The Joys of Jell-O Recipe #45: Cherry Cheese Charmer

Howdy, Jigglers! This next recipe was chosen for me to make by my brother in law, who came to visit the other week and loves cherries. He never has mentioned that cherry is his favorite fruit flavor, but every time I ask what kind of dessert he wants me to make when he comes over, it is invariably cherry-rich, which works just fine for me. I was actually thankful to have somebody else around to choose a vintage Jell-O recipe for me, since if I were choosing for myself, I probably would have chosen something a little more daring and less promising.

Anyhow, this recipe is a combination of some of my favorite Jell-O techniques: whipped gelatin, dessert gelatin with just a hint of savory flavor, and fruit mixed in to fluffy gelatin. That said, I did have to make a couple of changes to the recipe. 

After the Coca Cola gelatin and the Cherry Charlotte Russe, I had had about enough of dark sweet cherries in gelatin. They always make the gelatin a brownish color, and their flavor is a little insipidly sweet and flat for me. So I replaced the can of dark sweet cherries with one can of cherry pie filling and one small jar of maraschino cherries. For the cherry syrup, I used the juice from the maraschino cherries, and I heated up the pie filling and added a quarter of a cup of water to it to get the syrup to separate from the fruit.

Then I made my usual substitution of two tablespoons of unflavored gelatin for the Jell-O, and the rest of the recipe I made as written.

Though I am sure the optional layering method would be attractive, I didn't want to make this recipe any more complicated than was necessary, so I didn't take that route. The method has a few steps, but it was easy enough to do. It took a bit of time to blend the cream cheese and the gelatin, it takes quite a few minutes to whip the gelatin sufficiently, and you have to watch carefully to make sure the gelatin doesn't set too much before whipping, but as long as you are patient and diligent about it, it's pretty simple. It also fit just about perfectly into my preferred mold.

The result? Fluffy. Rich. Attractive. And so pink! Just take a look.

I had maybe a quarter cup of gelatin leftover after filling my mold, just for your information. I was quite pleased, by the way, with how well this whipped mixture took the shape of the mold. Also pleasant was the degree to which the syrup from the cherries flavored the gelatin. It's always a challenge to substitute the flavoring provided by Jell-O in a way that is neither too weak or too strong, but this combination of maraschino cherry juice and cherry pie filling syrup worked terrifically.

As you can see, the cream cheese didn't blend totally seamlessly into the gelatin, but this  didn't result in weird chunks of pure cream cheese or anything, so I didn't mind whatsoever. My brother in law's reaction was also very positive.

The blurb about the recipe in the book is quite appropriate--this is a special recipe that certainly charmed me. In fact, it would be a great, somewhat lighter-than-usual Valentine's Day treat. I rate it as an excellent addition to the Joys of Jell-O anthology, though of course with the caveat that it would probably not be nearly as good with dark sweet cherries.