The Joys of Jell-O Recipe #96: Fruit Cocktail Salad

Howdy, Jigglers! Much like the last recipe I made, my choice of the Fruit Cocktail Salad was largely based on a can of fruit in my cupboard and a gifted banana. Together with some apple juice to flavor the gelatin, I had a perfectly coherent mix of ingredients for this dessert, only needing to purchase some pecans and a lemon to round it out.

As with most of these recipes, the method of preparing this was bog standard. The amount of liquid in the dish is a little less than normal, so I didn't want to mold the salad because it wouldn't have filled any mold very well. Instead I chose to put it in a nice china serving dish to make it pretty. And pretty it was!

I love the rich, warm colors of the salad. Even though this is just some bargain basement fruit with a couple of pecans thrown in, it looks fancy. It would make a perfect early autumn dessert for when it's still warm out, but everyone already wants to get into the pumpkin spice and apple cider mindset.

The Fruit Cocktail Salad tastes quite nice as well. Between the banana, the apple juice, and the syrup from the fruit cocktail, it is certainly sweet, but the lemon juice and the savory nuts balance that a little, and there is nothing heavy about it. This is one of those gelatin dishes that would not be controversial at a potluck.

If you want to use actual Jell-O flavors, I would recommend lemon, orange, or cherry. If you are into new-fangled Jell-O flavors, peach or apricot would work nicely as well. I have not yet had the good fortune to try the apricot flavor, but if it is anything like what it says on the tin, it should do the trick here. Other than switching up the gelatin flavor, though, I cannot for the life of me think of any further improvements that could be made here. The Fruit Cocktail Salad simply does what it's supposed to do, just as it is.

The Joys of Jell-O Recipe #58: Peach and Banana Mold

Howdy, Jigglers! Today I'd like to present a Jell-O recipe, the Peach and Banana Mold, that really highlights two of the most basic yet appealing aspects of gelatin desserts (or fruit salads, if you want to be generous): thrift and clarity.

As you can see, there's just about nothing to this recipe in terms of ingredients to buy. In fact, I made this recipe essentially for free, as I had lime Jell-O and a can of peaches on hand, and a friend of mine gave me a banana out of the blue one day. Of course, that prompted me to furiously scan the pages of The Joys of Jell-O to look for something I could easily make with it, and that's how I decided to make this recipe in the first place.

The method involved in creating this dish is truly basic as well. The hardest part, I suppose, was evenly distributing the peach and banana slices in the gelatin since I was using a mold that is thin in places. With most kinds of molds, this wouldn't be an issue, however.


The final product turned out very aesthetically pleasing too. One problem that a lot of these vintage Jell-O recipes have is that they are very often so full of different ingredients that the final dish looks cluttered and busy. My next post will be on a recipe that makes that work in its favor, but most of the time it detracts from the appearance. This recipe, though, has just enough fruit mixed in to provide bold contrast and interest while not making you forget that all the fruit is suspended in a clear gelatin matrix.

Now that's a fruit salad perfect to take to a party pad with shag carpeting! Speaking of bringing dishes to a party, that's another advantage these simple Jell-O recipes offer: when you bring them to a potluck, all the ingredients are easily identifiable. People won't get wary about ingredients they don't like or are allergic to being hidden among all the other mix-ins.

The taste of this dessert is light and refreshing, but certainly not short on flavor. I was a little concerned about the lime flavor not going well with the peaches, but it was very tasty. It might be slightly better with orange-pineapple gelatin, though. Now, Orange-Pineapple is no longer on the Jell-O roster, but you could easily use half a package of Orange and half a package of Pineapple, or you could substitute half the water for (canned or bottled and not fresh) pineapple juice and the other half for fresh-squeezed orange juice and use unflavored gelatin. That flavor combination would make this dish look even better, too. I also like the idea of serving a garnish of banana slices rolled in nuts--honestly that would make a very light dessert on its own--though it sort of negates the make-ahead possibilities of this mold. 

At any rate, this recipe doesn't try to reinvent the wheel in any way, but its simplicity is precisely what makes it so great. I do understand why there aren't tons and tons of recipes like this in General Foods's cookbook, since it is basically just "mix and match Jell-O flavors and different fruits," but it's nice to have a few examples of successful combinations of this kind included. You never know when, like me, you might end up with some ripe fruit and no clue what to do with it, and for times like that, the Peach and Banana Mold will serve you well.
 

The Joys of Jell-O Recipe #73: Crumb Crust

Howdy, Jigglers! For the first time ever, I think, I am presenting to you a JOJ recipe that includes no gelatin whatsoever.

The other week I got a powerful hankering for my grandmother's lemon icebox pie, but I had a whole box of graham crackers in the cabinet and a whole box of butter in the refrigerator, so I didn't see any point in buying a pre-made crust. Then, all of a sudden, it hit me that JOJ has a crumb crust recipe in it! It was perfect--I could get my sugar fix, my nostalgia, and knock out a Jell-O recipe all in one go!

This recipe is incredibly simple, although when I was making it, the crust seemed to turn out really thin in my 8-inch pie plate, so I added more crumbs and butter until it appeared sturdier. I did opt to bake the crust before letting it cool and adding my lemon icebox filling.

I may have gone just a bit far in adding more crust material, since it ended up really thick, but I'd rather it be too thick than too thin and falling apart. That said, it tasted just fine and served its purpose perfectly.

To make this slightly more gelatin-related, I did an experiment with the lemon icebox pie. My grandmother and my mother make their lemon icebox pies perfectly every time, using only egg yolks to make them set. I have had a couple of occasions where mine don't set up fully, though, but luckily I have a pie-setting superweapon at my disposal: gelatin. So I added a tablespoon of gelatin to the mixture, and it did, in fact, set up great without affecting the taste at all. In the future, I would probably only use two teaspoons of gelatin for a slightly softer pie, but that's up to each person's preference, of course.

The other thing I want to go over in this recipe is all of the variations suggested. Graham crackers are the obvious choice for most pies needing a crumb crust, but I like thinking about the possible uses of the other cookies listed. I didn't even know what zweiback was before writing this post--for those who don't know, it's a sweetened, egg-based, twice-baked toast that sometimes has cinnamon on top. That seems like it would work well with an eggnog pie around the holidays. The chocolate wafers beg for either a chocolate cream pie or a grasshopper pie. I think gingersnaps would make a perfect crust to give flair to a coconut cream pie. Vanilla wafers or shortbread would make a decadent addition to a banana cream pie.

Though this recipe is anything but revolutionary, it is a good trick to have tucked up your sleeve for all sorts of pies--Jell-O-related or not. So thanks, General Foods, for a completely functional recipe with a few fun twists.