This healthy vegan marshmallow fluff is going to rock your world…
Sweetener of choice
+
Water from a can of chickpeas
=
Homemade marshmallow fluff ????
Crazy, right?!
I can’t take credit for this brilliant “bean liquid egg whites” discovery.
The idea was sent to me in a facebook message earlier this year by a reader who discovered you could whip up the liquid from a can of garbanzo beans with sugar to form stiff peaks then pipe the mixture out and bake it into vegan meringues.
Since readers often write to tell me their own recipe ideas or experiments, I didn’t think too much about the message at first, especially since meringue and I have always been more of acquaintances than friends.
However, a few months later when I noticed some of my friends posting stunningly beautiful chickpea vegan meringues on instagram, suddenly I was intrigued.
Healthy Vegan Marshmallow Fluff
Then another reader left a comment on the blog asking if I’d tried bean meringue yet and mentioning that chickpea liquid–commonly referred to as aquafaba–has been used as an egg replacer since as early as in a 1968 cookbook (Ten Talents, by Rosalie and Frank J Hurd).
Wait… so it can be an egg replacer in other things besides meringue?!?
Like crepes?! Or baked goods??
So many ideas are swirling around in my head right now…
Christina’s message had mentioned whipping the liquid with fine sugar to form meringue, but I wanted to know if the aquafaba would also work with a liquid sweetener.
Only one way to find out! Seven minutes in, my pseudo meringue still looked like water, and I was almost ready to give up and throw the whole thing out.
But—magically at minute 9—it began to thicken… and thicken… and thicken even more!
Above – watch the video of how to make vegan marshmallow fluff
I had a baking sheet all ready to go for the meringues…
The only problem was that I just couldn’t seem to stop dipping my spoon into the airy cream.
It was just like marshmallow fluff!
Ideas for ways to use this healthy marshmallow fluff include:
Homemade s’mores, as frosting for cupcakes or my Vegan Chocolate Cake Recipe, in fluffernutter sandwiches… the possibilities go on and on!
Edit – There’s also now a version for Chocolate Marshmallow Fluff!
Vegan Marshmallow Fluff
Ingredients
- 1 can chickpeas or white beans (15oz)
- 1/3 cup sweetener of choice, such as agave, fine sugar, or xylitol for sugar-free
- optional pinch cream of tartar, for stabilization
Instructions
- Open the can of beans and drain just the watery part into a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl. (Save the actual beans for a different recipe. If you need inspiration, here are 50+ Healthy Uses For Canned Beans.) You should have about 1/2 cup chickpea liquid. Add all other ingredients, and beat with an electric mixer or in a stand mixer for 12-16 minutes. It will look thin for quite a while—and you’ll probably be cursing me—but don’t give up hope! Mine really began to thicken around minutes 10-11. Cover and refrigerate any leftovers. It separates overnight, but re-beating works perfectly. (I’ve not tried this recipe without beaters, but you are free to experiment. The sugar version can be baked into meringues; I haven’t tried baking the liquid-sweetener version.) I’ve tried this healthy marshmallow fluff with both regular and unsalted bean liquid and can’t taste a big difference, so use whatever you have on hand.View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
More Vegan Recipes:
Vegan Breakfast Recipes – 50 Vegan Recipes
And now I’m going to go work on some homemade Mallomars…
I just tried this and it whipped up in about 2 minutes with my hand mixer’s whisk attachment! I used regular white sugar and a little maple syrup. So good with fresh peaches. I found it to be a little salty, so I just sweetened it more, and the residual saltiness actually complemented the fruit quite nicely.
I tried to make this yesterday. It tastes nice, but the consistency was too airy, nothing at all like marshmallow fluff. Is that the way it should be?
Hi Katie- just wanted to inform you that this entire post was copy/pasted here: http://be-news.info/?p=423. I hope they had permission, but if not, you might need to contacts them.
Looks like a content spammer. Really sad, but unfortunately there are hundreds of them and google doesn’t provide an easy way to report it. Ridiculous, I know… I wish this weren’t the case. People plagiarizing bloggers’ hard work is the worst part of blogging. 🙁
This was too strange not to try! We were making a vegan ambrosia salad & needed marshmallows-which in our area of the country are difficult to come by. So then I thought we could make marshmallow cream. Super simple recipe. It does taste like garbanzo bean liquid, so we added 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla bean paste & 1/2 tsp. almond extract. Totally reminded us of marshmallow cream! Wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t actually do it mysel! Still amazed!
tried this and it was fluffy with peaks. Didn’t put in the cream of tartar. Tried to bake it and it went completely flat. 250F for 40 minutes.
Can you use this to replace whole eggs in recipes? Or just egg whites?
Do you think this fluff recipe could be used to make rice Krispy treats? This looks super yummy can’t wait to make it!
Katie – I have never seen a cooking site such as yours in all my adult years. It is simply mystifying! Thank You so much for such wonderful recipes.
Just made some with raw honey, took 15 minutes with a hand mixer. Looks just like meringue, tastes like honey. Taste taste with two 9 year old boys in about an hour. (who are big fans of your black bean brownies, by the way!)
This is seriously over-the-top delicious!!!! I used organic, salted chickpea liquid, regular white sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and a pinch of cream of tartar, whipped the heck out of it for 14 minutes. It’s like magic! We used it to top your awesome black bean brownies. Both were a hit with everyone in my house (hubby and 3 kids – 11, 13, & 17). Thank you, Katie, for a recipe that is not only delicious but really fun to make!