Fresh Summer Fruit and Wine Jellies

These beautiful summer fruit and wine jellies are very easy to make.

I made some as a display piece for the second day of the Ideal Home Show in Glasgow at the SECC. They attracted loads of attention !

I think they look even prettier when sliced so you can see a cross section of all the fruits.

 I made lots and lots of them the following day so we could actually slice some up to let people try.. Thankfully, I remembered to take some photos before the jellies went to the show and promised I would put the recipe on the blog on my return.

They were made in this mould - our 6 pink hearts silicone bakeware mould.

This makes a really light and refreshing dessert - perfect on a hot summer day or to cleanse the palate. They are sharp and not very sweet. It tastes like eating wine, but is offset with the sweetness from the fruit.

Better still, they are very very quick and simple to make.

Recipe

600ml of white wine -choose your favourite to compliment fruit

I think the one we used was a chardonnay ..

4 sachets of unflavoured gelatine 

Juice of 1/2 a lime

75g of caster sugar

Selection of summer fruits

Take your 6 pink hearts mould and lightly oil the inside of each cell and then place it on top of a baking tray

I used groundnut oil as it is flavourless. If you do not have groundnut, use sunflower or vegetable. The baking tray makes it easy to get your jellies in and out of the fridge later !

Pour the gelatine granules into a bowl and cover with 1/2 the wine. Leave these for approx 10 minutes. This is  called "sponging".

Whilst the gelatine is sponging, prepare your fruit. You want small strawberries. If yours are large, they will need slicing. I used strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries.

Pour the rest of the wine, lime juice and sugar into a pan. Bring these to a simmer and then add the sponged gelatine mix. Stir these over a low heat until the gelatine and sugar has all dissolved and the liquid is clear.

Spoon off any scum / bubbles from the top of the liquid. Put a couple of teaspoons of this liquid into each cell.

Arrange some berries into the bottom of each cell. Remember that the bottom will become the top, so put the pretties whole berries on the bottom. After you have done that, fill the rest of each cell to about 2mm from the top with fresh berries.

When the remaining gelatine and wine liquid has cooled down, pour this into the moulds. It will fill up all the space between the jellies. Try to cover all the fruit. If any fruit is sticking up, give it a poke to below the surface.

Refrigerate for at least SIX hours - preferably TWELVE

The jellies should have set in much less time than this. However, they need much longer for the full flavour to develop. I released my first jellies from the moulds about 3 hours later but they tasted very astringent - almost mouth puckering ! Left a good while longer, they mature as the juices from the berries infuse with the wine.

To release from the moulds, simply put a finger on top of the jelly and it will simply peel away from the sides. 

Do this right round the top of each cell and then simply turn them out on to a plate.

Sarah-Jane Nash, 13th June 11.  www.siliconemoulds.com  - silicone bakeware & cookware online shop.