Jubilee Jelly

Tom and I went to a jubilee party at a friends yesterday and as our contribution we took some finger sandwiches and this Jubilee Jelly.

I think I went a bit overboard with the cream topping, but hey at least it looked patriotic. The base is Elderflower jelly with strawberries, the middle is vanilla cream and then it's all topped with grated white chocolate, mini meringues, Strawberries and Blueberries and of course union jack cocktail sticks. 

It was very yummy and I thought I would share the recipe with you:

Jubilee Jelly

To make the Elderflower jelly with Strawberries (makes 2 litres of jelly)

1 bottle of 500ml Elderflower cordial

2 punnets of Strawberries

24 leaves of Costa gelatine

Mix the elderflower with water to make 2 litres of liquid. Chilled foods, like jelly, lose some of their flavour so use double the quantity of cordial you would normally if you were making a drink. (I used the whole bottle of cordial as it was quite a weak tasting cordial)

Cut the leaf gelatine into small pieces and place in a heat-proof bowl with a dash of the Elderflower liquid.

Leave it for 10 minutes, then rest the bowl on a pan of simmering water and melt the gelatine. Mix thoroughly with the remaining juice and pour into your mould and put in fridge.

Hull and wash the fruit and set it aside. The jelly needs to be almost set, which will take about two hours, before you push the strawberries into it. Do it too soon and they'll float. You're aiming for a crystal clear gel with the strawberries evenly distributed through it, looking as though they're just hanging there.

To make the Vanilla Cream:

600 ml double cream

a teaspoon of vanilla extract

75g Icing Sugar

Place the cream, vanilla and sugar into a bowl and whip until stiff enough to spread (similar consistency to cream cheese).

Spread this over the top of the jelly once set, grate a fine layer of white chocolate over the top, and decorate with meringues and fruit.

Enjoy!

I am currently knee deep in a house nightmare so unfortunately I've been distracted from my blogging duties. 

Here is just a quick note about these lovely printable recipe cards from the people at Scissors Paper Wok via the How About Orange Blog. Print your own cards for soup, salad, sauce, baking, roast, drink, dessert, bread, breakfast, main dish and side dish, download them here

Image from Scissors Paper Wok

Homemade Elderflower Cordial

This time last year I was making homemade Elderflower Cordial. We are currently renting and at the end of our courtyard garden is a wonderfully huge Elderflower tree that hangs over from next door. I'd just like to point out that I had already been living there for 2 years when my mum pointed out it was an Elderflower tree, I'm not much of a gardening enthusiast. So I decided to get cracking and make a batch of wonderful cordial and bottle it to give to friends and family. Needless to say they loved it!

(Image from BBC Good Food)

It's that time of year again, but you'll have to be quick. It's been so unusually warm that the flowers have come out early and don't last long. The BBC Good Food website has a great recipe. Although when I made it last year it was very sweet so for an alternative I might give the one on the jamjarshop a try, it has a lot less sugar in it:

You'll need:-

900g/2lbs granulated sugar
50g/2oz citric acid
2 lemons, sliced
and about 25 large elderflower heads

Put the sugar into a large mixing bowl and pour over 3 litres boiling water. Stir to dissolve the sugar
and then leave to cool.ASdd the citric acid which acts a a preservative, along with the lemons. Shake the flower
heads gently to get rid of any bugs and rinse carefully. Add to the contents of the bowl, stirring to combine.
Cover with a clean tea towel and leave for 24 hours to infuse. Stir from time to time. 

Pour through a muslin-lined sieve into a jug then decant into sterilised glass bottles and seal. 

Cordial can be diluted to taste with iced sparkling mineral water or soda water.

Please note that it is better to keep the cordial in the fridge, even before opening, and for no longer than 6 months


If you are wondering where to get Citric acid, I searched high and low and eventually found it in Wilkinson's, so I'm hoping they still sell it. Don't be surprised if they ask you what you are using it for, apart from being used in making home brew, a lot of places have had to stop selling it as it's apparently used by drug addicts.

I made half the amount suggested on the GoodFood recipe and had loads to give away. I bought loads of Swing Top Glass bottles from my local kitchen shop. You can also get them online at the jamjarshop.

(Image from jamjarshop)

Truffles

Last year I found a cheap but wonderful way of giving home-made Christmas gifts. I had been given Willies Chocolate Factory Cookbook and saw a very simple truffle recipe made with his own brand of Cacao.

Everyone loved them, so this year I have decided to make them again but with a few interesting additions to the recipe.

I found another interesting recipe on the BBC Good Food website. To the standard truffle recipe they added Dulce de Leche Caramel Toffee and dark chocolate melted together, then frozen, to create a chewy caramel to put in the centre of the truffles. I couldn't find the specific caramel they recommended so I used a can of Carnation Caramel, available at most supermarkets, with dark chocolate.

I've also added different coatings to the original recipe. The truffles with the Caramel centre will just be dusted with cocoa powder, but I have also coated the remaining truffles in:

•Melted dark chocolate and dessicated Coconut.
•Melted dark Chocolate.
•Melted Milk Chocolate.
•Melted Milk Chocolate and crushed toasted Hazelnuts.

Other suggestions I've seen are rolling them in crushed Pistachios. or adding crystallised ginger or Chilli to the truffle mix.

I've finished most of them but just have to complete the one's with the caramel centres tonight, then I will post some pictures.

The truffles can be frozen for up to a month, so you can just take them out whenever you need them and package them up in a sweet bag with a lovely festive ribbon.