Individual fruit jellies

Although fruit juice isn’t a recommended whole food, the occasional jelly made with real fruit juice and diced fruit, is a much better children’s treat than a commercial jelly. This makes 6-8 individual bowls of fruit and jelly.

• 200ml (4/5 cup) filtered water
• 750ml (3 cups) red fruit juice eg. grape, or apple and blackcurrant, diluted with 250ml (1 cup) water
• 8 tsp gelatin
• a punnet of strawberries, sliced
• about 1 cup watermelon, cut up small and pips taken out
• 1 cup of blueberries, fresh or frozen

Put the water in a medium-sized pan, and set to heat at a medium temperature. Put the juice in a large pan and start heating at a low temperature. Measure out the gelatine and set aside. Slice the strawberries and watermelon and place in the bowls. If the blueberries are fresh, they can go in the bowls too. If they’re frozen, keep separate for now. By the time the fruit is ready, you want the water to be about boiling and the juice to be just warm.

Take the water off the heat and sprinkle the gelatine over the top. Let soften for a few seconds, then whisk to dissolve. Gradually add about a third of the warm juice, whisking continually. Then add the gelatine mix to the rest of the juice, still whisking. Add the berries to the gelatine mix, if they’re frozen and stir. Leave for about 5 minutes for the berries to mostly defrost, then pour into the individual bowls. Once it’s completely cold, put into the fridge for about 4 hours to set.

Serve with ice cream, whipped cream or berry fool.

Variations:

Note that this is the budget version. If you are sensitive to MSG, you may react to the gelatine, so make the agar version instead. This is more expensive, but healthier (especially if the only gelatine you can find has preservative).

Make these changes:

• Replace the gelatine with 4 tablespoons agar flakes (or 4 teaspoons agar powder). This will give quite a firm jelly, so if you want a loose jelly, experiment with smaller amounts.
• Pour the water and half the juice into a saucepan and whisk in the agar. Bring to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes or until the agar is dissolved, stirring constantly. (If you’re using agar powder the agar will dissolve faster.)
• Gradually whisk in the juice
• This version will only take about an hour to set.

• This can also be made with kefirred fruit juice, which reduces the sugar content. If you dilute your juice before kefirring it, don’t dilute the second measure again.
• This version is all red, so nice for Xmas. But for other times, try different combinations of juice and fruit. But be careful with pineapple, papaya and kiwifruit, as the enzymes can stop the gelatine from setting.
• Make in parfait glasses instead of bowls. Fill the glasses to just less than half way. Once set, fill most of the rest of the way with berry fool, then garnish with fresh whole or pureed berries.