Making Real Marshmallow (from Hollyhock seeds)

I recently became intrigued about making real marshmallow while reading John Kallas’ book Edible Wild Plants. John has some great ideas and practical recommendations if you are interested in turning so called weeds into delicious, abundant sources of foods.

Anyway, John presented a recipe of making marshmallow with common mallow (Malva sylvestris) seeds. One of the characteristics of the mallow family (Malvaceae) is mucilage, a slimy mucous-like substance, used for thickening food (e.g. gumbo) and medicinally used to sooth the mucous membrane. This mucilage is also what is used to make the gooey foam of real marshmallows.

Prominent members of the mallow family include: chocolate (Theobroma cacao), Hibiscus (Hibiscus spp.), marshmallow (Althaea officinalis), ochra (Abelmoschus esculentus), linden flower (Tilia spp.) and hollyhock (Alcea spp.).

Conventional marshmallow (containing gelatin and sugar) that has become popularized for roasting around the fire, is inspired by a traditional confection made using the the root of the marshmallow plant (Althaea officinalis). I have seen many recipes come out recently that use marshmallow powder to make real marshmallow. Personally, however, I doubt how traditional these recipes actually are.

I’ve always suspected a more authentic marshmallow recipe must exist somewhere, and I found John’s recipe to speak more closely to that original process. What I love about this recipe is that it is totally malleable to local plants and plant parts.

I chose to use hollyhock seeds as a source of mucilage because they are abundant around me, and the seeds are large and easy to harvest. It would take me several times as much time and effort to collect as many common mallow seeds, as it did to collect a couple handfuls of hollyhock seeds.

Here is my version of John’s recipe:

1. Harvest unripe hollyhock seeds (white seeds, rather than grey/brown/black).
2. Remove the seeds from their enclosing sepals.
3. Simmer 1 part seeds in 2 parts water until the water become thick and mucilaginous. I test the water between my forefinger and thumb until strings of mucilage appear when I pull my fingers apart.
4. Strain out seeds and allow mucilage to cool to room temperature.
5. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F/ 160 degrees C.
6. Begin to beat 1 egg white.
7. Gradually add 1/4 cup of granular sugar to the egg white until stiff peaks appear.
8. Slowly beat in 1/2 cup of mucilage. Peaks will become softer, but should still be present.
9. Spoon out marshmallow-sized mounds onto a greased baking sheet.
10. Bake marshmallow for 20 minutes. Marshmallows should have a golden brown colour.
11. Best served fresh.

    

Notes:

• You can also try 2 egg whites to start out with, this will increase the stability of the marshmallow.
• The marshmallow can be tricky to remove from the baking sheet, I suggest a fish spatula, of perhaps trying parchment paper.
• Feel free to experiment with other mallow family plants. I would like to try with linden leaf in the future.