Hello, Jell-O!: 50+ Inventive Recipes for Gelatin Treats and Jiggly Sweets

205 Pages·2012·3.3 MB·English

by  Victoria Belanger

Copyright © 2012 by Victoria Belanger
Photographs copyright © 2012 by Angie Cao All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random
House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.tenspeed.com
Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Press colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Some of the recipes in this work were originally published on Victoria Belanger’s website, jellomoldmistress.com.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Belanger, Victoria.
Hello, jell-o! : 50+ inventive recipes for gelatin treats and jiggly sweets / Victoria Belanger.
p. cm.
Includes index.
Summary: “The Jello Mold Mistress shares the secrets to creating inspired, modern gelatin mold desserts, with fresh
fruits and flavors, new twists on trendy treats, and artistic presentations”—Provided by publisher.
1. Cooking (Gelatin) 2. Cooking (Puddings) 3. Desserts. I. Title. II. Title: Hello, jello.
TX814.5.G4B45 2012
641.86′4—dc23
2011034560
eISBN: 978-1-60774112-1
Food styling by Kim Kissling
Prop styling by Emma Star Jensen
v3.1
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1
TIPS, TRICKS, TOOLS, AND TECHNIQUES
CHAPTER 2
SUSPENDED FRUIT AND MORE!
pomegranate berry salad
cheery cherry salad
million dollar gelatin
carrot cake
nut ’n’ honey
orange spice
CHAPTER 3
CREAMY AND DREAMY
green milk tea
lemon poppy seed
key lime pie
creamsicle
chocolate raspberry mousse cups
apricot cream
crème brûlée
chai tea panna cotta
grasshopper pie
CHAPTER 4
BOOZY MOLDS
mimosa
white sangria
sparkling champagne and strawberries
mojito
piña colada
pear and lychee martini
raspberry cosmo
coffee kahlúa
mudslide
CHAPTER 5
FRUIT-AND-CREAM LAYERED MOLDS
peaches and cream
blueberry yogurt
cherry cream
orange chocolate
minty watermelon ice cream
classic rainbow mold
banana cream pie
CHAPTER 6
SEASONAL HOLIDAY MOLDS
berry fourth of july
brains!!!
pumpkin pie
eggnog rum
hot chile chocolate
gingerbread men
spiced wassail
CHAPTER 7
AMERICANA AND OTHER FAVORITES
petite watermelons
tiramisu
samoa
root beer float squares
new york cheesecake
chocolate peanut butter cups
peanut butter and jelly
strawberry nutella
marshmallow butterscotch
CHAPTER 8
VEGAN DELIGHTS
coconut raspberry agar
watermelon basil agar
rhubarb rosemary agar
maple soy agar
vanilla clementine panna cotta
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MEASUREMENT CONVERSION CHARTS
INDEX
Thank you to all the great folks who worked on the book, including the
fantastically funny and witty comedic writer Raquel D’Apice, recipe
tester Bora Chang, photographer Angie Cao and her assistant Calvin Ma
and intern Jenn Bakos, food stylist Kim Kissling and her assistants Jason
Wheeler and Jody Kicherer, prop stylist Emma Star Jensen, designer
Betsy Stromberg, agent Pilar Queen at McCormick & Williams, and
editor Lisa Westmoreland at Ten Speed Press.
And special thanks to my mother, father, and all my friends and
family who encouraged my gelatinous creativity, scoured the thrift
stores of America for vintage molds, showered me with recipe
suggestions, and tirelessly taste-tested all my molded creations.
Without all of you, this book would not have been possible.
Thank you!
JELL-O HAS A BAD RAP. Once a playful staple at the pool parties of
our childhoods, it has since been consigned to the categories of “things
you feed to people in hospitals,” “items in Chinese buffets,” and “ways
we didn’t want to remember Bill Cosby.” Some of us harbor vague
memories of Jell-O recipes from the 1950s—instructions calling for
fruity gelatin and mincemeat; recipes that layer lemon-flavored gelatin
with olives, green peppers, carrots, and canned pineapple juice. But
these are memories we try very hard to suppress. As adults, we look at
Jell-O in a practical way: “It is a good food,” we say to ourselves, “for
people aged seven and under or ninety-one and above. It’s perfect for
people with nominally functional teeth who are in bed before eight
thirty in the evening.”
It’s not that we don’t have wonderful memories of Jell-O, because we
do. But we are adults now, right? We sit back and eat the things people
consider adult desserts, like gelato, lavender macaroons, and biscotti
(whose crumbs invariably wind up in my hair, no matter how carefully I
attempt to eat them). We make reservations at the kinds of restaurants
where even the word Jell-O is not allowed—places where the wines are
described as “warm and floral, with a hint of earth” and where it’s not
okay to just pour ketchup on everything. We are adults who buy the
Wednesday print edition of the New York Times in order to read the
Dining section and who scroll through foodie blogs, trying to perfect our
homemade butternut squash ravioli and cucumber-mint martinis. Asking
us if we still eat Jell-O is like asking us what percentage of our week is
spent jumping on trampolines. We are too old for that, aren’t we? We let
go of Jell-O the same time we abandoned our Sandylion sticker
collections and our Hypercolor T-shirts. Adults don’t eat Jell-O, or if they
do, they don’t take it seriously. They are busy paying taxes, owning
smartphones, and occasionally thinking about things like “good
cholesterol versus bad cholesterol,” “zero percent APR financing,” and