When we begin to tire of some of the fruit we grow in abundance here in the gardens, I look to alternate ways to prepare fruit. Gelatin is an easy, keep-the-kitchen-cool way to make a wholesome, light and delicious dessert. And all it takes is some unflavored gelatin (in the packets or in bulk) and the fruit or juice (plus sugar and lemon juice to taste).
Some suggestions if using whole fruits:
berries, very ripe peaches, nectarines or plums
Some suggestions if using juice:
grape, white grape juice, apple, blueberry, cranberry or any combination of juices
Using unflavored gelatin is a two-step process.
1) The first step involves separating and softening the gelatin granules. This is achieved by softening the gelatin in cold liquid.
2) The second step actually dissolves the gelatin. Dissolving gelatin requires a hot liquid. If you try to skip the first step, you will wind up with lumps of gelatin in your finished product.
(You may be wondering how you can only follow the second step with packaged jello mixes. Combining gelatin granules with sugar, (as is found in boxed jello), is another way to separate the granules. But as these instructions here concern making jello with minimal added sugar, this won't work well for us.)
4 cups of fresh or frozen fruit (today's jello is made with 3 cups of frozen wild blackberries and a 1 cup of fresh strawberries)
2 packets (or 2 tablespoons) of unflavored gelatin
sugar (2 to 4 tablespoons, to taste)
lemon juice (1 tablespoon, to taste)
water (to bring the pureed mixture up to 1 quart)
Begin with about 1 quart of berries, or whole fruit, peeled and cut into chunks.
Puree berries/fruit in a food processor or blender, until smooth.
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| This is 4 cups of pureed blackberries, strawberries, water, sugar and lemon juice |
Stir into the puree, making sure to break up any clusters of granules (this prevents gelatin lumps in the finished product). You should have something resembling a paste at this point.
Microwave, or heat on the stove, the remaining 3 cups of puree, until bubbling. (This takes about 4 minutes in our microwave.)
Slowly pour 1/3 of the hot mixture over the bowl of cold, gelatin mixture, while stirring constantly. Now pour the small bowl of gelatin/puree into the large hot container of puree and stir until gelatin is completely dissolved, about 2 minutes.
Pour into serving cups or dishes. I like to use these pretty, little Italian canning jars. But fruit saucers and custard cups are also just the right size.
Chill for about 4 hours.
This makes 8 1/2-cup portions.
Add-ins:
Adding softened cream cheese, or silken tofu, to the jello, just before pouring into serving dishes makes a creamy jello dessert. For amounts, reduce the total fruit puree, lemon juice, sugar and water to 3 1/2 cups, total (this will likely mean not adding any water, or just a little). Add 6 to 8 oz of softened cream cheese, or pureed silken tofu to the gelatin/puree mixture, just before spooning into dessert dishes. You can run the entire mixture through a food processor or blender to thoroughly combine, as needed. I make my Creamy Rhubarb Mousse Jello (link to recipe) by adding cream cheese to the rhubarb gelatin.
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| This is simply bottled cranberry juice cocktail and gelatin |
To make jello using fruit juice (bottled, frozen concentrate or fresh), I use:
4 cups of fruit juice
2 packets or 2 tablespoons of unflavored gelatin
(**optional -- sugar, 1-2 tablespoons, lemon juice, 1-2 teaspoons, all to taste)
In a medium bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over 1 cup of cold juice. Allow to soften 2 minutes. Stir.
Bring 3 cups of fruit juice to a boil, on the stove or in the microwave. Slowly pour hot juice over softened gelatin, stirring constantly, until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Add optional sugar and lemon juice, to taste, stirring until sugar is dissolved.
Pour into single serving cups or dishes. Chill for 4 hours.
Add-ins:
You can add chunks of fruit, canned or fresh, chopped nuts, mini-marshmallows, whatever sounds fun! Simply pre-chill the full bowl of gelatin for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until thickened, but not set, and stir in the extras. Now spoon into individual dishes, and continue chilling until set.
Pure and fresh, a real fruit gelatin dessert, minus the artificial colors, and artificial flavors.
**Real fruit juice jello will not be nearly as sweet as boxed jello. It's a lot like comparing Kool-Aid drink powders to real fruit juice. I like the refreshing, less-sweet taste of just juice and gelatin. But if you or your family are used to the commercial jello, you may be more pleased with the addition of lemon juice and sugar. You are still cutting out the excess sugar, additives, artificial flavorings and colorings from the boxed varieties.
About the fruits that cause gelatin to not set:
Some fresh fruits contain enzymes which impair gelatin's setting ability. These include fresh figs, papaya, mango, pineapple, prickly pear and kiwi. With exception to the kiwi, you can mediate the enzymes effect on gelatin by boiling these fruits for 5 minutes, before adding to gelatin. Heating the fruit pieces denatures the enzymes, allowing gelatin to set. That is why canned pineapple works in a jello salad, but fresh pineapple does not. The canned pineapple has been processed with heat, denaturing the enzymes.
Likewise, you can use canned/bottled or processed, frozen pineapple, mango, fig or papaya juice to make fruit juice jello, as it's been heat treated. There's a popular jello salad recipe that uses lime jello and canned pineapple juice, for example. The canned pineapple juice works, because it's been heat-treated for canning.
So, avoid kiwi in jello salads. If you want to use fresh pineapple, mango, papaya, prickly pear or fig, you need to boil the fruits or juices for 5 minutes (per the instructions on the Knox website).
