Dehydrating Marshmallows
Learn all about dehydrating marshmallows for a fun and crunchy addition to cocoa, desserts, or even cereal. Drying mini or full-size marshmallows is a fun and easy kitchen craft that kids and adults will love.
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If you’re looking for a fun and unexpected little snack, try your hand at making dehydrated marshmallows. It couldn’t be any simpler and they are so poppable and tasty.
Do Dehydrated Marshmallows Shrink?
Nope, in fact, they even puff up a little bit! When you’re dehydrating marshmallows they will puff and “round” themselves out until they look like those horrible pillow mints that were given out at every single 1980s wedding.
How Long Does it Take to Dehydrate a Marshmallow?
On average it takes about 6-10 hours for mini marshmallows and 12-24 hours for larger marshmallows. A lot of factors determine the drying time; room temperature, humidity, etc.
You can ensure even drying time by rotating trays in your dehydrator every 2(ish) hours. This is the dehydrator I have and it’s very affordable and has lasted over 15 years.
If you have larger marshmallows, you can cut them into smaller pieces with kitchen shears. Dust with a bit of homemade powdered sugar to keep them from sticking together. You can also leave them whole but anticipate that it will take an entire 24 hours until they’re dried and crispy.
You’ll know they’re ready when they crumble when you try to squish them between your fingers and they don’t “give” when squeezed. They will continue to dry as they cool, so do your final test on fully-cooled marshmallows. And then pop a few in your mouth and enjoy that crunchy goodness. The key takeaway is that you can’t over-dry them.
How to Store Dehydrated Marshmallows
Keep them at room temperature in an air-tight container like a mason jar. You’ll want to make sure the marshmallows are fully dried and cooled before putting the lid on the container.
You don’t need to be too concerned about spoilage with dried marshmallows. I mean, it’s sugar which is essentially a preservative. And the vast majority of us all have a bag of dried-out clumped together marshmallows in our pantry as we speak.
Pro Tips/Recipe Notes
- Use your dried marshmallows in Hot Chocolate in the Crock-Pot, Instant Pot Hot Chocolate, sprinkle them on top of S’mores Bark or Old-Fashioned Fudge for a fun and crispy surprise, or use them in place of the cereal in these Lucky Charm Cookies from Lemons and Zest.
- No dehydrator? Place marshmallows on rimmed baking sheets lined with parchment and place in the oven at the lowest temperature possible (usually 140-170 degrees F) and prop open the door with the handle of a wooden spoon. This allows condensation to escape instead of just settling back onto the marshmallows. Bake for 5-8 hours, checking every hour and rotating trays.
- Yes, you can use homemade marshmallows!
More Dehydrator Recipes To Try
- Drying Pears the Easy way
- Dehydrating Apples
- How to Make Tomato Powder
- How to Dry Basil
- Dehydrating Tomatoes
- Dehydrating Garlic
Dehydrating Marshmallows
Ingredients
- 10 oz bag mini marshmallows
Equipment
Instructions
- Arrange marshmallows on 1-3 dehydrator trays.
- Spread them out on the trays but don't worry too much about them touching.
- Set the dehydrator to 135F (57c).
- Dry for 6-10 hours, rotating trays if you think about it. Move marshmallows around on the trays as they become drier to avoid them sticking together.
- They're ready when they crumble when you try to squish them between your fingers and they don't "give" when squeezed
Will this work with vegan marshmallows?
I haven’t tried it, but I don’t see why not. You can basically dehydrate anything!