How to make jelly
BY READERS DIGEST
1st Jan 2015 Recipes
Fresh oranges, lemons, and all soft fruit can be easily converted into jelly and the result has a flavour much nicer than any from a packet. Children who may resist eating fresh fruit often love to eat jelly and making your own helps to ensure that some vitamins are retained. Fresh fruit jellies should be eaten on the day they are made. Here’s a great recipe for a fresh berry jelly.
Preparation time: 30 minutes plus an hour standing time
Setting time: Approximately 3 hours for moulded jelly; 1-2 hours if jellies set individually.
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
- 500g raspberries or strawberries, sliced
- Strained juice of 1 lemon
- 100-140g caster sugar
- 2 sachets powdered gelatine
Recipe method
1. Put your chosen fruit into a bowl and add the lemon juice and sugar. Stir well, cover and leave it all to macerate for about an hour.
2. Pour the fruit and lemon juice into a food processor or blender and add 300ml of water. (If the goblet isn't large enough, the water can be added later.)
3. Process or blend the fruit into a smooth purée then pass this through a fine nylon or stainless-steel sieve to remove the seeds. If you have not already added it, stir the water into the berry purée now.
4. Measure the sieved fruit mixture. The fruit should have produced about 850ml of puree, but if the fruit is very juicy you may have up to 1.2 litres. Taste for sweetness and add a little more sugar if necessary.
5. Dissolve the gelatine in 100ml of water, using one whole sachet plus 1½ level teaspoons of the other for 850ml of fruit mixture; if you have a larger quantity of purée, use 2 sachets of gelatine. Leave it to stand for 3-4 minutes, until it has absorbed all the water and looks opaque.
6. Whisk the dissolved gelatine into the fruit mixture and pour the jelly into a 1.2 litre dampened mould, small ramekins or stemmed glasses. Chill for 3 hours or until set.
7. To turn the chilled jelly out, dip the mould up to the rim in hot water for 5 seconds only. Put a plate on top of the mould then invert the 2 together and give the mould a quick, sharp shake. If the jelly does not come out the first time, repeat the process as many times as necessary. Serve with cream and thin biscuits.
