Can You Freeze Marshmallow Fluff – The Best Way

If you’ve ever gone camping, you’ve probably had the life-changing experience of roasting marshmallows over an open fire. The outside of the marshmallow becomes a caramelized golden crust and the inside melts into a gooey, airy mouthful of magic.

If you were to package up that magic, you’d basically have a jar of marshmallow fluff. Some brilliant business mind has already brought this delight to grocery stores near you, but it’s quite simple to whip up a batch of marshmallow fluff, or crème, in your own kitchen.

If you get a little carried away and find yourself with bowls upon bowls of fluff, you will be doing yourself a favor by freezing it. 

Yes, that’s right, you can absolutely freeze marshmallow fluff or crème. There are so many ways to enjoy this sweet treat but freezing some might just double your usage options! 

What Is Marshmallow Fluff Or Creme

Marshmallow fluff is also commonly known as marshmallow crème. “Fluff” is the original brand name that has stuck, kind of like Kleenex to tissues.

If you’re discussing homemade versions of this sticky-sweet concoction, you’ll more likely hear it called marshmallow crème. 

Marshmallow fluff is essentially made from the same ingredients as marshmallows, but in slightly different proportions and without the gelatin, so it won’t set firm.

The recipe is fairly simple, calling for only a few ingredients that are readily available in any baker’s kitchen: corn syrup, sugar, vanilla, and egg whites.

The store-bought variety comes in little tubs, similar to peanut butter containers. Either option will stay fresh for quite a while in your refrigerator thanks to the high sugar content, but if you’re planning on keeping your crème longer than 2 weeks, freezing it is a great way to store your marshmallow fluff. 

How To Freeze Marshmallow Fluff – The Best Way

Due to the extremely high sugar content, fluff doesn’t freeze rock solid, but it will freeze enough to stay fresh and give you plenty of options for interesting usages. 

If you have a fresh, unopened jar of marshmallow fluff, you can just stick it right into the freezer. It’s sealed, so it will be fine for the long-term without the risk of being exposed to air.

Freezing & Thawing Marshmallow Fluff

However, if you’ve got opened store-bought fluff or leftover homemade marshmallow crème, you’ve got a few options:

Transfer to a freezer-safe, airtight container or Ziploc bag. Get out as much air as you can and label your container with the date that you froze it. The fresher you put it in the freezer, the fresher it will taste when you take it out. You shouldn’t freeze it for more than 3 months, as the flavor will start to disappear over time. 

Separate the fluff into individual pieces for easy future use. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper, then you have two options.

Option 1: Spread out your crème and freeze it. Once frozen, cut it into squares and store them all in an airtight, freezer-safe container. They’ll stay in individual pieces and you can take one (or a few) out at a time without thawing the whole batch. 

Option 2: Put your crème into a piping bag with a large decorative tip and pipe little cookie-like shapes onto your parchment paper. Freeze! Stack carefully into an airtight Tupperware container.

Eat frozen or slightly defrosted for a nougat-like snack.

Remember, crème doesn’t have gelatin, so it doesn’t firm up like a marshmallow. If you let it thaw completely, it will go back to being soft crème fluff.

Marshmallow fluff is very light and airy and it takes only a few minutes to thaw on your counter. If you’re going to be baking with it or using it in a dessert, you can put it in a bowl and give it a good stir once it’s thawed out to bring back some shiny, silken goodness.

If you’d like to try a few frozen treats, keep reading for some fun suggestions!

DIY Fluff

If you’d like to try your hand at making some fluff of your own in order to freeze it for use in one of the brilliant suggestions we’ve got below, here is a simple and easy recipe.

NOTE: You’ll need a candy thermometer to make marshmallow crème because you need a fairly exact temperature to avoid overcooking your crème.

Ingredients:

• ¾ C sugar
• ¾ C corn syrup
• 1/3 C water
• 3 egg whites
• ½ tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

• In a small saucepan on low heat, add your sugar, corn syrup and water
• Stir until it’s nicely dissolved
• Once dissolved, turn up the heat to med-high and put in your candy thermometer. You want to keep a good simmer going, but not a full boil and certainly not any foaming
• Do not stir!
• The goal temperature is 240F. Remove from heat.
• Whip your room temperature egg whites, along with the cream of tartar, with a mixer. 3 – 4 minutes on medium should result in soft peaks
• On low speed, very carefully drizzle in your very hot sugar mix
• Once everything is combined, increase the speed again to medium and continue to beat for 7+ minutes, or until you notice the mixture is getting thick and glossy
• Once it’s at the right texture, add your vanilla and whip it to combine

How To Use Marshmallow Fluff

There are so many ways to enjoy marshmallow fluff, whether it’s fresh from the store, just out of your pot, or a defrosted batch out of your freezer. There are even a good number of ways to use frozen fluff for cool treats in a hot summer.

Fresh Fluff

• Fudge: marshmallow crème is a key ingredient to ooey, gooey fudge
• Fluffernutter everything. Fluffernutter is a brilliant combination of marshmallow fluff and peanut butter that can be put in anything. Think sandwiches, cookies, pies, bars, Krispie treats…your imagination is the only limit here. 
• Pies: A surprising variety of pies use marshmallow fluff either as a filling or as a topping. Check out: Whoopie pies, grasshopper pies, and rocky road pies.
• Cakes: There are also plenty of cakes that use fluff for layering or icing, such as S’mores cake, sweet potato cake, and hot chocolate cake, to name a few. 
• Frosting: Anything that needs to be frosted, including pancakes, can be fluffed instead

Frozen Fluff

• Simple DIY ice cream: Warm up your marshmallow fluff with some milk and whisk until it’s frothy. Stick it in the freezer and give it a good stir after 1 hour. Put it back in your freezer and, within another hour, you’ll have the most amazing sweet vanilla-flavored ice cream. Store it in an airtight container for future snacking.
• Choco-fluff: Take individual frozen squares of fluff, dip them in melted chocolate and return them to the freezer for another hour. Eat them frozen or store them in an airtight container.
• Frozen Cookie Dough-ish: crush some cookies and mix them into your marshmallow fluff and a little bit of milk before freezing. When you’re ready for a treat, you’ll have a container full cookie dough ice cream. Sort of. 
• Creamsicle Bars: Freeze 2 baking sheets slathered with a thick layer of marshmallow cream. Once frozen, cover one in sliced berries or fruit and then put the other sheet of frozen fluff on top of that.  Cut into bars and eat cold.
• Marshmallow Cubes: Freeze in ice cube trays and pop them out one at a time for hot chocolate.

Related Questions

Can you freeze marshmallows?

Marshmallows freeze almost perfectly, thanks to their high sugar content. Once you’ve opened a bag of marshmallows, empty any leftovers into a freezer-safe Ziploc bag.

Write the date on the bag, and then seal it. Remove as much air as you can without squishing all your mallows together. If you’re really keen on perfection, you can lay your marshmallows out single file on a baking tray and flash freeze them.

Once they’re solid, you can put them all into a Ziploc bag and remove the air. They won’t stick together or squish and they’ll keep fresh for around 3 months. 

Can marshmallows be substituted for marshmallow crème?

Yes, you can substitute marshmallows for marshmallow crème, but you’ll have to melt them first. In a double boiler, add approximately 16 large marshmallows for 1 cup of marshmallow creme.

Most recipes don’t require you to be exact, but a little more never hurt anyone. The main difference is that marshmallows have gelatin, which might make your recipe stiffen up a bit more than expected. 

Are marshmallows vegan or gluten-free?

Marshmallows that are advertised as vegan will be, but otherwise, most marshmallows use gelatin, which is an animal product. Similarly, many marshmallows are gluten-free, and they’re likely to be labeled as such.

If they don’t say so on the bag, they might be made in a facility that works with gluten, making cross-contamination a possibility, or they might use flavorings that are sourced from wheat. If you’re very conscientious, it’s best to read the labels carefully.