I’m back with another homemade marshmallow recipe and this time I’m combining rainbows, pumpkins and Halloween, which I LOVE. I feel like this combination isn’t explored enough and when we add gooey, sweet marshmallows into the mix?? AMAZING. Halloween is so fun.
These marshmallows are incredibly soft and squishy. If you’ve never had homemade marshmallows before, I’m so excited for you because they are NEXT LEVEL when compared to store-bought!
The mold that I used is a 3D sort of style mold (get it here) and while it gave me wonderful, plump little pumpkins, they were a little tricky to unmold. The silicone edges tore the pumpkins a little bit, which was frustrating and required a far more delicate touch than my Marshmallow Bunnies. The marshmallows are quite sticky, so luckily they could just glue themselves back into shape, but I wanted to give you a heads up if you use this mold. Let them set for maybe 4-5 hours longer than stated in the recipe, to ensure that the marshmallows are as firm as possible, therefore as easy to unmold as possible!
Ingredients for Rainbow Pumpkin Marshmallows
- gelatin – this is what makes marshmallows set and feel bouncy! I haven’t tried this recipe out with agar (gelatin’s vegan alternative), but definitely let me know if you’d like to see a vegan marshmallow recipe and I can get working on it!
- food coloring – I always use Wilton Color Right and it never leads me astray. Such vibrant colors and super easy little droppers. I tend to run out of yellow food coloring the quickest, so please excuse my substitution here!
- cooking spray – absolutely necessary for greasing the pumpkin mold! The marshmallows will stick even if you’re using a silicone mold, so be sure to have some cooking spray on hand.
Helpful Tools
- candy thermometer – absolutely necessary and I PROMISE that it’s worth the purchase if you don’t have one! I dragged my feet on getting one for ages, but now I use it all the time
- pumpkin mold – how I made these pumpkin-shape!
- mesh sieve – super useful when dusting the marshmallows in their sugar coating. The sugar coating prevents the marshmallows from sticking (to literally EVERYTHING) and gives them their beautiful, silky texture.
How to Make Rainbow Pumpkin Marshmallows
Make the marshmallow base.
Generously spray a silicone pumpkin mold with cooking spray. Place on a baking sheet and set aside.
Pour 1/3 cup of cold water into the bowl of an electric mixer and sprinkle the powdered gelatin on top. Let sit for 5 minutes.
Place the sugar and ¼ cup cold water in a small pot and set to medium-high heat. Stir until the sugar has melted. Attach a candy thermometer to the pot and boil the sugar until it reaches 238F. Brush the sides of the pot with a wet pastry brush if sugar crystals stick to the sides. Remove the pot from the heat and stir until the sugar stops boiling.
Add the hot sugar to the gelatin and stir the mixture by hand whisking for a few minutes to slightly cool.
Then beat with an electric mixer on medium-high speed for 8-10 minutes, until soft peaks form. Add the vanilla bean seeds or extract and mix until combined.
Working quickly, divide the mixture into 5 bowls and dye it pink, orange, yellow, green and blue. Spoon the marshmallow mixture into piping bags and snip off the ends, creating medium-sized holes.
Pipe the marshmallow into the pumpkin mold, creating one pumpkin per color. Leave the marshmallows to set overnight, for at least 6 hours, until bouncy and set when poked with your finger.
Decorate the pumpkins.
Gently unmold the pumpkins and place them on a baking sheet.
Unwrap the tootsie rolls and microwave them for 20-30 seconds, until malleable. Cut each tootsie roll in half and roll the halves into pumpkin stems, with one flat side and one pointed side.
Stick the stems pointy side-down into the center of each pumpkin.
In a small bowl, combine the corn starch and powdered sugar to create the sugar coating. Place it in a mesh sieve and dust it over all sides of the marshmallows.
Return the excess sugar coating to the bowl and bounce the marshmallows in the empty mesh sieve a couples times, to remove any excess powder.
Serve the marshmallows in a big cup of hot chocolate and enjoy!
More Marshmallow Recipes to Try!
Golden Snitch Marshmallows from Harry Potter
More Pumpkin Recipes to Try!
Rainbow Pumpkin Marshmallows
Soft, squishy marshmallows shaped like plump little pumpkins! They are topped with tootsie roll stems and are all the colors of the rainbow!
Ingredients
- 2 ½ tsp powdered gelatin
- 1/3 cup cold water
- 1 cup sugar
- ¼ cup cold water
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or seeds from 1 vanilla bean
- Pink, orange, yellow, green and blue food coloring
- cooking spray
- 3 mini tootsie rolls
Sugar coating:
- ¼ cup corn starch
- ¼ cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Generously spray a silicone pumpkin mold with cooking spray. Place on a baking sheet and set aside.
- Pour 1/3 cup of cold water into the bowl of an electric mixer and sprinkle the powdered gelatin on top. Let sit for 5 minutes.
- Place the sugar and ¼ cup cold water in a small pot and set to medium-high heat. Stir until the sugar has melted.
- Attach a candy thermometer to the pot and boil the sugar until it reaches 238F. Brush the sides of the pot with a wet pastry brush if sugar crystals stick to the sides. Remove the pot from the heat and stir until the sugar stops boiling.
- Add the hot sugar to the gelatin and stir the mixture by hand whisking for a few minutes to slightly cool. Then beat with an electric mixer on medium-high speed for 8-10 minutes, until soft peaks form. Add the vanilla bean seeds or extract and mix until combined.
- Working quickly, divide the mixture into 5 bowls and dye it pink, orange, yellow, green and blue. Spoon the marshmallow mixture into piping bags and snip off the ends, creating medium-sized holes.
- Pipe the marshmallow into the pumpkin mold, creating one pumpkin per color. Leave the marshmallows to set overnight, for at least 6 hours, until bouncy and set when poked with your finger.
- Gently unmold the pumpkins and place them on a baking sheet.
- Unwrap the tootsie rolls and microwave them for 20-30 seconds, until malleable. Cut each tootsie roll in half and roll the halves into pumpkin stems, with one flat side and one pointed side. Stick the stems pointy side-down into the center of each pumpkin.
- In a small bowl, combine the corn starch and powdered sugar to create the sugar coating. Place it in a mesh sieve and dust it over all sides of the marshmallows. Return the excess sugar coating to the bowl and bounce the marshmallows in the empty mesh sieve a couples times, to remove any excess powder.
- Serve the marshmallows in a big cup of hot chocolate and enjoy!
Notes
To store:
These marshmallows are best eaten the day that they are made. They can be stored in a plastic container at room temperature, for 2-3 days. I recommend sprinkling some extra “sugar coating” into the storage container, so that the marshmallows don’t stick to each other.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Hi everyone! My name is Cayla Gallagher and I’m the creator of pankobunny!
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