The Joys of Jell-O Recipe #37: Cherry Charlotte Russe

Howdy, Jigglers! After making the Tuna Salad, I was ready for a dessert gelatin recipe again, and in particular one featuring ladyfingers, since I had a package of ladyfingers lying around and ladyfingers + Jell-O is always a wonderful combination. It's like a cheater's sponge cake. In the end I chose Cherry Charlotte Russe, a creamy, fruity dish studded with nuts and served in individual serving dishes.

The ingredients for this dish were fairly easy to replicate in a healthier fashion. I left the ladyfingers, whipped cream, and pecans exactly as they were, but instead of cherry Jell-O, I used unflavored gelatin in pureed cherries and two tablespoons of sugar. For the cherries I bought a bag of frozen cherries, thawed them, and then blended them up in a blender, which worked well and produced enough liquid to make the appropriate amount of gelatin. However, if you use a different type of cherry, your sugar requirements may change--maraschino cherries, for instance, would need no additional sugar, while tart cherries would need much more than a couple of tablespoons.

The method for making this recipe is standard and simple; I bloomed the gelatin in the cherry puree, added sugar, heated it up until very warm to dissolve the gelatin and sugar, refrigerated it in a bowl until slightly thick, whipped the cream in the meantime, folded  the cream and nuts into the gelatin, placed some ladyfingers into my serving dishes, scooped the gelatin mixture into said dishes, then refrigerated it all again.

The only tricky part of making this recipe, and most Jell-O recipes in general, is catching the gelatin at the correct intermediate point of setting. If you want the gelatin to only reach the slightly thickened, very thick, or set but not firm stages, you really have to keep an eye on it, as the time required for it to reach those stages varies depending upon the type of container it's in, its position in your fridge, how concentrated the actual gelatin is, and its temperature at the start of the setting process. But it always seems to me that the more frequently I check on a batch of setting gelatin, the slower it sets, but if I know it's going to take a while and I wait a long while to check it, it winds up too hardened by the time I check. Gelatin that sets too much can always be heated slightly to resoften it, but getting it right can be a little frustrating.

In this case, my gelatin may have been just slightly too soft when I mixed in the cream and pecans because it didn't marble all that attractively, but it still set up fine in the end. 

You can see, roughly, the size of serving dishes I used for all of this creamy goodness, but keep in mind that this recipe makes eleven servings of that size.

The good news is that the Cherry Charlotte Russe is so tasty that you won't have to worry about it going to waste! The cream lightens up the gelatin quite a bit while still being satisfying, and the ladyfingers really make it a special treat with their sweetness.

This dessert would be more than suitable for a spring picnic or family gathering. It feels indulgent, but, at least the way I made it, it's fairly low sugar for a dessert, and it has some real fruit and dairy in it, so it's fairly low guilt, too.

So, once again, thanks to General Foods for coming up with this winner of a recipe.

The Joys of Jell-O Recipe #167: Tuna Salad

Howdy, Jigglers! Today I bring you one of the JOJ recipes I was looking forward to the least--a category which is almost entirely populated by s e a f o o d. My husband and I had just gotten back from the grocery store one day last week, and I was unpacking a couple of cans of tuna when I unthinkingly asked my husband to pick out the next Jell-O recipe for me to make. He immediately pointed at the tiny can in my hand and said, "I know there are tuna Jell-O recipes. You've got it, so you have to make it happen."

For some reason my camera was not cooperating with me on photographing both the recipe and the actual salad--please bear with my cell phone photos.

We then flipped through JOJ and found Tuna Salad, which conveniently also required several other ingredients I had on hand, like olives, celery, mayonnaise, and onion. I just had to grab a cucumber and I was ready to go. At this juncture my husband also challenged me to eat the entirety of the tuna salad since there have been a few of these recipes (mostly involving tomatoes) that I have been unable to finish due to gagging too much.

I secretly was okay with the idea of the tuna salad because I recently got a fish-shaped mold for a song and was itching to try it out. There was a bit of an obstacle to overcome, though, which was how to replicate the flavor of Celery Flavor Jell-O, which hasn't been manufactured for half a century. After debating pureeing some celery to make celery juice (too much work!), I decided to replace the salt in the recipe with celery salt and call it a day, which worked out fine. Other than using the celery salt and unflavored gelatin in place of Jell-O (a word to the wise: you can find boxes of the salad Jell-O flavors on eBay, but I would certainly recommend against consuming their contents), I followed the recipe exactly, except I accidentally got a lime instead of a lemon.

The recipe was very simple to make. The only problem was that I was worried about the onion. This is the first Jell-O recipe I have made including onion, and I thought if anything was going to make the salad completely inedible, it would be raw onion bits. So I took it really easy when I was adding the onion to avoid overpowering the other flavors.

 I was pleased with how well the chunky salad molded, though it certainly looked less than appetizing on the whole. Regardless, much to my surprise (and perhaps slightly to my husband's chagrin), this salad is simply delicious! It is refreshing, rather light, and not too fishy. Plus, the gelatin works much better than your typical tuna salad at keeping the vegetables crispy, which it did all week long. The hint of lime even shone through on the palate, while the onion did not. Over all, though, I was flabbergasted by how good the olive slices were in completing the dish. I heartily advise against omitting them, as their brininess contrasts beautifully with the creamy gelatin and the other, milder vegetables.

Clearly I had no trouble finishing off the tuna salad after all! This recipe was shockingly good for what it is, and I don't even care for regular tuna salad. I also believe the De Luxe version of the salad sounds good, though I don't know how well gelatin would keep diced apple fresh. This cookbook sure does love tuna with apples, though.

In short, General Foods actually made a competent seafood Jell-O recipe. I don't know if it was brutal amounts of talent or brutal amounts of luck that did it, but I do know that I would make this again someday in a heartbeat, which is the exact opposite of what I was anticipating with Tuna Salad.

The Joys of Jell-O Recipe #89: Frosty Melon

Howdy, Jigglers! Of all of the recipes in JOJ with accompanying photos, Frosty Melon was probably the one I have been looking forward to the most. It looks like an abstract sculpture, and it's made up of only melon, gelatin with fruit, and cream cheese. What could go wrong?

I also love that this recipe is in the "Two-Way Salads" chapter of the book. All of these recipes basically make me think the same thing, which is that they are for people who want to think of their fruity desserts as healthy side dishes. This is a delusion with which I sympathize completely, as I also will use any excuse to play down my sweets addiction.

In any case, to make this fruity treat, I started out with a honeydew melon, a cup of mango nectar and unflavored gelatin as the filling, a can of fruit cocktail with its syrup, and of course some cream cheese. As a side note, for the longest time I had only eaten honeydew in fruit mixes and never enjoyed it, but if you get a whole melon and eat it that way, it tastes ten times more sweet and juicy than its pre-cut version, so if you haven't tried it that way, I wholly recommend it.

Making this recipe is remarkably simple, though it leaves you with a lot of leftover gelatin mix. I had enough to fill five individual serving dishes. If you wanted to avoid this, you could scoop out some of the melon flesh before filling the melon, though that would leave you with extra melon to deal with. 

 I was heartily pleased with how the final product turned out aesthetically. When I first got it assembled, it just looked like a volleyball, like so:

But once you cut into it, the concentric rings of fruit and cheese are quite nice. It does look like something one would eat in the very distant future, but who doesn't want a circular treat sometimes?

The Frosty Melon delivers in terms of taste as well. The unsweetened cream cheese accentuates the sweetness of the melon, fruit, and gelatin, and the textures mesh together surprisingly well. The cheese also helps this otherwise light dessert salad become a little more filling.

Another thought that occurred to me is that this dish would be a tasty way to model the earth or another planet for kids. You would just fill the center of a cantaloupe with red gelatin and color the cream cheese to look like the planet's surface. I love it when science and the culinary arts combine!

Whether it's for a geology lesson, a volleyball party, or just for a sweet mod picnic, the Frosty Melon is a superb "salad." Kudos to the General Foods team, and until next time, stay frosty.

The Joys of Jell-O Recipe #51: Orange-Mallow Ring

Howdy, Jigglers! After making the Salmon Mousse, I needed a refresher of a normal, fruity gelatin recipe, and the Orange-Mallow Ring was a simple, fun recipe that met those criteria perfectly.

Basically, this molded dessert is orange-pineapple gelatin to which mandarin orange sections (or fresh orange sections) and quartered or mini marshmallows are added. I of course substituted unflavored gelatin for Jell-O, and for the flavoring I used ginger ale as directed and added the syrup from the can of mandarin oranges and some juice from a can of pineapple that I conveniently happened to have on hand. The result was a surpringly brightly colored ring mold studded with fruit and fluffy marshmallow which was as simply pleasant to eat as it was to look at.

I was honestly rather surprised that General Foods did not instruct the addition of any further elements into this dish. Some nuts or fish or something seems like it would be more up their alley. 

At any rate, this dessert was a plain old-fashioned good idea on the part of General Foods. I especially like the combination of oranges and marshmallow. If using fresh oranges, this would provide a very tasty contrast between the tangy oranges and the marshmallows.

The Joys of Jell-O Recipe #149: Salmon Mousse

Howdy, Jigglers! Though today's recipe certainly sounds odd as a Jell-O dish, I had been nonetheless excited to try it for quite a while. Part of this is due to never having eaten a mousse in my life, but part of it is also due to this recipe being a cool, one-dish, low-carb meal in itself, and thus perfect for summer lunches. 

Salmon Mousse is just one variation of mousse-type salads included in this recipe. The others are chicken, ham, and tuna. However, I had not had salmon for a long time, and I had eaten a LOT of celery lately (which is the main vegetable in the other variations), so I went with the salmon, and I didn't regret it.

I essentially made this recipe as written, only substituting out unflavored gelatin with half a lemon's worth of juice for the lemon Jell-O. The basic method is simple: you prepare gelatin, adding cayenne pepper and vinegar, let it cool a bit, mix it with whipped cream and mayonnaise, and then fold in the salmon and diced cucumber. At this point you mold it and let it set.

However, I do take issue with the recipe to some extent, because while the method produced a tasty salmon salad with gelatin in it, it did not seem like much of a mousse. I believe a better way to proceed is to let the gelatin set until it has eggwhite consistency,  whip it, then add the cream and mayo and whip all three together, after which the rest of the ingredients can be incorporated. 

This way you 1) avoid globs of random gelatin strewn into the salad, 2) get a lighter, fluffier texture in general, and 3) get a better mold shape. As is, the salad somewhat adhered to the shape of my Bundt pan, but with the gelatin-mayo-cream mixture at a higher percentage of the volume of the salad mixture, the molding would be more apparent.

However, on the whole, this recipe is a success. It is a creamy, well spiced molded salad that isn't gross, and I am very grateful for that considering that I made this as my main lunch dish for a whole week, so I have to give kudos to the General Foods team for at least one sane seafood Jell-O recipe.

The Joys of Jell-O Recipe #36: Birthday Surprise

Howdy Jigglers. Before we get started, I am sorry to say I had a kerfuffle that resulted in me having no pictures of the finished dish of this recipe. Other than that, though, I am very excited to be reporting today on Birthday Surprise, perhaps the recipe with the most eye-catching photo in the entire Joys of Jell-O catalog! (Yes, I admit, "eye-catching" and "delicious-looking" are two different things.)

As my birthday was approaching, I figured I should treat myself in the most fitting way with this birthday cake alternative, especially given how simple it is to make. The gelatin part is literally just clear gelatin, with some ice cream inside the ring and marshmallows/gumdrops outside. In fact, it is so simple that the moniker of "Surprise" really doesn't make sense, unless you think of it in terms of giving this to someone for their birthday instead of a sweet, fluffy cake without their knowledge or consent--and let's be real here, if you knew ahead of time, you would not consent. Maybe there is someone out there who truly loves plain gelatin more than cake as a special-occasion treat, but it is just one person, and I say that as a real die-hard gelatin fanatic.

Anyhow, since the "recipe" gives you full freedom as to what flavor of gelatin to use, I decided to get a little creative and use apple juice as the basis of this dish. This is because there is no apple Jell-O flavor, and I had some caramel sauce in the refrigerator that I thought would make a nice caramel-apple effect. This is where my plans went slightly awry, though: since apple juice is very sweet, I figured the sweetness level would be about right when gelatinized, but the flavor turned out a little on the subtle side. It was not bad, but if I were to make this (or just apple gelatin in general) again, I would either include some more concentrated apple puree with the juice or cook the juice down a bit to concentrate the flavor a bit more.

Regardless, the gelatin turned out beautifully. All told I used four tablespoons of unflavored gelatin to harden an entire jug of apple juice, which made it nice and chewy, and it was a very pretty golden color. Some vanilla ice cream in the middle made a festive presentation, though ultimately I thought the combination was too rich and ended up eating the gelatin by itself with some caramel sauce. Maybe some creme fraiche would be a more appropriate filling. But for initial serving we lit birthday candles stuck into marshmallows and everything. For the record, I tried and tried but could not manage to make the marshmallow flowers as shown in the photo. If anyone out there knows how to make them, please let me know!

While I would not make this for anyone as a birthday surprise, it is a festive way to serve gelatin, it looks nice, and I'm sure it would please the palettes of a young birthday-party crowd. It would be especially useful for coordinating with a party color theme, since you can use a host of different flavors, particularly if the theme is "Candyland". A stained-glass or rainbow pattern would be especially eyecatching with the marshmallows and gumdrops. All in all, though it is not much of a recipe, the Birthday Surprise does serve as a creative inspiration for the limitless opportunities that gelatin offers.

The Joys of Jell-O Recipe #116: Peach and Cheese Salad

Howdy, Jigglers! I was very excited about the Peach and Cheese Salad, that I chose to make next due to already needing some cottage cheese, mostly because it is a Two-Way Recipe and I have done very few of those to date. The concept of recipes that are versatile enough to be salad or dessert is interesting, though I know many of them may not succeed in that capacity.

At any rate, this recipe combines quite a few standard Jell-O techniques, like layered molding, mixing fruit in gelatin, and whipping gelatin, but it is still simple to make. It was also simple to swap out some ingredients to make the whole thing slightly healthier: I used unflavored gelatin instead of Jell-O (two tablespoons in total), and for the cherry flavoring I replaced half of the water with the syrup from a can of cherries, after which I threw the cherries themselves into the mix for good measure. I know the cherries basically don't show up in the photos, but just trust me. In addition, since there was no added sugar in the gelatin, I added two tablespoons of white sugar to the cottage cheese. Other than that, I followed the recipe as written.

 The first thing I noticed while making this recipe is that cottage cheese doesn't become smooth after mixing. Perhaps it would if you got your electric beaters in there, but that sounded like a kitchen disaster waiting to happen, so I just left it slightly chunky, which was fine. The other thing I didn't expect is that the cherry syrup turned a lavender color when whipped--I would have thought it would be a maroon or dusty rose color, but it turned really purple. That's not a bad thing, but it is just a bit disconcerting when you first see it. I imagine you could use maraschino cherry syrup to achieve a more red/pink look and a sweeter taste.

Tastewise, this "salad" is pretty good! The cottage cheese does add a nice creamy, savory taste, which goes nicely with the fruit. There is plenty of textural contrast as well, between the cheese, whipped gelatin--which is foamy but somehow slightly firm as well, regular gelatin, and fruit. Plus it makes a pleasant presentation, though with the whipped gelatin it is a bit difficult to cleanly serve a portion.

 If you wanted to serve this as a salad, I would highly recommend omitting the sugar that I added, filling the center of the mold with additional cottage cheese (as seen in the photo from the book), and serving each piece atop some mixed greens, perhaps with a light drizzle of vinaigrette. For a dessert, it is good as is, but a scoop of vanilla ice cream to one side would take the whole thing over the top.

So here is the second Two-Way Recipe (the first being Applesauce De Luxe) that can actually work as intended! I especially like that you can create a gelatin salad without a lot of added sugar to create a dish that is more substantial and filling than your typical gelatin affair. General Foods, color me impressed.