed no help in whipping in air. Texture seems fine right now.

    Has anyone toasted them? I made a sugar free version years ago and it smelled like burnt cow hide so I’m a little leery to try with these.

    I teach a small college home ec class how to make marshmallows once a years. There is always someone asking for a “healthy” recipe. I always told them don’t bother because all the ones I had tried either didn’t set or smelled horrible. So far these seem to be doing well.

    Reply

  31. Oh my word! These are great! I just made a rich keto hot chocolate and dropped a couple in and they held up! I’ve made some before that just melted at any sign of heat. I am wondering if I use half the amount of gelatin if it could become fluff? I would love a fluff and peanut butter sandwich. I’m also adding these to some rocky road ice cream. These will be made repeatedly. Thanks Carolyn for the recipe!!

    Reply

  32. WOW !!! You come up with amazing recipes. Do you think I can use a silicone mold instead of what you recommend (parchment lined pan)?

    Reply

  33. Just tried this recipe for the first time and used powdered Erythritol and it came out separated – top looked like real marshmallows (I was SO excited) and then I saw the separation of the gelatin on the bottom 🙁 What did I do wrong? TIA

    Reply

  34. 5 stars
    experimenting today..it worked!
    Tried substituting commercial “skinny syrup” for the sugar/water mix… now I need to go shopping for more flavos

    Reply

    • It did get a white foamy top but the mix stayed yellowish and liquid. I did not have a thermometer though so maybe that.

      Reply

      • One other note is that I used Pyure and allulose and I am in a tropical climate. I did finally get it white but it seperated while cooling.

        Reply

  39. I noticed in some of your recipes you list Bocha Sweet (or xylitol or allulose) as sweeteners and on one you also added erythritol. Is there a specific reason for those sweeteners and why can’t I use any sweetener I have on hand. I usually use Swerve or stevia. I am on a budget and it is hard to keep every sweetener out there on hand.

    Reply

    • Hi Margie… if you read this post carefully, and any of the ones where I use BochaSweet, they will explain exactly why I do it.

      Reply

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