A Bizarre-o Mystery: Silk soy creamer and the case of the disappearing marshmallows....

[visciole]

I make hot chocolate with milk, and usually add mini marshmallows. They always melt some in the hot liquid, but remain semi-intact, so you can spoon them up.

Well, a few days ago I ran out of milk and used some Silk soy creamer we had sitting in the fridge from a guest. I won't get into the taste, but let me just say this stuff melted my marshmallows, I mean, completely, so they were barely a wispy reminder on the surface of my cocoa. I thought it was so weird I even repeated the experiment using more marshmallows and the same thing happened. The only variation on my usual version was the Silk soy.

So, do any of you chemistry-minded cooks have any idea what could be in this stuff that would cause the complete disintegration of marshmallows?

And, may I just say -- yuck!

[goodhealthgourmet]

my guess is that the potassium phosphate (a salt) & sodium citrate (an acid) in the creamer denatured the gelatin in the marshmallows.

[visciole]

Hmm, interesting. But then why wouldn't the acid in the natural cocoa react the same way?

[goodhealthgourmet]

it does - as you said in your OP, they always melt/dissolve somewhat (which obviously also has something to do with the heat of the water). but i suspect the additional acid from the soy creamer just finished the poor little guys off.

i could be totally wrong on this, but i can't think of any other sensible explanation!

[visciole]

Thanks! I guess that's less insidious than I imagined ;) But I still didn't like how it tasted.