Fruit Jelly

“Nothing you do for children is ever wasted .” – Garrison Keillor

Though summer is drawing to it’s end but we still have summer fruits in abundance.This summer break I made fruit jelly with my kids. It’s yummy in the tummy fruit jelly, not out of an instant jelly box but made from the scratch. My daughters loved the whole experience of peeling and cutting the fruits (we used plastic knives, please don’t use sharp metal knives ). The jelly making part was as much fun as painting with water colours. All the cooking this recipe requires is the boiling of water, which you should handle yourself for very young kids. The rest of it is just mixing of other ingredients in the water, which kids would love to do. The most difficult part of the recipe for them is waiting for the jelly to set ;D
For this very light and refreshing dessert you can use your favourite fruits…that’s what we used

For Fruit Jelly :

2 cups boiling hot water
3 tablespoons powdered gelatine, dissolved in a little tap water.
1 cup fruit juice of your choice
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
3 teaspoons caster sugar
A pinch food colour ( optional)
Seasonal fruits, we used
1 peach , peeled, stone removed, cut into bite size pieces
1 mango peeled, , stones removed, cut into cubes
1 apple, peeled, cut into cubes
Handful of cherries, stones removed or grapes

( you can also use lychees, apricots, strawberries, pineapple and bananas)

This Is What You Do :

Bring water to boiling point in a small saucepan.
Turn off heat, stir in gelatine and mix till all crystals dissolve completely in water. Let this mixture come down to room temperature.

Stir in sugar, dissolve thoroughly, add vinegar.

Divide the gelatine mix into two different bowls if you want to make two different colours/flavours of jelly. In one bowl stir in, for example, apple juice, in the other orange juice.

Mix pink food colour in the apple flavoured jelly and orange colour in the orange flavoured jelly.

Or you can keep things simpler and continue with one colour and flavour, pour in juice and add food colour in the same saucepan.

Prepare fruits as directed in the ingredients. In 4 teacups, small glasses or goblets fill fruit pieces till almost half of the cups are filled.

Pour jelly liquid into cups over the fruits. Leave in fridge for at least two hours or till the jelly sets.

Tips to remember :
* 1 tablespoon of gelatine sets 2 cups of liquid as a rule of thumb
We are using 1 extra tablespoon of gelatine in this recipe because many fruits have citrus and enzymes in them that require extra strength for setting the jelly. Also the fruits release their juices and increase the ratio of liquid in the recipe.

* 1 tablespoon gelatine = 1 package gelatine = 4 sheets gelatine

* for vegetarian substitute use agar-agar in equal quantity.

* you can use canned fruits after draining their juice completely.

Also check

Cooking with Kids: Introduction and Safety Measures