Howdy, Jigglers! It has been a while, but you know how sometimes life gets in between you and your Jell-O-Quest. Today I am presenting a gelatin that is the solution to a mystery that's been lurking in my brain for years. You see, years ago I was at a Chinese Buffet checking out the Jell-O selection (as one does) when I saw a clear gelatin. My curiosity piqued, I had to get some. To my delight and surprise, it was delicious, but I had no idea what flavor it could have been.
Fast forward to this summer, when I happened to see a couple of huge cans of lychees at the store, and it all clicked. I believed the flavor to have been lychee, so I snagged the cans to try out my own lychee gelatin and see if that could truly be the answer I'd been seeking all this time.
Knowing how canned fruit syrups typically are, I added a tablespoon of honey to it to make sure the resulting gelatin would be sweet enough. This is where I erred. You should always taste the syrup before sweetening it to gauge how much, if any, sweetener it requires. In this case, I think the lychee syrup on its own would have been of optimal sweetness, and then I went and pushed it over the edge with honey.
Unlike the gelatin that originally inspired this project, I went ahead and put most of the lychees in after the gelatin had cooled somewhat. This was mostly for nutritional reasons and to bulk out the mold, though I also didn't have many other ideas as to how to use the lychees, so that was a factor as well. What I didn't realize is the visual impression this would give the mold.
It looks like a pile of eyeballs! After this Halloween, a friend and I decided that next year we should have a Halloween party with fun, spooky foods, and this just rocketed to the top of the list.
As I mentioned, it did turn out a little too sweet, but not bad, and most importantly, lychee certainly did turn out to be the gelatin flavor I had been after from those long-ago days at the Chinese buffet. I even liked having the fruit in there. It doesn't cut super cleanly, but it does cut, and I like lychees personally.
All in all, I'm happy I did this experiment. It solved a years-long mystery, it got some fruit into my body when I didn't have much fruit around, and it tasted alright despite my honey blunder. I bet it would look much clearer without the honey, too. Next time I'll know better.
Hopefully soon I'll get around to doing another Jell-O recipe. It's been too long!
