Blackcurrant jelly with cream
Set with gelatine, not a packet of crystals
plus 4 hours setting
Doubles into four glasses on the same one-to-three cordial and water. Setting time does not change however many glasses you pour.
Blackcurrant cordial is already exactly the colour a jelly wants to be, a deep, near-black purple that needs no help from anywhere else. Diluted to a strength you would happily drink on its own, then set with gelatine rather than the flavoured crystals most jelly comes from, it sets softer and tastes distinctly of blackcurrant rather than of sugar with a purple tint. Warm only half the liquid to dissolve the gelatine, then stir in the rest cold, and the colour barely dulls at all compared with boiling the whole batch. A little cream poured over at the table sits white on the purple for a second before it sinks, which is as much as this pudding needs to be worth looking at.
Ingredients
Contains: Milk
- 4 leafleaf gelatine, about 7 g, platinum grade, soaked in cold water until floppy
- 100 mlblackcurrant cordial, concentrated, not ready diluted
- 60 mldouble cream, to serve
Method
Drop the gelatine leaves into a small bowl of cold water and leave them for 5 minutes, until they have gone limp.
Put the cordial and 100 ml of cold water in a small pan and warm gently until steaming, not boiling.
Take the pan off the heat. Lift the gelatine out of the water, squeeze it firmly, and stir it into the warm cordial until fully dissolved, with no strand left on the spoon.
Stir in a further 200 ml of cold water. The mixture should taste rich and fruity rather than watery, and be a deep, even purple throughout.
Pour into two glasses and leave them on the side for 15 minutes, then chill for 4 hours at least, or overnight. The jelly is set when you can tilt a glass without the surface moving.
Pour a little cold cream over each glass at the table, so the white sits on the purple for a moment before it sinks.
Watch-points
- Use a smooth blackcurrant cordial with no fruit pieces or bits in it.
- Squeeze the gelatine leaves properly after their soak, so no extra water thins the set.
- Cover the glasses once they are cold and keep them in the fridge for two days at most, or eat them the next day if you are having chemotherapy.
Make it more nourishing
- Pour 50 ml of cream over each glass rather than a splash, which adds around 220 kcal a glass.
- Spoon 3 tablespoons of thick smooth yoghurt alongside instead of the cream, for about 3 g of protein.
- Put 30 g of clotted cream on the side of each glass instead of pouring cream, which is denser again for the same spoonful.
Swaps
- Instead of blackcurrant cordial, use elderflower cordial
- a completely different colour and flavour, pale rather than deep purple, using the same method
- Instead of double cream, use pouring custard
- a warmer, softer contrast if a very cold pudding does not appeal