This week, Roy had some very special visitors. His cousins, including Alex who is pictured above, were coming to stay and he wanted something delicious to serve them for dessert when they arrived to celebrate. He decided it would be a good time to try out one of the spectacular layered jelly recipes he has in some of his old cookbooks. Eventually he settled on a recipe from the book 'Mothers Club Recipes' which is at least 50 years old. The recipe was for a 'Carrington Mould' and promised to look very pretty, and hopefully taste good too. Roy, and his visitors, were really impressed with the final result and decided to share the recipe with his online friends.
You will need:
- 3 and a 1/2 dessertspoons of gelatine
- A large tin of peaches. You can also use pears or apricots.
- 4 dessertspoons of sugar
- 300 millilitres of hot water
- Juice of a lemon
- 300 millilitres of milk
- Vanilla essence to taste
- Red or pink food colouring
Method:
Oil a round metal cake tin.
This is a three layered jelly, so from here on, Roy decided to divide the recipe into three sections.
Layer 1:
- Strain the tin of fruit, keeping the juice for later.
- In a measuring cup, dissolve 2 and 1/2 dessert spoons of the gelatine in a little hot water. The water should be hot but not boiling as boiling water will stop the jelly from setting.
- Add 3 dessertspoons of the sugar and the lemon juice to the gelatine mix and stir until the sugar is dissolved
- Now, you need to make the gelatine and fruit juice up to 2 and a 1/4 cups of liquid. Use the fruit juice from the tin and if you don't have enough, add some water. Add the liquid to the gelatine - you don't want 2 and 1/4 cups plus the gelatine mix!
- Pour 1/2 a cup of the jelly mix into the cake tin and put it in the refrigerator to set.
- While the jelly is setting, slice the peaches into thin pieces.
- When the bottom layer is set arrange the peach slices over the jelly and then pour over another 1/2 a cup of the jelly mix.
- Allow to set fully before making layer 2
- Keep the remainder of the jelly mix to use in layer 3
Layer 2:
- In a bowl, combine the milk, 1 dessertspoon of sugar and vanilla essence to taste.
- Dissolve 1 dessertspoon of gelatine in 1/4 of a cup of hot (but not boiling) water and stir it into the milk.
- Pour the milk jelly over layer 1 and put in the refrigerator to set completely before adding layer 3
Layer 3:
- Take the remaining jelly from layer 1. It may have set slightly, but you can put it in a saucepan and very gently melt it over low heat. Make sure it does not boil!
- When the jelly mix is cold but not set, add the red food colouring to the jelly. You want it tinted pink.
- Pour the jelly over the milk layer and put the jelly back in the refrigerator to set.
Finishing off:
- When the jelly is completely set, and you are ready to serve, turn the jelly out onto a flat plate. To do this, you can run a butter knife very carefully between the jelly and the tin. To encourage it to come out, wet a tea towel or washer with hot water and run it over the metal. You don't want to melt the jelly, just encourage it to come out.
- If you like, decorate the jelly with cream, or serve with ice cream.
- Enjoy!