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Dessert

Toasted Marshmallows

A sweet treat of marshmallows coated in fondant and coconut.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Coconut and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,294 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Toasted Marshmallows

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the coconut

  1. Roast the coconut in an oven at 350°F (175°C) until brown, then let it cool.

Coat the marshmallows

  1. In a pan, combine fondant and enough water to make a thin paste, then flavor with vanilla.

  2. Add marshmallows to the fondant mixture and coat them well.

  3. Drop the coated marshmallows into the coconut and mix until covered.

Optional variation

  1. Alternatively, dip marshmallows in simple syrup instead of fondant for less sweetness.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Coconut + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Vanilla + syruptop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Coconut + syruptop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together245 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Fine dry coconut
Toasting browns the coconut, adding nutty flavor and a crisp, dry outer coating.
Fondant
Adds sweetness and a thin sugary layer that the coconut sticks to.
Vanilla extract
Adds aroma to the fondant coating.

The step that matters

Keep the fondant coating thin and slightly tacky before dropping in coconut. A thin, slightly sticky sugar coating lets the coconut adhere evenly. If the paste dries or sets before the marshmallows go into the coconut, the coating will not hold the coconut well.

Swap the coconut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vanilla, syrup):

  1. Peachfits better
  2. Blueberryfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Coconutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vanilla, syrup. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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