I am just loving these jelly cups, out of interest I left one strawberry, one raspberry and one blueberry in their punnets in the fridge with the raspberry berry jelly cups we made last week, and what do you think? Well, the raspberry jelly with it’s precious store of fruit was as delicious today, almost a week after it was made, as it was on Friday (day it was made), the lone blueberry stood up okay, but the fresh raspberry had collapsed into sloppy mush and the strawberry was growing its own hair. Hmmm.
So what I want you to take from this is that the notion of PRESERVING goes beyond making jams and sauces and putting things in the freezer. Preserving in aspic or gelatine has long been a way to extend shelf life and this little experiment shows that it will work in this situation too. When we put things in our fridge, we are extending their useable life, when we freeze things, we are doing the same. In this case, I got to have beautiful fresh berries this morning while I was listening to my nutrition lecture, berries that would not have stood up to almost a week in my fridge otherwise.
I love the idea of these, they feel like a dessert, but they really aren’t. They would be so good for young mums to give their little ones, no sugar, everything fresh. And with us going into summer, such a nice cooling and refreshing and hydrating thing to have in the fridge.
Anyway, tropical jelly cups. I walked into the supermarket yesterday and the smell of these mangos just about knocked me back out of the door! Glorious. I could not resist.
Ingredients
Made four
500ml clear apple juice
1 satchel Jel it in
1 mango, peeled, pipped, cut into chunks
2 mandarins, peeled but left with their membrane on
2 passionfruit
So it is just the same as the last two times, tip your juice into a medium pot, sprinkle on the Jel it in
Give it a good stir and then heat over a medium low heat, stirring frequently until it comes to the boil, simmer for one minute.
While you are doing that decant your fruit into your chosen receptacles, again, I have used my 300ml canning jars, I really like these for this, they are a great size, they stand up well to the heat of the jelly going in to them and they come with a lid, so I don’t have to use cling film.
When the jelly has simmered for a minute, turn off the heat, let it stand for a few minutes to cool slightly, pour over the fruit.
Push any bits that are sticking out under the jelly, the reason this is preserving this fruit beyond its usual fridge life is because the air can’t get at it, so let’s not give it a chimney.
Pop those into the fridge, when they are cold put their lids on, not before or we will get steam build up, which will encourage mould.
Tropical jelly cups. I am thinking these particular ones would be divine with a coconut and vanilla mousse. Hmmm.