The Joys of Jell-O Recipe #26: Creamy Freeze

One of the beautiful things about Jell-O is that you can pretty much dress it up with anything you might have on hand, which makes it a thrifty little dessert choice. I had previously bought some lemon Jell-O that I had wanted to use for a fancy Jell-O salad recipe I found out about, but then I realized I didn't want to spend the money on all the different fruits and other fixings that went into it, so in I dove to The Joys of Jell-O to find something nifty that I could make with lemon Jell-O and no money. Enter the Creamy Freeze.

This fairly innovative little recipe uses the binding powers of gelatin and whatever Dream Whip is made of to simulate ice cream by folding the two together, freezing partially, and then whipping more air into the already fluffy mixture to make it light and scoopable once totally frozen. This ends up being easier said than done, though. For one, I have never met anyone who has freezing trays, so I was using a metal mixing bowl and the aluminum pot of a rice cooker to freeze my creamy mixture--maybe that affected the rate of freezing. Either way, it took much longer for the mixture to get even slightly frozen than what the recipe suggests, and I consider my freezer colder than most. I still followed the recipe's guideline about waiting until 1/2" was frozen and everything, but I'm not convinced it turned out exactly as it should have.

The result was less reminiscent of ice cream in texture and more reminiscent of a creamy, finely shredded shaved ice. Now, don't get me wrong: creamy, finely shredded shaved ice is a supremely refreshing dessert, particularly in lemon. It took on a dainty shade of creamy yellow and was just sweet enough to be indulgent without being too rich. Plus, it did manage to be readily scoopable. But it wasn't like ice cream.

Ultimately I can still recommend this recipe as an easy, budget-friendly, solid choice, though it did take a long time to prepare by Jell-O standards. However, if I were to make it again, I would invest in a couple of freezer trays to make sure the surface area-to-volume ratio is sufficient for proper freezing. Plus, there are several other recipes in TJOJ that call for the use of a freezer tray. Apart from that, I would always recommend real whipped cream over Dream Whip, but in this instance I really didn't mind the Dream Whip much because it serves the same purpose and doesn't detract from anything except the cost. However, when I was preparing the Dream Whip, I added real lemon extract instead of vanilla extract (because I only have imitation vanilla at the moment--sad, I know), which I think improved its flavor dramatically. I think even if I were using a different Jell-O flavor, I would still use lemon extract instead of vanilla, unless you have real vanilla.

By the by, any Jell-O flavor would probably be good or at least decent in this dish. Strawberry and orange would probably be especially tasty, or you could use lime to make a Key Lime ice cream treat. Another word of advice: it's best to eat this whole recipe, which makes a large batch, within a couple of days. Prolonged freezing and the temperature fluctuations caused by a freezer's defrost cycle cause this dessert to harden until it eventually becomes a solid block, which is no fun.

One last note: if you look at the example photo from the cookbook, you see that the Jell-O and Dream Whip are marbled in the freezer tray. However, if you read the instructions, you are supposed to whip all of that together until well blended but not melted during the freezing process, meaning that there's no way you can both follow the directions and end up with a recipe looking anything like the photo. Thanks, General Foods.