Good news folks: there are no amino acids or creatine in your delicious marshmallows. All they are is a big ball of puffed sugar and gelatin. If you’re one of those weirdos that likes to burn your marshmallows you can crawl into your sleeping bag with a smile, knowing that you’re completely safe.

Cooking the egg is an example of a chemical change.

When you are frying an egg, it’s a chemical change because the liquid part of the egg changes from liquid to solid. As it is frying, the liquid part of the egg changes colour from clear to white.

When heating a marshmallow in a microwave, some moisture inside the marshmallow evaporates, adding gas to the bubbles. Both adding gas and heating cause the gas bubbles to expand, thereby causing the marshmallow to puff up.

As for your question, yes, you can microwave marshmallows. Marshmallows puff up quite a bit when placed in the microwave, so it’s important to place them in a microwave-safe bowl that’s several times larger than the amount of room the marshmallows take-up.

In microwaves, the heat will never be enough to caramelize the sugar. In fact, if kept in the microwave for too long, the air will expand too much for the stretching ability of the gelatin and…. BOOM! The marshmallow will explode.

But when you put them in the microwave, the heat makes those air bubbles grow—gasses naturally expand more than the solids you find in foods. When the air bubbles cool, they deflate, and the Peep collapses like a grounded hot air balloon—and its original structure has been destroyed.

Despite rumors to the contrary, exploding Peeps in the microwave does not occur as quickly as it would appear. If you truly want a sticky, gooey mess and the explosion, then do not take them out of the original box and leave on the plastic wrap. Set the time on the microwave for about five minutes.

Ever wondered what happens when you put Peeps in the microwave? Turns out, if you put them in the microwave, they turn into giant versions of themselves. They expand to about four times their actual size then deflate into nothing more than the inside of a s’more.

For my part, I have a long-established method for expediting the staleness of my Easter candy, and it goes something like this: Slice open cellophane wrapping. Leave the package in the refrigerator overnight. Eat Peeps cold.