top of page
Search
mariettadaisies

Marietta Daisies Garden Club

8 Marshmallow Plant Recipes




Fluffy and all-natural, these are perfect for hot cocoa or s'mores!





1) Homemade Marshmallows

Ingredients

1 cup water divided

3 tbsp grass fed gelatin

1 cup raw honey

1/2 tsp salt

½ tsp vanilla bean powder

1 tbsp marshmallow root powder

1/2 cup arrowroot powder


  • Pour half (½ cup) of the water into the bowl of a stand mixer and pour the gelatin on top to soften. It will take about 10 minutes to fully soften.

  • In the meantime, add the second ½ cup of water, honey, and salt into a small pot on the stovetop with a candy thermometer. Heat between medium to high, also avoid stirring the mixture after the first minute to prevent the mixture from boiling over. You want the temperature to get between 230°-240°F (110-115° C), this will take between 10-14 minutes.

  • Turn the stand mixer on low to mix the gelatin, and gradually pour the honey mixture into the stand mixer. Slowly increase to highest speed and whip until the mixture looks and feels like pure marshmallow fluff. This takes an estimate of 6-10 minutes, in the last minute add in the marshmallow root powder, and vanilla bean powder.

  • During the 6-10 minutes your marshmallows are beating, prepare a 9x9 pan with parchment paper. Dust the parchment paper with half (¼ cup) of the arrowroot powder.

  • When the marshmallow is at its peak, quickly scoop it into the pan and flatten the top with an offset spatula. Dust the rest of the arrowroot powder onto the top of the parchment paper.

  • Gently place parchment paper over the 9x9 pan, and let the marshmallow set overnight.

  • The following day, take out the parchment paper by flipping the pan over onto a cutting board. Take off the parchment paper from the marshmallow, and use a sharp knife to cut the marshmallows into squares.

  • Enjoy the marshmallows right away, or place them into a glass jar and store them in the fridge for 1-2 weeks.

Just as the ancients did, we too can eat all parts of the marshmallow plant.

2) Salad

Ingredients

  • Curly endive

  • Marshmallow seeds,

  • Marshmallow leaves

  • Marshmallow flowers


Use this lemon vinaigrette recipe.


Ingredients

  • Fresh lemon juice

  • Extra-virgin olive oil

  • Garlic

  • Dijon mustard

  • Honey or maple syrup

  • Fresh thyme

  • And salt and pepper to taste


Directions

Toss with Salad ingredients


3) Cooked Greens

The leaves are tasty steamed.

The trick is not to over cook the greens when you steam them so that they keep their color and nutrition value.


Ingredients

  • 1 bunch of marshmallow, washed in cold water

  • Sea salt, to taste

  • 2 teaspoons virgin olive oil

  • 1 tablespoon freshly grated Parmesan cheese (optional)


Directions

  • Put the leaves in a large saucepan with 1 cup of cold water. Bring to a boil, add some sea salt and cover. Turn the heat down and cook until the leaves are wilted and just tender, about 5-10 minutes depending on their size and toughness. At this point, you can either eat them or freeze them.

  • Toss with a little olive oil and some grated Parmesan cheese.  Serve immediately.


4) Root Tea or Leaf tea

A sweet, woody flavor, the marshmallow root tea makes an interesting blend and is great on its own. Sweeten with honey, sugar or maple syrup, but that's personal choice.

Tea is a wonderful way to ingest marshmallow's healthful properties, but it's important to know that mucopolysaccharides are destroyed by heat.


To make a tea from either marshmallow root or

marshmallow leaf,

it's best to use room temperature water.


Profile: Mild root-like flavor. Deeply soothing, packed with valuable compounds, you can enjoy a cup day or night for a small moment of calm.


5) Root Mash

Treat like a potato, peal and boil till soft. Drain water, mash then add salt or olive oil, salt and pepper to taste.


6) Pickling

Pickled capers are made of edible flower buds from a plant called Caper bush (Capparis Spinosa), also called Finder Rose. This plant grows in the Mediterranean area, not in our climate.

However, other little edible flower buds can be used instead such as marshmallow buds, dandelion buds, green milkweed flower buds or wild garlic buds.

The timing is crucial as you need to get very young edible buds that don’t have a stem developed yet. Generally, the smallest caper will have the most delicate texture and flavor.

Buds with stems that are already formed into flowers are soft and full of fluffy petals and are not pleasant to bite into. Harvest one or two edible buds from each plant and leave the rest for the plants to bloom. A good size of bud is like a nail on your little finger.


How to make Capers

Once you manage to collect a small jar full of edible buds you need to decide which preservation method to chose to turn them into pickled capers.


1. FERMENTATION – PRESERVING WITH SALT

The old folks’ method calls for fermentation when you combine edible buds with water and salt and let it sit alone for several days.

It will start to ferment, and create the lactic acid that will lower the Ph, and make the mixture shelf-stable.


THE FERMENTATION METHOD HAS ADDITIONAL BENEFITS FOR OUR HEALTH SUCH AS

  • maintaining a healthy gut  – during the fermentation process probiotics are produced that can help restore the balance of friendly bacteria in your gut and may relieve some digestive problems

  • aid the immune system – fermented food contains probiotics that can boost your immune system and reduce the risk of infections.

  • Fermentation makes digestion easier by breaking down nutrients in food.

  • In addition it helps to neutralize anti-nutrients like phytic acid.

  • So eating fermented food is healthier than eating unfermented alternatives.

2. PICKLING – PRESERVING FLOWER BUDS WITH VINEGAR

The store-bought capers usually contain vinegar and salt.

This is another way to preserve fresh edible flower buds.

Simply make a brine with vinegar or apple cider vinegar and salt. Pour it into a jar with edible buds.

The salt and vinegar act as preservatives. Let it sit for a week, taste it and add salt as per your desire.

This mixture can be canned for long-term preservation or stored in the refrigerator for a few months.

Don’t be afraid to add other spices to the mixture such as garlic, coriander seeds, oregano, dill or rosemary. 


ADVANTAGES OF APPLE CIDER VINEGAR

Apple cider vinegar is made by fermentation and therefore has similar health benefits as listed above for fermentation. In addition, it gives a bit of a sour touch and a change in taste to the capers.


HOW TO USE HOMEMADE PICKLED FLOWER BUDS

Some people like to rinse them a bit before adding them to dishes to feel their

authentic taste. 

  • Serve it in salads

  • They make a delicious addition to any cheese plates

  • Toss on scrambled eggs

  • Sprinkle them on roasted vegetables

  • Pizza

  • Pasta dishes


Historical Recipes you may want to try or adapt for the present usage.


7) 210 year old cough lozenges

Excerpt from The Family Receipt-book, or, Universal Repository of Useful Knowledge and Experience in All the Various Branches of Economy, 1810


Famous Tablets de Guimauve, or French Lozenges of Marshmallows, being their grand Remedies for all Sorts of Coughs.


These Lozenges are considered throughout France, as among the very best remedies for coughs of almost every description. They are undoubtedly, excellent; and the article long sold in England, under the name lozenges of Blois, is supposed to be little or nothing else than the common French marshmallow paste formed into lozenges, which are thus made.


Cleanse and scrape roots of marshmallow freshly taken out of the earth; and boiling them in pure water till they become quite soft, then take them out of their decoction, beat them in a marble mortar to the consistency of a fine smooth paste, and place on the top of an inverted sieve to obtain all the pulp which can be forced through the sieve with the assistance of a wooden spoon. Then boil a pound and a half of loaf sugar in six or seven ounces of rose water, to a good solid consistence; and whisk it up, off the fire, with a quarter of a pound of the marshmallow pulp: after which, place it over a gentle heat to dry up the humidity, stirring it all the time; and when a good paste is formed, empty it onto paper brushed over with oil of sweet almonds, roll it out with a straight rolling pin and cut it into lozenges with a proper tin lozenge cutter. These lozenges are adapted to seethe and soften the acrimony by which the cough is excited, to thicken the sororities which fall on the breast, and to promote expiration. For these purposes, a small lozenge must frequently be suffered to melt gradually in the mouth.


In todays language

Ingredients

340g (11.99 ounces) sugar

90g (3.17 ounces) water

60g (2.12 ounces) marshmallow pulp (made by peeling and boiling fresh marshmallow root, straining and pushing it through a sieve)

Directions

Heat the sugar and water, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Wash down the sides of the pan using a wet pastry brush. Heat until when a spoonful is drizzled into cold water it sets hard. Stir in the marshmallow root puree and continue stirring until well combined and the mixture is thick. Pour onto non stick baking paper and when cool slice into squares.



8) 200 year old Marshmallow Paste Recipes

Excerpt from: “Five Thousand Receipts in All the Useful and Domestic Arts; Constituting a Complete and Universal Practical Library, and Operative Cyclopædia By Colin MACKENZIE, 1823


Pate de Guimauve (marshmallow paste)


Take a decoction of marshmallow roots, 4oz (113.4 grams). water, 1 gallon (3.79 litres).

Boil 4 pints and strain; then add gum arabic half a pound, refined sugar, 2 lbs (0.91 kilograms). Evaporate to an extract, then take from the fire, stir it quickly with the whites of twelve eggs previously beaten to a froth: then add, while stirring half an oz of orange flower water.


Another


Take of very white gum arabic, and white sugar, each 2 1/4 lbs (1.81 kilograms). with a sufficient quantity of boiling water. Dissolve, strain and evaporate without boiling, to the consistency of honey: beat up the white of 6 eggs with four drachms of orange flower water, which mix gradually with the paste, and evaporate over a slow fire, stirring it continually till it will not stick to the fingers, it should be very light, spongy, and extremely white.

5 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comentarios


bottom of page