Chocolate-Coated Marshmallow Treats

I already put a recipe on the blog for Schokoküsse (Schokokuesse) or Danish flødeboller in 2015. Meanwhile I have been experimenting with the recipe. This is a new and improved version for chocolate-coated marshmallow treats. The foam is much more stable and these treats keep in the fridge for about a week. Just compare the picture above with the picture right below it. Above is the new version. I do recommend to store these in the fridge all the time. They cannot be frozen though.

My daughter is obsessed with her birthday. It’s in October and every year around Christmas she asks me, if it is okay to talk about her next birthday. It’s not okay! But what can I do? She has so many plans. Amazing what she comes up with every year! She could probably plan 20 parties with her ideas. (So, if you need a birthday planner, I can hook you up with my eight year old kid.) This year we’re planning a volcano cake and in addition I’m gonna make blue chocolate-coated marshmallow treats.

Chocolate covered marshmallows are a staple at every German birthday party. They are a very popular treat. We call them Schokoküsse (chocolate + kisses) or Schaumküsse (foam + kisses), but you may also know them as flødeboller, as they are called in Danish. They are really great for entertaining and every kid will love them. My daughter often asks for them as we rarely have them at home. My husband and daughter are vegetarian but I refuse to buy anything with eggs in it. I try to teach my kid about the horrible things chickens have to endure. Why is also why I love to create treats like these. You can have exactly the same thing without using a single egg. When I asked my daughter how she liked them, she said they were much better than the store-bought ones. Why? „Well the others come from a factory. These are homemade! They taste a thousand times better.“

Usually these marshmallows aren’t coloured. But who doesn’t love a little variation? My daughter likes the colour blue, so we added some spirulina powder. We came up with a new name for these, calling them smurf kisses. But of course you can use all kinds of colours. I’ve made them pink before, by using strained pureed raspberries. (Regular food colouring is totally fine, too.) I hope that gives you some ideas. Be best part is that nobody expects these to be blue. Give them to somebody and watch the look on their face. It doesn’t matter if it’s a grown up or a child. So much fun!

Store-bought marshmallow treats like these are never vegan. Most of the time they are gelatin-free. But they are not egg-free. They do contain egg-whites for stabilization. Making them vegan is a bit easier than making vegan versions of regular marshmallows. That is because the chocolate covered version has a much lighter and softer texture that is easier to replicate with vegan ingredients.

How to make vegan chocolate-coated marshmallows?

First of all, this recipe is not a beginner recipe. But please do not let that discourage you. Just make sure you read through the recipe instructions thoroughly and have all the ingredients and equipment in place. Once the sugar syrup and the aquafaba fluff are combined, the mixture will cool and set quickly. That means you should already have your piping bag within reach and your cookie bottoms assembled.

A note abouth the ingredients: I use guar gum as a thickener and it works really well. But you can make this recipe either with xanthan or you can leave out the thickener. Please keep in mind that the texture of these marshmallows will be softer though. If you don’t have guar gum but maybe you have cream of tartar, add 1/8 teaspoon of cream of tartar to the aquafaba merigue right after you put in the sugar. Cream of tartar also is a great stabilizer.

Aquafaba: The quality of the aquafaba varies from brand to brand. I work with 400 g cans, which have about 160 – 190 g chickpea brine. I find that a thicker liquid works better and results in a more stable foam. Experiment with different brands and then stick to the one you like best for consistent results. If there’s a lot of liquid in your can I suggest you cook it down a bit to 160 ml.

Sugar syrup: You are going to cook your sugar and agar mixture on high for 3 minutes. Usually some of it will stick to the bottom. Don’t worry about it. When you take the mixture off the heat, you can stir it briefly but don’t worry about some bits still sticking to the bottom.

Chocolate coating: I usually melt the chocolate in a small pot that sits in a larger pot with hot water. Once the chocolate is melted I transfer it to a mug. Then I dip the marshmallows into the chocolate and let the excess chocolate drip off.

Cookie bottoms: I like to make black cocoa cookies as a bottom for these marshmallows. But in the past I simply bought sandwich cookies, scraped off the filling and used the cookies. (This way you can even make them gluten-free.) These days I love to prepare a batch of vegan oreo cookies minus the filling and use it for this recipe.