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…
Crazy question, but I always rinse my beans to remove some of the gas-causing bubbles. Will eating something made out of some of the offending liquid cause gas? ;-/
I just made this with 1/3 cup xylitol and a dash of vanilla and it worked great! I made it in my Vitamix, and it turned into cream almost immediately. I gave it several minutes on the lowest setting and it got even fluffier.
It tastes good and I like the texture but…. I have never actually eaten marshmallow fluff so I’m not sure what to do with it! Just eat it straight?
Hi, I’ve been looking for someone who has used the Vitamix! 🙂
What numerical setting did you use to start whipping and how long is “immediately” lol 🙂 Thanks!
I only had kidney beans, and it worked just fine with the liquid I drained from those.
This sounds too easy!!
When you say fine sugar, does that mean regular sugar that I would use for baking?
I would love to try it with honey, but I have a rather expensive honey on hand right now. I’m thinking sugar would be the way to go 🙂
This is crazy!! I just had to try it! I could barely get 3 tablespoons of liquid out of the tin and was convinced this wouldn’t make enough to even sandwich 2 cookies together but you’re right!!! minute 11 and it started getting thick. Now I have at least 10 times the volume!! Amazing! I’m just eating it straight from the bowl off the beaters! so impressed! I’m going to try and make some beacon hill cookies. Fingers crossed. Thanks so much for the recipe!
Mine fully whipped up in 5 or 6 minutes! No idea why it whipped up so quick….but i wasn’t complaining 🙂 I used cannellini bean water instead of chickpeas because i was out, still worked great and turned out super yummy!
Anybody use this to make rice crispie treats?
Hi Katie,
Love your blog.
So how do you use the bean water as an egg white for crepes say? Do you whip them up alone? How much water=1 egg white?
this goes really quickly with the whipping attachment of a hand mixer – I just tried it with my Braun — almost instantaneous!
I mean – hand blender (immersion blender)
Hi Katie
Love your website. I had a thought what if you topped your fantastic chocolate pie recipe with your new vegan marshmallow recipe, voilà you have s ‘more chocolate pie! Yum. Personally I love peanut butter on my s ‘mores so I also suggest adding peanut butter in the graham cracker pie crust.
Happy baking
Kim