There’s some sort of magic that happens when you make marshmallows from scratch. You watch the underwhelming syrup slowly billow up in the stand mixer, lightening and fluffing, becoming impossibly sticky and airy. The fact that it happens every single time still takes me by surprise. “It worked!” I think, though I can’t recall a time when my marshmallows went flat. Is that even a thing? So when my paleo peeps (paleo marshmallows made during springtime, duh), sweetened with only honey and no extra funky stuff, transformed from a watered-down honey syrup to a fluffy, white, marshmallow goo, I was absolutely in awe. And then I tasted them, my raspberry paleo marshmallows and my toasted coconut lemon (YES I KNOW) paleo marshmallows: they were delicious. They didn’t taste too much like honey. They had the same texture as a regular marshmallows. What? PALEO PEEPS Y’ALL.
You can imagine my bliss, no matter how easily piqued my marshmallow-induced happiness is. When I had the idea to make paleo peeps (paleo marshmallows with bunny eyes, dammit), I felt kind of like a genius. Never mind that they’d been made before, no no no. I felt damn proud of myself for taking on the spring favorite and turning into a gut-healthy paleo Easter candy made with all real ingredients. Speaking of ingredients, I think you’ll be surprised at how simple and straightforward they are: honey, water, gelatin, water, vanilla extract, freeze-dried raspberries or lemon + coconut, and arrowroot. If you’ve been eating a paleo diet for any matter of time now, you know we live and die by the arrowroot, and it works so beautifully in this case, dusting the sticky edges and creating that light, powdery surface we’ve come to love about marshmallows, whether they’re paleo marshmallows or good, old-fashioned corn syrupy bites.
And then the process: I opted out of making a video for this recipe because I was so seriously overwhelmed by the process. I figured it had to be difficult and quite involved, but I ended up spending most of my time dancing from the waist down to my St. Vincent Pandora station via Alexa, always yelling at the poor ol’ girl to change the song whenever something depressing came on. So here’s how it works: you boil some honey and water, then you pour some water over a couple packets of gelatin. You mix it all together and throw it in the stand mixer. Beat on high for 5-7 minutes or so, then spread it all out in a parchment-lined 8×8″ baking pan. Let it air dry for a few hours and tada… paleo marshmallows. Or… paleo peeps?! Yep. You’re a badass.
You can 1000% make this recipe just plain paleo marshmallows, either the raspberry paleo marshmallows or toasted coconut lemon paleo marshmallows, but cut them into bunny shapes? You just might die from the cuteness and cleverness of your little healthy self.
And if you’re wondering if they taste terribly like honey, they really don’t! I was probably most surprised about this part, assuming that they’d taste heavily of the stuff. Weirdly, they don’t, but have this lovely fruity taste that’s a bit tangy and not overly sweet. Both are colored naturally, so you can feel good about giving them to your littles… and Leo ate almost half of an entire pan of these paleo peeps. HE’S 18 MONTHS OLD WHAT HAVE I DONE. Make these paleo peeps for a paleo Easter or just for an everyday treat! They’re indulgent without breaking your commitment to real, healthy foods, and I think you’ll be surprised at just how damn delicious they are.
