Preparing strawberry jelly
Jelly is one of the simplest desserts that invariably pleases everyone with a pleasant taste and unusual texture. The ability to experiment with ingredients, as well as to use fresh berries and fruits for the dish, only increases its popularity. One of the most appetizing varieties is strawberry jelly.
Choice of Ingredients
Since the main ingredient in strawberry jelly is the strawberry itself, the most important thing is to select the berries correctly, wash them and remove any remnants of leaves or stems. Although sometimes the green parts are left to create an unusual shade for the dish, this is still an amateur decision. The berries themselves should only be ripe - crumpled, slightly damaged, and crooked will do. Strawberries go well with other berries, fruits, chocolate, nuts, so these ingredients will be great to combine to prepare this dish. Surprisingly, it is also recommended to experiment with avocado and rhubarb.
In the case when cocoa is used as an addition, it is important to carefully measure its amount - an excess of powder can make the dish bitter. The same applies to vanillin, so it is advised to always take vanilla sugar instead. The original jelly will make a few added drops of wine. Gelatin granules must be of high quality, because it will depend on whether it will be possible to make the fruit mass saturated, elastic and fragrant.
Replacement gelatin, by the way, are agar-agar and apple pectin. Finally, no jelly is complete without sugar.By changing its quantity, it will be possible to adjust the shelf life of the dish.
Recipes
Making jelly from fresh strawberries at home is not particularly difficult.
For a classic recipe of ingredients you will need:
- 300 grams of berries;
- 50 grams of sugar;
- a tablespoon of gelatin;
- 500 milliliters of boiling water;
- 100 milliliters of cold water.
Cooking begins with the fact that the berries are thoroughly washed, freed from the stalks and dried. Then the strawberries will have to be poured with freshly boiled water, flavored with sugar a little and processed with a blender. It is important to achieve a homogeneous consistency without the slightest lumps.
At this time, a spoonful of gelatin is immersed in cool water - in ten minutes it will have to dissolve. After that, the substance is to be placed in a water bath and stirred until a homogeneous consistency is reached. Strawberry puree is mixed with gelatin, and then laid out in containers. Before use, he will have to stand in the refrigerator for up to two hours. By the way, if the jelly is ready, you can check if you shake it.
Immobility indicates that the dish is allowed to be eaten. As a rule, it is served either with ice cream or with fresh fruits or berries.
The original solution would be to do banana and strawberry juice jelly. This dish is especially appreciated by young children. In addition to fresh strawberry juice in the amount of one and a half glasses, it is necessary to prepare banana juice in the same amount and 15 grams of gelatin. Half of the gelatin is mixed with strawberry fresh, peeled from pulp, and left alone for a quarter of an hour. Then the container is placed on low heat and heated by stirring until the liquid reaches 40 degrees.
Typically, at this temperature, the gelatin granules are completely dissolved. The finished strawberry jelly is removed from the fire, poured into containers and put in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. Similarly, you will need to cook banana jelly and pour the second layer into the same container.
Frozen strawberries can also make a delicious strawberry treat. In addition to 500 grams of berries, you will have to prepare only one package of gelatin and 500 grams of granulated sugar. A liter of water and a pound of sugar are put on fire to make a sweet syrup. When the liquid boils, 50 milliliters for gelatin will have to be separated from it - the powder dissolves and reaches the desired consistency in five minutes. At this time, the frozen berries are laid out in the syrup remaining in the pan.
On fire, they have to be kept stirring until the mass softens - then it can be processed with a blender. The pan is returned to the fire, gelatin is added to it, everything is boiled until five minutes have elapsed, after which the jelly is poured into glass containers with lids. Cooled banks are then removed for storage.
Many women choose preparations for the winter without gelatin. Half a kilogram of green apples, a kilogram of granulated sugar and a tablespoon of lemon juice are added to a kilogram of strawberries. Glass jars are pre-sterilized either by steaming or in the oven, the same applies to the lids. Apples must be unripe, since it is the peculiarity of such fruits that will make it possible to make jelly without the use of gelatin. The fruits are washed, the peel is peeled off the apples, and they are puréed together with strawberries in a blender.
The resulting mass is flavored with sugar and put on fire, where it is brought to a boil. It is important - do not forget to stir and remove the foam all the time.The fire is made smaller, lemon juice is added to the future jelly, and everything is boiled until the required density is reached. You can determine if the dish is ready by using a plate sprinkled with water. A little jelly is dripped there, and if a lump can be rolled out of the substance, it means that it is ready. The blank is laid out in jars, closed with lids, sterilized for about ten minutes, cooled and put away for storage.
Strawberry jelly with honey instead of gelatin includes agar-agar. In addition to 5 grams of this substance, you will need:
- 30 grams of granulated sugar;
- 1.5 teaspoons of honey;
- 300 grams of berries;
- 250 milliliters of boiled water;
- lemon juice.
Strawberries are properly prepared and then blended with lemon juice. At this time, pure water and sugar are mixed in a separate container, agar-agar is added to them a little later. Everything is put on fire and aged until three minutes have elapsed. After turning off the fire, all the components have to be mixed, and this must be done carefully - it is important to prevent the appearance of bubbles. The finished jelly is laid out in containers and put away in the cold, somewhere in a couple of hours it can already be served on the table.
Sour cream jelly dessert will be the decoration of any holiday table, and it is extremely simple to make. Pre-prepared:
- 200 grams of ripe, fairly dense berries;
- 250 milliliters of homemade sour cream;
- three tablespoons of sugar;
- a glass of hot drinking water;
- two tablespoons of gelatin.
First of all, sour cream is taken out of the refrigerator - it will need to stand at least an hour at room temperature. Then the gelatin dissolves in boiling water and swells for about a quarter of an hour.Strawberries are washed and cleaned of green parts, small specimens remain unchanged, and large ones are cut into several pieces. At the next stage, sugar is mixed with sour cream using a mixer, and filtered gelatin is poured into the resulting mixture. Finally, berries are added to the container, everything is mixed, poured into containers and put in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.
A combination of strawberries and raspberries is considered quite traditional, but nevertheless popular, so such a jelly preparation for the winter invariably attracts the attention of culinary specialists. The dish consists of:
- 500 grams of strawberries;
- 500 grams of raspberries;
- kilogram of sugar;
- 30 grams of gelatin.
All berries are washed and then crushed in a blender. It is better to grind them separately and then mix them by hand. The total mass is sprinkled with sugar and placed on the stove. As soon as it starts to boil, it's time to add the gelatin granules and mix everything well. Stay on fire lasts until the consistency of the mass becomes thick. The finished jelly is laid out in separate containers and closed with lids.
You can also additionally pasteurize everything in a pot of boiling water for ten minutes.
A savory solution would be to make spicy strawberry jelly. Would need:
- 600 grams of pre-purified berries;
- 560 grams of sugar;
- 25 grams of pectin;
- 100 grams of tartaric acid;
- two teaspoons of Tabasco sauce;
- 50 grams of powdered sugar.
At the first stage, strawberries are combined with sugar to taste and put on fire. You should wait for the substance to boil, then add pectin mixed with 50 grams of sugar to it. At the next stage, sauce and tartaric acid are added to the dish.The finished jelly is laid out in one large container, covered with cling film. When the product hardens, it will need to be cut into several small squares, each of which will first be dipped in cold water, and then in powdered sugar.
A combination of strawberries and cherries is also considered quite common. In addition to a kilogram of strawberries and 500 grams of cherries, 1.2 kilograms of sugar, two tablespoons of lemon juice and a package of gelatin are prepared. Berries are freed from excess - seeds and leaves, and then pureed.
The finished mass is mixed with sugar and prepared gelatin. Everything is mixed, aged for five minutes and put on the stove. The jelly is to be brought to a boil, stirring occasionally, cleaned of the film and combined with lemon juice. After cooking the dish before the expiration of another ten minutes, everything is laid out in containers and closed with lids.
Cooking Tips
When preparing strawberry jelly, it is recommended to follow a few important rules.
- Firstly, you should not abuse gelatin - if you add too much of this substance, then the consistency will not change for the better, it will become “rubber”. The taste will also suffer.
- Secondly, it is not recommended to overdo it with sugar - nevertheless, when preparing jelly from natural berries, one must strive to preserve the natural taste.
- Thirdly, the use of aluminum utensils is not approved - this metal leads to the fact that the food mass changes color and acquires a rather unpleasant taste.
- Fourthly, pouring jelly into molds, first they need to be doused with cold water. When taking the jelly out of the mold, it is already necessary to use a warm liquid - the bottom of the container is lowered there for a couple of minutes.
An interesting solution would be to use mineral water to dilute gelatin - so the finished dessert will be with bubbles, which will give it a special zest.
The recipe for strawberry jelly from sour cream and strawberries, see the next video.