

Certain fresh fruit purees, like pineapple, won’t allow the gelatin to set. While I normally love using fresh fruits when possible, in the case of making gelatin, there is good reason to choose fruit juice sometimes.

If yours isn’t gelling, you may need to return the mixture to the saucepan and cook it a bit longer to ensure it is ready to gel. Once activated, the agar mixture will gel even at room temperature. If using agar, you’ll need to boil the mixture briefly to activate it. (You can slowly adjust up as needed, but too much makes a rubbery dessert.) If choosing agar powder instead of gelatin powder, use around half of a tablespoon of agar powder for every 2 cups of juice. “Gelatin” desserts made with agar will be firmer and less “creamy” than those made with gelatin. You can also use a type of seaweed called agar (or agar-agar) for those avoiding traditional gelatin. That amount of fruit generally makes around 2 cups of watermelon juice. When making watermelon gelatin, I normally use around a quarter of a small watermelon for each tablespoon of gelatin. While I use fresh watermelon for my gelatin, I normally chose store-bought pineapple juice vs. By now, my favorite two are probably watermelon and pineapple. It’s fun trying out all sorts of different fruits to see how they’ll turn out. You can either add a sugar syrup, some honey or maple syrup, or use a low-carb sweetener like stevia. Some fruits, especially those lower in sugar and on the more tart side, might benefit from the addition of sweetness. Many fruits are sweet enough to make a sweet, delicious dessert without needing to add any sort of sweetener. You can use whatever gelatin you like, but I suggest trying grass-fed pastured beef gelatin if you can find it as the healthiest choice. One tablespoon of powdered gelatin is normally the equivalent of a package of unflavored gelatin or four gelatin sheets. While you can use fresh fruit and purée it yourself, you can also use store-bought fruit juice.įor the gelatin, you can use powdered gelatin or gelatin sheets. Making a gelatin dessert is super simple and you only need two ingredients: fruit and gelatin. Plus, you have a whole new world of flavors available to you sans the artificial colors and ingredients! Ingredients

You can reduce the amount of sugar or use whatever sweetener you prefer. The great thing about making a gelatin dessert at home is that you can control the ingredients. They do sell some pre-made gelatin desserts in the refrigerated section of the supermarket, though.Īfter seeing my son eat a bright red gelatin dessert at my mother-in-law’s house, I decided to try to make him a more natural alternative. We don’t have the Jell-O brand and the only available mixes generally only come in one or two colors or flavors. Here in Spain, packaged gelatin mixes aren’t very popular.
