Substitute strawberries in this recipe with other fresh or frozen fruits, fruit combinations, or even fruit juice in place of the sugar and water. But pineapple, kiwi, fresh figs, ginger, papaya and guava should not be used because they break down gelatin and prevent it from setting.
Ready Time: 4 hours, 35 minutes (includes 4 hours chilling time)
Ingredients
1 lb strawberries, washed and hulled
½ cup sugar
2 ¼ cups filtered water
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp powdered gelatin
¼ cup cold filtered water
Method
Place washed and hulled strawberries in a medium pot with 2 ¼ cups of filtered water.
Cook over medium-low heat approximately 20 minutes to extract all the flavour and colour from the strawberries.
The berries should be soft, and pale in colour (pinkish white), but still intact when ready.
Strain the mixture, and pour back into the pot.
Add and sugar and lemon juice, and cook on low heat, just to dissolve the sugar, about 1 minute.
Take the pot off the heat and set aside to cool slightly. Discard strawberries.
Pour ¼ cup of cold water into a small bowl, sprinkle gelatin over the water, and let sit for 5 to 10 minutes. The gelatin should suck up the water and soften up
Pour a few tablespoons of the slightly cooled strawberry liquid into the bowl with the gelatin, and stir until all the gelatin has dissolved, approximately 1 minute.
Once the gelatin has dissolved, add the remaining liquid to the gelatin mixture.
Strain this jelly mixture into a very lightly greased square cake tin or Tupperware and transfer to the refrigerator to set for at least 4 hours.
Once the jelly has set, using your fingers, gently loosen the jelly from the sides of the container, and turn it out onto a tray lined with parchment.
Cut out a variety of shapes of jelly with cookie cutters.