If you've spent much time with me (either online or in real life) then you probably already know how much I love marshmallows. When I was a teenager I used to stick them on the end of a nail file and toast them over a candle whilst obsessively re-watching Clueless and wishing I had Cher's life. I'm different now, classier, I have skewers. I'm also switched on to what gelatine actually is these days so vegan mallows are the only way to go.
Freedom Mallows have been a favourite of mine since they first appeared in stores and I was stoked when they agreed to send me their new repackaged and rebranded marshmallows to try and review.
I've always been a bit of a mallow purist picking up the white Vanilla Mallows every time. When something's this good it's hard to break away from it. These are perfectly sweet and pillowy and I love them. They aren't as puffy as Dandies, which aren't available in the UK yet, and they remind me a little of flumps, remember those? I loved those.
Next I tried the yellow coloured Vanilla Mallows which, if I'm totally honest I don't quite understand. I've always been unsure about purchasing these in the past assuming they must taste strange but they taste exactly the same as the white version. Do people have childhood memories of yellow marshmallows that I've missed? I have puffy pink mallow memories but nothing's ringing a bell with yellow. Do the people at Freedom Mallows just think yellow's a fun colour? I don't know, I do know that it didn't stop me eating them.
The Strawberry Mallows turned out to be a total revelation. Whilst I had fond teenage memories of eating pink marshmallows I had no recollection of them tasting like strawberry. In fact I found the idea a little odd at first but after my first taste I realised I'd been so, so wrong. I ate the whole bag in one go, they're so freaking good.
I was ridiculously excited to try the mini mallows but I wanted to hold out for an occasion, mini mallows aren't just for shoving into your mouth in handfuls y'know... Okay, okay, I totally did that but only with half of them.
I took the mini vanilla marshmallows along to my favourite local hot chocolate spot, Chocaffinitea. They do spanish style single origin hot chocolate which is always hot, always vegan and always and ready to go. It's pretty great as is but the marshmallows make it extra special. I kept adding more and more.
I had something special in mind for the mini pink & white vanilla marshmallows too, Krispie Cakes. I hadn't made Krispie Cakes for a long time, probably ever since Kellogs screwed up all of the vitamin D in their cereals and made them non-vegan, and I'd never had them with mallows. Randi and Sal were coming to sleep over so I veganised this recipe but with added mallows and chocolate krispies so I think I've changed it enough to feature it below.
Double Chocolate Marshmallow Krispie Cakes
- 90g Doves Farm Cocoa Rice Cereal
- 100g Dark Chocolate (try to find something hovering around the 50% cocoa mark)
- 60g Margarine cut into small pieces
- 3TBS Golden Syrup
- 1/2 bag Freedom Mallows (divided)
Melt the chocolate in a bain marie stirring constantly to avoid burning. Add the margarine and stir until melted. Add the golden syrup and stir in. Gently fold in the cocoa rice cereal and just under half of the bag of mini marshmallows. Spoon into 12 cupcake cases and top with the remaining marshmallows. Leave in the fridge to cool for around an hour and then eat.
The finished product! Nick, Sal, Randi and I devoured these pretty fast. They were most excellent.
Freedom Mallows are available from Infinity Foods in Brighton, The Health Store in Nottingham and Edinburgh's Real Foods as well as UK wide at Holland and Barrett, Whole Foods UK locations and many other independent retailers. Online stockists include Vegan Store and the Viva! Shop and if you're in Aus you're in luck because Freedom Mallows can be purchased online from both Vegan Perfection and Green Edge. Freedom Mallows have recently made it to Sweden too, you can pick up a bag from Astrid Och Aporna or some ICA and Coop supermarkets, hopefully the rest of Europe won't be far behind.
If all of this marshmallow talk has your craving a s'more or yearning to whip up a batch of my marshmallow krispie cakes then I have good news for you. I'm giving three people the chance to win two bags of mallows (white and strawberry) and a promotional Cedric the Sloth shopping bag. Yay!
The giveaway is now closed, congrat's Imogen & Loz.
I'm in love with Cedric the Sloth. Vegan marshmallows are awesome and all but Cedric wins our hearts, hands down. :)
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately I'm located on the wrong side of the pond to qualify for these cuties.
Oooh cute! I wish Dandies made strawberry mallows, so I could get some over here. And man, I have not yet had hot chocolate this season. Must fix this.
ReplyDeleteI've never eaten a marshmallow (vegan or otherwise), so I would love to win some! :)
ReplyDeleteWhaaaaat, that Pez wall!! Amazing! I was never a big fan of marshmallows (though when Sweet & Sara first started, my brother bought me 3 different flavors for Christmas that I ate in like 2 days - and since then I've stayed away) but that hot chocolate cup with the minis looks like the BEST.
ReplyDeleteOh wow! Vegan marshmallows are one of my favourite things ever! I'd probably try not to eat them all in one go and try making smores (never had them!) or something rocky road! My little one loves them too so obviously I'd share some.. well, I'd try to :D
ReplyDeleteI would definitely have a go at making those mini cakes from the recipe above, they look yum :)
ReplyDeleteYou forgot about the marshmallow deep fry!! :-)
ReplyDeleteLolol who could forget!
DeleteOoh. I love Freedom mallows! I just saw a recipe for s'mores brownies, and I think I would make those. Or rocky road bars! Twitter: @lozbearwrites
ReplyDeleteIt would have to be rocky road bars or s'mores cookies for me, yum! email:ajlcook2003@yahoo.co.uk :)
ReplyDeleteYou've got me drooling. I'm thinking some rocky road, a mug of marshmallow-topped hot chocolate and, frankly, just some straight-out-of-the-bag gorging...
ReplyDeleteRocky roads or icecream sundaes for me. And if I could ever find vegan caramel toffees I would totally try to recreate these marshmallow, caramel crispy squares my sister and I used to make when we were kids.
ReplyDeleteOooo, rocky roads- great idea! x
DeleteYum! I bought some Freedom Mallows here once but I didn't use them straight away and the ended up going really shriveled and gross looking even though they were still in their used by, so I threw them out. I am keen to try them again, but only when I have something I am about to use them in, or just to eat. Why didn't I just eat them in the first place??
ReplyDeleteI am not sure about yellow ones either. White and pink definitely... I maybe have a vague recollection of some yellow ones once... but I may just be making that up by thinking too hard about it.
Oh, BTW, don't enter me in the contest obviously because I live far far far away! I was just overcome by the need to think about marshmallows and posted before I really saw about the contest.
DeleteOoh! I'm super excited for a blog competition to be open to Sweden! Squeee! I love the Astrid & aporna stuff. When I first moved here 2 years ago (from the UK) I was sad to be leaving behind all my favourite products, but then I discovered that A&A just repackage and rebrand British stuff (along with some other European brands), which is awesome. I also visited their big store in Malmö in the summer, and I was like a kid in a candy store, I'm so glad that they're rolling out their products across the country now, even as far north as me! (Not actually in Lapland, but around 100 miles south of the Arctic circle). So what would I do with marshmallows? I think I would try to recreate the Kellogg's squares bars, which if I remember were basically rice crispies glued together with melted mallowy goodness? Yum. I would also top hot chocolate with them, as hot chocolate is definitely needed up here. Fun story - yesterday I attempted to ride my bike to school, cornered onto a huge patch of ice and pretty much face planted into a huge, icy puddle. In front of a dog walker. Classic. I also snapped my brake cable and knocked my handlebars and front wheel out of alignment. I had to push my bike the remaining 1.5 miles! I could definitely have used a hot choc + mallows afterwards! Instead I settled for fika (coffee and a saffron bun).
ReplyDeleteMarshmallows are amazing. I don't know why I love them so much haha.
ReplyDeleteI would love to experiment with baking with them. Perhaps put some in a cookie mix with chocolate chips! Or make a sort of rocky road? Or even just melt some chocolate and have them with ice cream...mmm...
Just wanted to let you know that Dandies are available in the UK:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.goodnessgoodies.co.uk/shop/marsh/dandies_mini.html
This links to mini ones, but they sell normal sized ones too. I linked to these because the others are sold out at the moment.
I really need to try these! In my pregan days I loved making my way through a bag of mallows. If I won them I would either devour them (v boring) or if I have the time I would try making vegan marshmallow teacakes (the ones with biscuit and marshmallows covered in chocolate).
ReplyDeletex
I may be wrong but I'm sure I heard sometime that they started off being naturally yellow but then loads of people requested that they should be white, so that's when the white variety was introduced? I remember when they first came out the vanilla ones were yellow and the strawberry pink so definitely could explain it!
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