Recipes online can often seem easy and delicious, but when you actually try them at home, it’s not what you think. So here we are going to tell you about the cool vegan recipes we see, what happened when we tried them, and lessons learned. Hipster 1 is a very good instinctual cook and Hipster 2 can follow a recipe, so together hopefully we can get the best out of each dish.
We are not going to go into details on the recipe itself since the original creators do it better and deserve the credit. Here we are going to discuss vegan marshmallows by Vegan Bunny Elle.
When we saw the short reel on this recipe, we knew we had to try it. A good homemade vegan marshmallow has been elusive, and we have tried other recipes with agar agar and let’s just say it didn’t go well. With all things surrounding agar agar accuracy is key, so H2 made every possible effort to follow the recipe exactly as written. The recipe call for 500g for chopped granny smith apples, which we did not have, so I subbed autumn glory apples. It took about 4 medium sized apples to make enough (see picture with peeler for size reference, and I know there is only 3, but I had to add another).
Tried to be really accurate 👀.
For the agar agar, we used this packet, which was just slightly over the 4 tablespoons in the recipe. We threw out the extra, just to be safe.
Honestly, the process was a little difficult, and I had many doubts along the way. I wasn’t able to take any pictures of the process given how hectic it was. First it never felt like enough water, for the apples or the agar agar. In the video, Elle’s agar was still quite fluid, whereas mine was already a heavy gel consistency. Also, once the agar agar solution was in the blended apples the whole thing became super thick and was very difficult to add into the whipped aquafaba. Side note, it took 2 cans of chickpeas to have enough aquafaba. Chunks of the apple/agar agar started solidifying and didn’t really blend into the final marshmallow, you can kind of see them in the final product below. Also, a taste midway suggested this really needed sugar, so we added a couple spoons of powdered sugar.
After letting it sit, we got this:
We could tell immediately that ours is not as airy and fluffy as the one shown in the video, and is in fact very dry and dense. It tasted heavily of agar agar and aquafaba, which is not particularly pleasant.
Caveates:
- We did not use granny smith, which maybe can change the flavor? On her blog she does mention that any apple is ok, and other have tried other fruits, which may impart more flavor than the apples I used.
- The amount of agar agar might be an issue, perhaps the brand I used is more concentrated? It was unclear what the recipe used. This is probably critical to figuring out before having another go at the recipe.
- I didn’t hold the whipped aquafaba over my head, so maybe I needed to whip it longer? Also, in the comments section of the blog, she mentions that her aquafaba is homemade, however, if she uses store bought, she will reduce it down. I am wondering if that will cook out the aquafaba flavor?
Honestly, I think I might have failed on several technical parts, but maybe that is an indication that the recipe is not for the faint of heart. The end product was so far off from what the expectations were that it might not be worth the troubleshooting efforts to figure it out. Also, the clean up was a lot, having used a blender, pot, and stand mixer.
Rating:
H1: 1/10 – wasn’t good.
H2: 1/10 – honestly I worry that it was something I did wrong, because the original poster seems to know what she is doing. So this low rating is more of a rating of me, than maybe the recipe. Will post an update if we try again.
Let us know if there is a vegan recipe you want us to try.
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