Dandies: A Marshmallow Make Over

They’re Vegan and better than ever!

In 2008 Dandies Marshmallows arrived on the scene. It all started with a Dad who had wanted his son to enjoy Marshmallows around the campfire. The only issue was all Marshmallows contain this ingredient called gelatin – collagen obtained from various animal raw materials. His son being a Vegan could not eat them. This is when Ryan Howard a Food Process Engineer went to work on creating the first vegan marshmallow. Dandies Marshmallows are 100% vegan – made with no gelatin, but that’s just the beginning of this marshmallow make over.

 

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They are Gluten free, Non GMO Project Verified, free of Corn Syrup (HFCS) and of the most common allergens (peanuts, tree nuts, milk, egg, wheat etc.) soy aside. In other words starting with removing gelatin, these marshies are raising the bar one real ingredient at a time.

Check out this ingredients list!

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If you’re a kid at heart and you enjoy S’mores around the campfire or simply seeing your kiddos happily snack on them, then you’re going to love this.

Dandies Marshmallows has an in house chef and delicious mouth-watering recipes on their website. Enjoy your first batch of:

Dandies Classic Crispy Treats

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Click here for recipe.

Caramel Coffee Pistachio S’mores

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Click here for recipe.

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Check out Dandies and try their vegan marshmallows you’ll never want to turn back! Also, share them with your friends, vegan or not these little treats are changing the campfire game.

 

The Sticky Situation with Marshmallows

The truth is Marshmallows we enjoyed as kids are not as innocent an indulgence as our parents might have thought. We can always count on a little marshmallow to satisfy a sweet tooth. No guilt right? I mean it’s a marshmallow what’s there to feel guilty about? The answer might surprise you.

If you take the time to read and see what makes up a Marshmallow, you will surely think twice before reaching for the next bag. After enjoying them in hot cocoa, desserts, s’mores and so much more one starts to wonder, “What am I really putting in to my body?” The answer: Some serious empty calories and something that one would dare to call food. As a Nutritionist I give it an F and that’s not for food.

We turned to the Nutrition Facts label and what we learned next was less than appetizing. 

You can always count on the ingredients so start there. We first read High Fructose Corn Syrup, Sugar, Dextrose, Modified Corn Startch…

The issue.. the most natural sounding ingredient, or at least the one we could easily understand was ‘sugar’ or technically Dextrose the most naturally occurring form of sugar, yet still just another way of saying more sugar.

Tetrasodium Pyrophosphate, TPPS (Whipping Aid)

  • Other than a Food Additive it is used as a Water Softener and Detergent Builder. TPPS has been shown to be toxic to Humans in small amounts. Specifically it is alkaline and irritating. Here’s a tip: if you have stress, skin issues or inflammation probably good to eliminate this from your diet.

Artificial Color, Artificial flavor, Gelatin (animal based ingredient, or the reason our vegan friends have never tried Marshmallows).

Once we discovered all of this, our only hope was to find a healthy marshmallow. Anyone with a sweet tooth and a love of camping would understand our struggle.

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Then we found them, Dandies Marshmallows. Dandies made their debut in 2009 at Expo West as the first Vegan Marshmallow! This little vegan marshmallow has come a long way since and Dandies only continues to improve it. Check out their awesome timeline for details and see how Marshmallows became an actual guilt free food alas. Also, check out our next blog, the full Dandies story to come!