IMBB #15 Has My Blog Jelled?

Elise over at Simply Recipes is hosting this month's Is my Blog Burning? She has chosen quite a formidable theme: Anything jelled, "through the use of gelatin, Jello, agar or other jelling agents". I say formidable because as they say "Has it jelled yet?" It's not as easy as that little box of Jello would have you belive!

I was very excited to participate in the challenge. Months ago I read a piece over at Not Martha about the inspiring Pastry Chef Blair Fukumura. She linked to his photo album and I was amazed at his creativity. I especially loved his little "Champagne Thimble with Floating Raspberry" creation. He had inspired me to try this sometime.

Well, thanks to Elise - here's my chance! I began around noon, with formulating my own gelatin. I began with Knox brand gelatin added my own flavoring and gave it a try. In the middle of this creation, my husband gets the afternoon off, & wants to go to Palm Springs. He wants me to go too. Well needless to say, I had to hurry my creation, knowing that Saturday was filled with a luau and no time for cooking or creating. My own creation gelatin was sideline in exchange for a simple Jello recipe and some very flavorful raspberries! A few things I learned along the way:

1. For the best results, make your own gelatin - sheets always work better than Knox.
2. Set aside the proper time frame to get something like this done.
3. If you choose to go the way of ease, reduce the amount of liquid in the gelatin. You'll have a better result, due to the lack of water. It will set-up and hold it's shape longer than 15 minutes.
4. I would rather have had the raspberry more centered in the gel. Next time!



So while it looks pretty, I will attempt this later in the week again, without distractions! Thank you Elsie for getting me to give this a try. It worked well enough in a quick attempt that when I set aside proper time frames, I'll really be pleased with the result.