This week, Roy decided that he wanted to make dessert for everybody, and naturally he thought he should also show you how to do it! He went through lots of our old cookbooks and came up with lots of different ideas for puddings, but I told him it wasn't pudding weather. So he decided to make a fruit jelly, a proper summer dessert, and one which you might not know how to create.
Today jelly is a common, easy to make dessert and although most kids love it, it isn't really seen as 'exciting'. You can buy jelly mixes in little packets and all you need to add is water. This wasn't always the case though. In the past, jelly was an exotic and very difficult to make dessert and took pride of place not only at the end of the meal, but as a table decoration. It could be sweet, as is most common today, but there were also many examples of savoury jellies which were eaten earlier in the meal. Jelly also provided entertainment as guests watched it wobble throughout the meal. It was also moulded and coloured into amazing shapes, and sometimes it was even disguised to look like something else! For feasts held by rich people sometimes the jellies were even 'gilded' with edible gold leaf. If you would like to learn more about the history of jelly, click here.
Jelly With Floating Fruit
You Will Need:
- 4 teaspoons or 2 packets of unflavoured gelatine (1 package, or 2 teaspoons can set 500ml of liquid, but you need a bit extra because you are setting fruit in the jelly so it needs to be extra firm)
- 3 cups of juice. Roy and I used apple juice, but you could use whatever you liked. You could even use soft drink or sparkling grape juice.
- A variety of fruit. Roy used grapes, strawberries, blueberries and cherries, but you can use different fruits if you like. Just don't use fruits like fresh pineapple (tinned is fine), mango, kiwi fruit or pawpaw or your jelly won't set!
- A saucepan and stove
- A jelly mould or clear glasses
- A knife to cut your fruit
- Spray oil (if you are using a mould)
Method:
- Cut your fruit up, ready to set in your jellies. Roy had big strawberries so we cut those in four. We also took the seeds out of the cherries and cut them in half. We left the blueberries and grapes whole.
- If you want to use a mould and take the jelly out of it to serve, you will need to oil the mould. Roy and I used a spray oil and coated the inside of the mould thoroughly.
- Put your apple juice and gelatin in the saucepan
- Stir the mix over a low heat until the gelatin dissolves. Do Not Boil the mix or your jelly will not be able to set.
- Pour your jelly into your mould or glasses. If you want to put the fruit in layers you will need to set the jelly 1 layer at a time.
- Arrange your fruit in the liquid jelly. Roy and I set the bottom layer with clear jelly and arranged our fruit on top of this. Then we poured the rest of the jelly over the top.
- Keep the jelly in the refridgerator at least four hours to set (Roy and I just left it over night).
- If you used a mould and want to remove the jelly from it, wet a cloth with warm water and run it over the mould until the jelly loosens. Then it will slide out.
- Enjoy!