What's The Difference Between Marshmallow Fluff And Creme?
We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.
The star of the once-popular '60s snack, the fluffernutter sandwich, marshmallow fluff is an airy, sticky, sweet concoction that puts gooey marshmallow flavor front and center. You can actually make your own marshmallow fluff with just two ingredients, though marshmallow fluff is a brand-name product. To some extent, it's been absorbed as a generic moniker, like Band-Aid, Jacuzzi, or Crock-Pot, and many home cooks use the term interchangeably with "marshmallow creme." In fact, way back in 1896, a Fannie Farmer cookbook contained a recipe for "marshmallow paste," which may have been the earliest softened marshmallow product. Two popular modern brand-name products, Marshmallow Fluff and Marshmallow Creme, have slightly different ingredients and consistencies, but the generic stuff is just about identical.
Marshmallow Fluff, the brand name, was the brainchild of Archibald Query, who was unsuccessful selling his product door-to-door before the First World War forced him to stop. He sold the recipe for his sweet treat to H. Allen Durkee and Fred L. Mower, a pair of Boston confectioners who were willing and able to grow the business. Durkee and Mower invested in advertising, and their company actually created the first Rice Krispies Treats in the '60s in conjunction with the Kellogg cereal company as an ingenious way to incorporate Marshmallow Fluff into a kid-friendly snack.
Nowadays, there's a viral TikTok trend of gym rats eating Rice Krispies treats as a preworkout booster – we think Durkee and Mower would approve! When folks talk about "marshmallow fluff," they are likely referring to the product by the same brand name. But hold onto your hat, because things are about to get a little confusing.
Marshmallow creme is essentially the same thing as fluff
On YouTube, Josh Kenney at TheScienceClassroom did density testing on two cans of product — Marshmallow Creme and Marshmallow Fluff — and concluded that the two items were, for practical purposes, pretty much identical. "Marshmallow creme IS marshmallow fluff," he boldly declared. Homemade marshmallow creme, made without preexisting marshmallows, is what at least one baking blog described as Swiss meringue buttercream sans butter. You'll notice that many blogs use the terms "marshmallow creme" (sometimes "marshmallow cream") and "marshmallow fluff" interchangeably. They typically call for the same ingredients, too, when made from scratch: egg whites, cream of tartar, sugar, and vanilla extract.
Also notable is the fact that the home page of Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallow Creme, a leading Fluff competitor, prominently mentions that its product works deliciously in fluffernutters. Interestingly, Kraft's product contains xanthan gum and cream of tartar, while jarred Marshmallow Fluff does not. Are you picking up what we're throwing down? There does not appear to be an appreciable difference between marshmallow fluff and marshmallow creme, except that the latter is a more generic term for the first. The distinct brand-name products are a bit different, but the generic marshmallow product just has two different monikers. On social media site Reddit, commenters reflected on the "fluff vs. creme" debate and likewise concluded that they are the same thing ... but that it might not matter to anyone outside New England, because nowadays, a fluffernutter is back to being a regional specialty.