Kids love jelly but most shop-bought jelly is full of icky things like colourings and artificial sugars. Jelly is a great way of getting gelatine into your kids, which is a good source of the amino acid glycine, particularly useful for immunity and keeping inflammation at bay.
Gelatine in the form of aspic and consommé soup has also been used traditionally to soothe a sore tummy and to help with loose bowels, and gelatin tannate has been used as an anti-diarrhoeal and in gut permeability trials in more recent years. Some kids love these meaty soups but most prefer something sweeter and that’s why I have put together these yummy rainbow jellies.
The best form of gelatine for making jelly and also has gut-healing properties is grass-fed gelatine such as Planet Paleo – follow the instructions for making 500ml
If you are not a meat eater then you can use Agar Flakes made from vegan marine algae instead. If you are pescatarian or don’t eat beef or pork then I suggest adding 1 tablespoon of fish-based marine collagen to the Agar flakes as this does add similar benefits as gelatine and I promise it won’t taste fishy!
It’s really up to you what combinations of fruit colours and juices you use… stick to one flavour or make several different colours at once. Shop-bought Elderflower & Apple, Raspberry & Apple or Orange & Mango all work well as mixes, and make a nice rainbow of colours. The only juice you can’t use in jelly is pineapple as it will not set!
Jelly can be served in its own containers. or turned out of a jelly mould for awesome wobbliness! If you’re feeling indulgent, you can have it with cream or maybe vanilla ice cream.
- 500 ml Fruit Juice (Divide into different juices as required)
- 5 leaves Gelatine (See Cooks' Tips below for Vegan/Vegetarian options)
- Fruit (Berries or chopped fruit as a garnish)
- Get your jelly containers or moulds out and ready, and on a tray that is suitable to put in your fridge to avoid spillages.
- Divide the gelatine into the number of different juices you are using. For each juice, place the gelatine leaves, seperately in bowls of cold water, and leave for 5 mins or so until very soft.
- Warm up 2/5 of each juice. Leave the rest in the fridge. You want it to stay as cold as possible.
- For each juice, take it off the heat before it starts to bubble.
- Take your gelatine out of the cold water and squeeze it well. Then pop it into your warmed juice and mix in until dissolved.
- Add the cold juice into the warm. Mix well and pour into a jug.
- Pour the jelly liquid into your moulds. You can add chopped fruit or berries at this point which looks beautiful.
- Leave in the fridge to set. This can take anything from 2-4 hours.
- If you're going to turn them out of a jelly mould, now is the exciting bit... tipping out your jelly moulds! Get them out of the fridge and place the plate/bowl over the top and tip over. If the jellies are being a little stubborn, don’t shake them. Just pop them back over again, get a bowl of warm water and dip them into the warmth for a few seconds, ensuring the top is above the water. This should loosen them off.
Cooks' Tips:
- Change the quantities above, as required. You may find that 500ml of juice split into 3 juices is fiddly to do, so it's best to make larger quantities when you are doing different colours.
- Vegan/Vegetarian: Use 2 heaped tablespoons of Clearspring Agar Flakes plus 1 tablespoon of Marine Collagen if preferred.
- Go with the manufacturer's instructions for making gelatine as they vary considerably, but generally:
Sheets: one by one, soak the gelatine sheets in a bowl half filled with very cold water for 5 minutes until soft. Lift them out and give them a good squeeze and mix them into the mixture until all blended.
Granules: put the granules into a ramekin, add the same amount of cold water and leave to set, it will look like a very old bouncy ball, don’t be alarmed. When it does, take the jelly mixture out of the ramekin and place into the warm juice and let it dissolve into the mixture.
- Vegetarian gelatine can set very quickly so have everything ready to go.
