Melt ¼ cup coconut oil for about 30-45 seconds in the microwave. So much easier to measure in its liquid form!
¼ cup coconut oil
In a large pot, heat the coconut oil over low-medium for a few minutes. Stir in the vegan marshmallows and cook until gooey. It took me about 7 minutes.
4 cups or 1 x 10 oz. bag of vegan vanilla marshmallows
Remove from the heat and quickly add green food coloring, non-dairy milk, and almond extract.
green food coloring, 1 tablespoon non-dairy milk, ½ teaspoon almond extract
Next, pour in the crispy rice cereal and combine well.
3.5-4 cups crispy rice cereal
Press the marshmallow-cereal mixture into your pan.
Once relatively cool, cut or shape and decorate! It’s extra festive if you use cookie cutters and sprinkles. I chose to mold my treats by hand!
Notes
You should use refined coconut oil, if you want to avoid the coconut flavor.
I needed about 25-30 drops of green food coloring to turn the Dandies marshmallows green. Initially, they didn’t want to absorb the bright green color, but I used two wooden spatulas like an electric beater and churned away.
I formed each whimsical three-dimensional Christmas tree by hand. (It helps to grease each palm with coconut oil). It’s not essential, but I wrapped my marshmallow treats in aluminum foil and let them rest overnight. If you want to take a page out of my book, you can follow these instructions:
Roll a handful of the marshmallow treat into a firm ball.
Stretch and shape until it resembles a tree/cone.
Take a square of aluminum foil, wrapping it around the tree/cone to hold its form. Orient each tree’s pointy end toward any corner of the foil. Start with the tip and cover the flat base.
You can use vegan peanut butter cups as the tree stumps!
If you want to decorate, royal icing is the perfect glue! My favorite vegan version is from Wallflower Kitchen. Here's the link!
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