“Eating your crusts makes your hair curly” an eight year old friend whispered to us assuredly while gingerly pulling off the crust from her sandwich. She had curlier than curly hair and was making every effort to straighten her hair. We were in primary school and passing on important tidbits of information. My other friend Joanne and I chomped resolutely on our crusts. We wanted curly hair – ringlets, if possible.
“But did you know that eating marshmallows makes your (and here she paused dramatically for effect and giggled)… boobies grow?” another friend whispered to us. We were huddled around the playground, our legs burning as we were sitting cross legged on the scalding hot concrete. We leaned in nevertheless when she showed us a bag of raspberry and vanilla marshmallows. We looked at each other. One girl reached forward and then we gasped at her. She wanted boobies? 
She quickly snapped back her arm as if the bag contained a cobra and leaned back down.
“What will happen to us if we do eat some?” I asked picturing growing some spongey marshmallow boobies. And curiosity got the better of us and that afternoon we all ate one of the raspberry and vanilla marshmallows, went home and to bed and woke up looking exactly as we did the day before. We breathed a sigh of relief but every time I think of marshmallows I think back to that day (and I wonder if my friends do too).
Of course eating marshmallows doesn’t make anything grow and perhaps my friend came to this theory based on watching her mother making marshmallows and seeing them swell as they were whipped up. Home made marshmallows are surprisingly easy, especially once you have a sugar thermometer and they are so much better than any marshmallow that you could buy in the supermarket. The home made version is soft and light as a feather and melts on the tongue and is only made up of a few ingredients. They’ve enjoyed a resurgence with Gena Karp from Sweetness the Patisserie making them in myriad flavours and she too uses only real fruit syrups and purees.
I decided to make these using the berries that we seem to have an abundance of lately although you could certainly use any fruit that takes your fancy for the flavouring. I just like the tartness of raspberries against the sweetness of the sugar. After slicing these up I popped some of the end pieces into my mouth (a cook’s treat) and tasted the lovely tang of the real raspberries against the pillowy softness of the marshmallows. I melted like these melted on my tongue.
So tell me Dear Reader, which wives tales did you hear when you were young? And did you believe them?
Fresh Raspberry Marshmallows
- 150g/3ozs raspberries (fresh or frozen will do)
- 2 tablespoons icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon raspberry or balsamic vinegar
- 3 egg whites, at room temperature
- 175g/ 6ozs caster/superfine sugar plus 75grams or 2.65ozs caster/superfine sugar extra
- 2 teaspoons liquid glucose
- 100ml/3.5 fl ozs water
- 3x4g/12g/0.45oz Titanium strength gelatine sheets (or enough gelatine powder to set 3 cups of liquid)
- 2/3 cup icing or confectioner’s sugar for dusting
- 2/3 cup cornflour for dusting
- 3 tablespoons of oil and a sharp knife for cutting
1. Grease a loaf tin with oil and line with cling wrap. Whiz the raspberries in a food processor along with 2 tablespoons of icing sugar and vinegar and then strain through a sieve to remove the pips. Set the strained raspberry sauce aside.
2. In a very clean bowl of an electric mixer, place egg whites and fit the whisk attachment.
3. In a small bowl soak the gelatine in cold water until soft and pliable. Squeeze out excess water from the gelatine leaves.
4. In a small saucepan, combine the 175g/ 6ozs caster or superfine sugar, water and glucose on low heat until sugar is dissolved. Turn up the heat to medium high and boil until it reaches the hard ball stage (127C/260F) being careful not to stir it once you turn up the heat.
5. When the above reaches the soft boil stage (118C/244F just before the hard boil stage) then start whisking the egg whites to a soft peak. Add the remaining 75grams/2.5ozs of sugar to the egg whites.
6. When the syrup reaches a hard ball stage, remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the softened gelatine leaves combining well. Carefully, while the eggs are whisking on a medium speed pour the hot gelatine syrup into the mixing bowl in a slow, steady stream and then add the raspberry sauce. Keep beating for 10 minutes while marshmallow swells up and thickens.
7. Pour into prepared loaf tin and with a hot palette knife (run palette knife under hot water and dry with teatowel), smooth over surface. Leave to set for 1-2 hours (do not refrigerate).
8. When the marshmallow is ready and set, sift cornflour and icing sugar together in a bowl and spread out over a plate. Pry the cling wrap from the marshmallow (a gentle cut with a knife can help start the process) and using an oiled knife, slice up into squares. Keep oiling the knife between uses (you may have to scrape the knife on the edge of a bowl to remove the excess marshmallow).
9. Dip marshmallows all over in the cornflour and sugar mix. Store in a airtight container lined with parchment paper sprinkled with extra cornflour and sugar mixture.
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84 Comments | Add your own
Those marshmallows must be divine! An addictive treat.
Cheers,
Rosa
I love pink marshmallows, these are lovely Lorraine. I’ve never made them before, I think I may try!
Yummy marshmellows! I always love soft ones much better than the dodgy hard ones you buy from the supermarket! My parents would always tell me that eating your crusts makes your hair curly! Also that chocolate gives you pimples – NOT TRUE!!!
these are too adorable!
Raspberries are one of my favourite fruits! fresh raspberry marshmallows TDF!
The old wives tale I remember from my youth is “Telling lies will make your nose grow!” This horrified me, so I tried desperately not to tell any lies.
They look so adorable! It might be something I will try to make for Pink Ribbon day at work!
LOL – if that tale was true, I would be HH. These raspberry marshmallows look amazing – thank goodnesss they aren’t in front of me, I’d scoff the lot. I heard plenty of old wives tales as a kid, but none of them were true!
you’ve outdone yourself with these..i seriously can’t wait to make them..i’ve made marshmallows before but i was always a bit disappointed that the powdered gelatine left a strong flavour of gelatine and i resolved to find a recipe using sheet gelatine to see if they’re better..of course it’s been on my to do list for years but seeing these i just know they’re good and i now won’t have to go looking..
What a great story. Very cute! I also ate all my crusts and everybody else’s crusts in a desperate attempt for even a slight curl – still waiting decades later. And as for the boobies…hmmm…perhaps my mother should have fed me marshmellows. Maybe it’s not too late???
What happens if you don’t use the icing? Will it be alright?
I had no idea that eating your crusts made your hair curly in Australia as well! And I certainly hadn’t heard about the marshmallow-boob connection. Good to know…
What a great recipe, Lorraine. Very inspiring. I can almost taste the raspberry tang and the pillowy texture…yum…
Oh, how simply scrumptious!
Just gorgeous Lorraine!
Lorraine these look delicious!!
Dont have a sugar thermometer but I must go and get one soon as i love to cook desserts and so many of my recipes need a sugar thermometer! An old wives tale that I heard was that carrots give you good eyesight. I ate a carrot almost everyday as a child and I still needed glasses when I was 8. I didn’t understand why those naughty carrots weren’t working!!
I love raspberries and marshmallows, so this just has to be good.
Oh so yummy and pretty too! I love the tartness of raspberries cutting through the sweet as well.
We were taught that eating all your crusts and fat made your hair curly, as well – but nothing about boobies!
On the boobies theme again, that eating grass would make plenty of milk for your babies!
Yumm NQN they look soo good! I love marshmallows, so soft and gooey. I’m going to make these this weekend!
I can’t wait to make these. I just recently made vanilla ones and they didn’t work out at all but the recipe I used didn’t have gelatin in it. Maybe that will bring me success! My favorite olds wives tale was dad’s (old husbands tale?). Never pass the soap to someone if you are both washing your hands as you’ll give them bad luck!
Have to laugh at Corri’s story: wasn’t Dad right – well, true, even if it is just germs you are passing on
! I believe I heard the crusts/curly hair story back in N Europe: ate all my crusts like a good little girl, but hoped it would not work – even then loved my straight hair 
! LOVE raspberries: I think mine will be finished ere I even think of marshmallows 
!
These look divine even though I’m not a fan of marshmallows. Love the addition of raspberries
I’m sure if you ate enough sugar laden marshmallows your boobs would grow…along with the rest of you!!
They look beautifully soft and pillowy…yum!
My word, your friends were a sophisticated lot indeed. I’m not sure any of my crowd had even noticed boobs at age 8.
I remember making home made marshmallows when I was in my teens. We didn’t have electric beaters so I used the hand beaters. It was a lot of work, but very rewarding!
A good friend of mine told me – now this in high school when we were about 15 – so she should have known better – if you drink from the water fountain after a boy you would get pregnant !!!!!!!!!!
needless to say I never took any notice because I knew better .
@ Amber – thank you for my ‘laugh of the day’
!
Smore’s with raspberry marshmallow sound fab!
Fantastic I was looking for a marshmallow recipe. I am hoping to adapt it to a marshmallow icing for a birthday cake – any hints?
I can’t remember very many of them. Mum used to fold cheese slices into quarters so it was a little stack and tell us that’s how Humphrey Bear at his. Worked every time.
Gaille here- I was told not to drink water put of taps cause spiders live in them..
For years I was scared, that if I had ‘pulled an ugly face’ or ‘had a sad face’ and the wind changed – that I would stay that way forever! A bit tough for teenagers to tell primary school children, but it had me worried for years and I was always smiling! Much like my family will when the raspberries are on the stems and we can enjoy your raspberry marshmallow. This looks divine ;D x
Marshmallows make boobies bigger. That cracks me up. I love Marshmallows. Now that explains it. These are very pretty Lorraine. Love how you used real raspberries for colour and flavour.
I’m flat as asphalt, so I’m going to cram my mouth with lots and lots of marshmallows from now on!
But someone told me that the weight you gain from marshmallows never comes off; it sticks to you like melted marshmallows. What an idiot.
Yum, pure pink lusciousness!
I must have eaten an awful lot of crusts
I can’t remember any wives tales that I believed, but I know my maternal grandma thought that if you cut your hand in the webbing between your thumb and pointer finger, you’ll get gangrene. WT?!
I want these marshmallows! And a bonfire to toast them on!
Oooh there is nothing like home made marshmallow. Mum’s favourite saying was that if you pulled a silly face and the wind changed, your face would stay like that. I used to think a lot of boys must have pulled really funny faces!
Fresh raspberries marshmallows sound divine!!! They look fantastic too.
I heard the wives tale about crusts making your hair curly so I avoided them like the plague as I wanted dead straight hair. Thank God for hair straighteners!
These would make such a great gift packaged in little cellophane bags. How nice would some passionfruit ones be I reckon?
One old wives tale I was told by my mum when I was little was that if somebody steps over you, you’ll stop growing!
Lorraine, you took me back to my little girl days…
God how we all use to believe whatever anyone said right…
Cute…
These Marshmallows are to die for.
never thought they were so easy to make at home.
Too funny – your story made me laugh so much today! could you imagine what the sale of marshmallows would be like if only that were true!
We used to get the old…”if you swollen watermelon seeds a watermelon tree would grow in your tummy”…pity as kids we never realised that watermelons don’t grow on trees
When I was a teen, I once came up with a mini marshmallow diet. Don’t ask me how, but I figured since marshmallows had no fat, they were perfect for losing weight. Ahhh, yeah, right…Anyhow, my idea was to measure out half a mug of marshmallows for each meal. Well, by the time the third meal came around, I was already sick of marshmallows. LOL So much for that smart diet trick.
Marshmallows are so expensive here! This gives me reason to try. Hve never heard of bread crusts making one’s hair curlier but I remember two common old wives tales, for us Asians-1. If we don’t finish eating up all the rice on our dinner plates, we will marry a pock-faced man! And 2. If we swallow the seeds of a fruit, a tree will grow on our heads! When we were little ones, we really believed these tales!
Queen Elizabeth visited Perth in ~1977? Her motorcade was to pass near to our house and we were all going down to watch.
I was about 7yo and my mother told me to make sure my room was spotless, in case the Queen chose our house to drop in for Tea and Scones !
I stood along the main road that day knowing I had the cleanest bedroom in the whole world – I hadn’t noticed that Mum had not made scones !!
I held my breath as the cars drove by ……and kept going
My mother doesn’t remember this story, but I bet she had a great giggle on the day.
I told my 6yo son this story only last week as the Queen is due here again in 3 weeks time.
As much as I was deceived into cleaning my room that day, I look back on the situation with fond memories
I’ve never made marshmallows but these look fab!
I’ve loved reading all the comments and having a giggle. Remember “Stop or you’ll go blind”?
I just adore the sound and look of these beautiful marshmallows. I broke my sugar thermometer a few years ago….excuse me while I run to the shops and get a new one!
I can just imagine how fabulous these would be in a mug of proper hot chocolate – adding just the right hint of raspberry flavor as they melt into the drink.
I remember being told by a particularly snarky classmate in elementary school that eating chewy caramels would give you an ample bosom. Ironically, seeing how I was never a fan of those sweets, I ended up well-stacked and the snarky classmate remains flatter than a board to this day! ;p
Hi Lorraine, these look great. Another alternative to pureed raspberries is to drop whole raspberries into the marshmallow mix once spooned into the tin. They look fabulous… whole plump raspberries surrounded by gooey white marshmallow. Need to acknowledge James Martin for this variation.
I’ve seen Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall make marshmallows with beetroot juice for the pink effect, but yours sound so much nicer. Will have to try these!
These do look delicious as every one has been saying. I agree that Raspberry would probably be one of the best choices of fruit for tartness. Lovely
Lorraine – are these toastable? I never seem to eat marshmallows unless im pulling them out of a fire and I love it when they are melted and gooey on the inside and the outside is crunchy (but not black)
I’ve never made my own marshmallows but I love the ones at Sweetness the patisserie.
Lucky I didn’t hear the marshmallow wives tale when I was younger or I would be a very fat girl right now
Hilarious story! Marshmallow boobies hehe
Love these Lorraine. Great color too!
I was definitely not that precocious when I was 8! These marshmallows look awesome!
Waw, Lorraine!
Your fresh raspberries marshmellows look just utterly delicious!
MMMMMMMM,…Beautiful pictures too!
Hehehe awe that is such a cute story!! I think I used to believe that too much tv will rot your brain…it worked, I never used to watch much!
Heidi xo
They’re pink!
Very funny. Eating marshmallows probably does not make boobies grow but eating too much will make the belly grow, so the theory is partially correct:)
- Eating ants is good for your eyes (and I think there is some scientific basis for this)
- eating apple seeds (or any seeds) will result in trees growing in your stomach!
Carrots for your eyesight, crusts for curls … but mostly I remember being told to eat everything since there were starving children all over the world and have a distinct memory of telling my mom to put a fried egg in an envelope and mail it rather than eat it
These look like a must try, fluffy and light – yum!
They look like little puffs of heaven. Such a pretty color! xoxo Mum
All my life I have associated marshmallow with the artificial and dry pink and white variety that have always proliferated among the many supermarkets and sweet stores it seems for centuries. YUK!!! Until I took my kids to Sweetness. The old saying ‘You eat with your eyes’ certainly applied, as it only took a glance at an advertisement to entice me into the store. Little morsels to sample the various products were on offer. That was the moment when myself, my son and daughter were converted. We were literally like children in a lolly shop,not able to decide
which flavour, let alone which sweet to ignore. Although, we all three cherished the passionfruit mallows as the prized mouthful of moist fruity
‘melt-in your-mouth’ goodness.
All my life I have associated marshmallow with the artificial and dry pink and white variety that have always proliferated among the many supermarkets and sweet stores it seems for centuries. YUK!!! Until I took my kids to Sweetness. The old saying ‘You eat with your eyes’ certainly applied, as it only took a glance at an advertisement to entice me into the store. Little morsels to sample the various products were on offer. That was the moment when myself, my son and daughter were converted. We were literally like children in a lolly shop,not able to decide
which flavour, let alone which sweet to ignore. Although, we all three cherished the passionfruit mallows as the prized mouthful of moist fruity
‘melt-in your-mouth’ goodness.
These are BEAUTIFUL!
Hmmm maybe I should eat a couple of bags of these
I love home made marshmallow, I have been known to have sweetness ship me a couple of bags in the past it is so divine. Think I must try this.
Eat marshmallows makes boobies grow??? I never heard that. When I was little several urban tales ran across school, but never something like that. Ok, just in case, I will start eating tons of marshmallows…hope I’m on time…
Hahaha too cute. My grandmother use to yell at me when I was biting my nails telling me that they will continue to grow in my tummy and every time I get a stomach pain, it was a nail tryign to break through. Kind of scarred me for a long time haha.
I’ve always wanted to try my own marshmallows. Delish!
These look so great
—Gorgeously Pretty in Pink.
Lorraine, OMG, these pink puffs are magic…So Sweeeeet. So delish looking. Drool-Worthy.
Do boobies really get puffier? If so, I think several men woud be making them for their Lovahs.
xx Kiss From MN.
marshmallow is full of mystery – no wonder it gives rise to old wives tales – how can something so clear become so cloudy! I remember being told about crusts making hair curly but I always get confused about if it does or doesn’t – but coming from a family where curly hair is bad, it is important!
I love the idea of you all daring each other to try a marshmallow! I’ve had Gina’s marshmallows and they’re amazing. The passionfruit is my favourite. I admire you for making some of your own.
Whoa… so pretty… I love your table setting for this food shot. I’d love to try raspberry marshmallows!
I am not a marshmallow fan but it seems that the homemade version really is so much better than the storebought one. Yours certainly look pretty. Is it a coincidence that you are making one of David Lebovitz’ favorite sweets while he is visiting Sydney or is it in his honor? ;o)
That is a new one I haven’t heard before LOL. If it was actually true, OMG how scray!
I want to make my own marshmallows too! YUM
I *heart* homemade marshmallows, they’re infinitely better than the mass produced fake-tasting ones! I’ve not made raspberry ones yet, might have to make some soon.
Oooh I love marshmallows and wow I wish that eating them would make my boobies grow! Gorgeous marshmallows! And can you believe that as crazy as I am about marshmallows I have never made them?
i never heard that particular tale, but if i had, i’d have stuffed my face full of marshmallows. in fact, i may go do that right now, just in case…
Carrots helped you to see in the dark, never worked which was greatly disappointing. Sigh. Love these little babies, although, if your wives tale was true, I’m not going to risk it. Lol!
Gorgeous marshmallows. I love the addition of fresh raspberries. Marshmallows can make my butt grow if I eat too many.
Sexy looking!! I’m definately going to try this recipe to have some soft fluffy marshmellows! Yum!
Such little pink beauties! Thanks for sharing your funny memories, Lorraine:)
oh yum!!! these sounds and look divineee. i’ve been dying to make home made marshmallows for some time now but i’ve heard they’re super sticky and annoying to clean up. these look like little pillows of heaven tho…
I so need a sugar thermometer, these look sensational!
I remember being told if I pulled a face & the wind changed i’d be stuck like that. I never believed it of course… but was careful just in case
How did I miss this? This is getting pinned because pink is major color around here.
How long do they last for???
Hi Anna, I’d say they’d last for up to a week in an airtight container?
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