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My daughter and I were making cake pops, and were a little short of white chocolate for the coating. We thought we'd try a white chocolate/marshmallow coating instead. I didn't weigh the marshmallows but they were no more than 25% of the total.

I used a bowl over a pan of simmering water as I usually do for melting chocolate. The white chocolate had mostly melted when I stirred in the marshmallows that were on top. They started to melt then the whole lot seized solid. Further heating didn't help. I was left with something that could be shaped like fondant icing

I've had that happen when heating white chocolate (alone) in the microwave, and always assumed it was local overheating, hence using the bain marie this time.

Now it's cooled, I'm left with something resembling out of date or badly stored white chocolate - grainy rather than creamy.

Is such a coating possible? Should I have gone about it differently? Or is there too much water in marshmallows?

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    FWIW, one of the contestants a few years ago on the Great British Baking show used marshmallows (and powdered sugar, but no other ingredients, if I recall correctly) to make fondant.
    – csk
    Commented Jan 30, 2021 at 17:20
  • Sounds like you made a fudge essentially, though without reaching the boiling point of sugar. The gelatin in the marshmallow would have added the flexibility. Looks like marshmallow has about 20% water, which I wouldn't have thought was too much.
    – bob1
    Commented Jan 30, 2021 at 22:15
  • Judging by your observations of the results alone, it seems like the chocolate seized due to the water in the marshmallows.
    – stanri
    Commented Feb 3, 2021 at 16:15
  • @stan, maybe. Melting white chocolate is problematic anyway; I've had trouble in the microwave due to local overheating, or possibly stirring. That's why I do it the old-fashioned way
    – Chris H
    Commented Feb 3, 2021 at 16:24
  • @ChrisH, definitely possible. I usually melt chocolate in the microwave in small batches (200g or less at a time), stop to stir every 10s, and stop the microwaving process when it's 80% melted (mostly but with some chunks), and just stir the last 100% using the residual heat in the bowl. This method has worked for me for all kinds of chocolate.
    – stanri
    Commented Feb 3, 2021 at 16:28

2 Answers 2

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This is definitely possible, though I should add that the addition of melted butter would be crucial.

Do not simply toss "raw" marshmallows into the melted white chocolate, as they will start to cool down the chocolate more than you'd think (I once tucked my hand into a bag of marshmallows, it was relatively cold in temperature).

Here is how I would do it:

  1. Melt some butter in a pan (don't skimp!).

  2. Toss in your marshmallows and constantly stir them, until all melted and silky.

  3. Pour the melted white chocolate into the melted marshmallow & butter, and continue to heat and stir for a few minutes.

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  • Thats interesting because I was concerned more with overheating the chocolate if I added it to hot marshmallows, rather than with cooling it
    – Chris H
    Commented Jan 31, 2021 at 21:01
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    Why is the butter crucial? Why not just pre-melt the marshmallows without butter if temperature is the issue?
    – stanri
    Commented Feb 3, 2021 at 16:15
  • I suspect the butter is crucial because the chocolate would sieze due to the water in the marshmallows, adding the butter (fat) mitigates that problem.
    – stanri
    Commented Feb 3, 2021 at 16:25
  • @stan the reason I'm not completely convinced by this is that butter and marshmallow have very similar water contents: 15%-20%. I'd be more convinced by a call for pure fat
    – Chris H
    Commented Feb 3, 2021 at 16:30
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    @ChrisH it seems to be debated around here if butter and chocolate are a good idea, see this answer and comments: cooking.stackexchange.com/a/3019/76918 It seems like pre-melting the butter makes it less likely to sieze the chocolate.
    – stanri
    Commented Feb 3, 2021 at 16:34
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The adding butter and the recipe in the comments is similar to Rice crispies without the crispies. Not sure why it works but from experience with making rice crispies it makes sense.

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