Rainbow Jello- Brooke

Rainbow Jello- Brooke

Yay for layers! This challenge provided the perfect opportunity to create Rainbow Jello, something I've seen done but never tried. It seemed like there must be a trick to it... Could it be as simple as layering Jello? I almost called a former co-worker who brought it to a party years ago, but then decided that would be weird. Found this online instead:

Do Better Blog

http://dobetter.wordpress.com/2008/03/18/rainbow-jello/

Wow. Cool jello layers and beautiful photos. Intimidating.

At this point, I should probably mention that Lee went out of town with our nice digital camera, and I completely forgot to factor that in until everything was set to start gellin'. It's all camera-phone pics this time!

You'll need:

8 cups of boiling water

4 (3 oz.) boxes of Jello gelatin: blue, yellow, red, purple

1 (1.75 oz.) box of fruit pectin

1 (minimum 10-cup) dish or container

Liquid measuring cup

12 large ice cubes

Also helpful (but not pictured) are:

Pitcher

4 little bowls

Spoon (NOT a whisk- more on that later)

I decided to make the order of colors the same as the cool "Do Better" chick did, but went beyond primary colors by adding purple. Therefore red and yellow would make orange, yellow and blue would make green, and blue and purple would make... a cool indigo color or something?

Also modified her recipe by using fruit pectin instead of Knox gelatin. Knox has a weird taste to me, so I did a little research into the structure of pectin/gelatins (Apparently it's all just about "liberating short-chain fatty acids"?) and decided it would probably work.

So start by heating 2 cups of water to boiling. While waiting for it to boil, pour each color of Jello separately into something, and then divide the pectin into four parts and add one part to each Jello color.

When the water boils, pour it into the liquid measuring cup. Ignore the 2-cups-of-water package directions and use only 1 2/3 cup water (to be clear, this is per package of Jello), because it will end up thicker and hold together better. Pour the boiling water into the pitcher so you'll have more room to stir and add ice. Add the purple Jello powder/pectin mix. Stir gently until dissolved...

BUT DON'T DO WHAT I DID and forget that you should never, ever stir Jello with a whisk! It adds too many bubbles, which will gel up and destroy the clarity of your masterpiece. After I made this mistake, I had to try poking the bubbles with a toothpick (didn't work) and finally scooped them all out with a spoon (tedious, but it worked).

Add 3 large ice cubes, which will help it gel faster, and continue stirring gently until melted. Refrigerate unti set, about 2 hours per layer plus minimum 4 hours at the end to set firmly. Repeat for the blue, yellow and red colors, pouring each verrrry gently on top of the previous layer so you don't break the surface.

So total prep time is like 10 hours, but only about 20 minutes of that is actual working time. Rainbow Jello tests your spectrum of patience.

When all the gellin' is done, take a moment to think... because it is at this point you will realize it's going to be a bit of a bitch to get the cubes out without ruining them. You'll wonder things like, "Should I have greased the container?" and "Would it have worked to line it with Saran Wrap?" In the end, you'll decide to just cut with a very sharp knife and lift with a spatula.

Results:

Rainbow Jello looks cool, but is harder to cut and arrange attractively than I'd imagined. The switch from Knox to pectin may have been a negative-- Knox would have created the "Jello Jigglers" effect. The colors change as you move around a cube of Rainbow Jello. Sometimes the colors look like distinct layers, and then you move to the side and they seem to blend.

Rainbow Jello tastes... well, it's thicker and more concentrated than ordinary Jello, so the taste is somewhat cloying. Plus, there's the whole mixture of flavors thing: grape, berry blue (um, they didn't say "blueberry" for a reason, 'cause it's not), lemon, strawberry.

It's like a party in your mouth, and everyone brought a different kind of Schnapps.

It'd make great Jello shots...

Rainbow Jello- Brooke

Rainbow Jello- Brooke

Yay for layers! This challenge provided the perfect opportunity to create Rainbow Jello, something I've seen done but never tried. It seemed like there must be a trick to it... Could it be as simple as layering Jello? I almost called a former co-worker who brought it to a party years ago, but then decided that would be weird. Found this online instead:

Do Better Blog

http://dobetter.wordpress.com/2008/03/18/rainbow-jello/

Wow. Cool jello layers and beautiful photos. Intimidating.

At this point, I should probably mention that Lee went out of town with our nice digital camera, and I completely forgot to factor that in until everything was set to start gellin'. It's all camera-phone pics this time!

You'll need:

8 cups of boiling water

4 (3 oz.) boxes of Jello gelatin: blue, yellow, red, purple

1 (1.75 oz.) box of fruit pectin

1 (minimum 10-cup) dish or container

Liquid measuring cup

12 large ice cubes

Also helpful (but not pictured) are:

Pitcher

4 little bowls

Spoon (NOT a whisk- more on that later)

I decided to make the order of colors the same as the cool "Do Better" chick did, but went beyond primary colors by adding purple. Therefore red and yellow would make orange, yellow and blue would make green, and blue and purple would make... a cool indigo color or something?

Also modified her recipe by using fruit pectin instead of Knox gelatin. Knox has a weird taste to me, so I did a little research into the structure of pectin/gelatins (Apparently it's all just about "liberating short-chain fatty acids"?) and decided it would probably work.

So start by heating 2 cups of water to boiling. While waiting for it to boil, pour each color of Jello separately into something, and then divide the pectin into four parts and add one part to each Jello color.

When the water boils, pour it into the liquid measuring cup. Ignore the 2-cups-of-water package directions and use only 1 2/3 cup water (to be clear, this is per package of Jello), because it will end up thicker and hold together better. Pour the boiling water into the pitcher so you'll have more room to stir and add ice. Add the purple Jello powder/pectin mix. Stir gently until dissolved...

BUT DON'T DO WHAT I DID and forget that you should never, ever stir Jello with a whisk! It adds too many bubbles, which will gel up and destroy the clarity of your masterpiece. After I made this mistake, I had to try poking the bubbles with a toothpick (didn't work) and finally scooped them all out with a spoon (tedious, but it worked).

Add 3 large ice cubes, which will help it gel faster, and continue stirring gently until melted. Refrigerate unti set, about 2 hours per layer plus minimum 4 hours at the end to set firmly. Repeat for the blue, yellow and red colors, pouring each verrrry gently on top of the previous layer so you don't break the surface.

So total prep time is like 10 hours, but only about 20 minutes of that is actual working time. Rainbow Jello tests your spectrum of patience.

When all the gellin' is done, take a moment to think... because it is at this point you will realize it's going to be a bit of a bitch to get the cubes out without ruining them. You'll wonder things like, "Should I have greased the container?" and "Would it have worked to line it with Saran Wrap?" In the end, you'll decide to just cut with a very sharp knife and lift with a spatula.

Results:

Rainbow Jello looks cool, but is harder to cut and arrange attractively than I'd imagined. The switch from Knox to pectin may have been a negative-- Knox would have created the "Jello Jigglers" effect. The colors change as you move around a cube of Rainbow Jello. Sometimes the colors look like distinct layers, and then you move to the side and they seem to blend.

Rainbow Jello tastes... well, it's thicker and more concentrated than ordinary Jello, so the taste is somewhat cloying. Plus, there's the whole mixture of flavors thing: grape, berry blue (um, they didn't say "blueberry" for a reason, 'cause it's not), lemon, strawberry.

It's like a party in your mouth, and everyone brought a different kind of Schnapps.

It'd make great Jello shots...

Good Morning, Glorious Layers of Awesome-- Nikki and Hannah (A Co-Post)

This month, I had the good fortune of conceptualizing and creating the challenge with the lovely Hannah, who graced the midwest with her presence for a short spell. We had planned to come up with a three-course layer meal, but when she arrived around 6pm and the natives were getting restless, we began to brainstorm with breakfast in mind. A strata? Maybe. A skillet of some sort? Meh. How 'bout a tower of banana pancakes layered with mascarpone cheese and Nutella, and sprinkled with strawberries? DING, DING, DING! A winner was declared! We headed off to the grocery to assemble the supplies, and after a good night's rest, we started the cooking. (Poor Jay-- it was his first day back at school, so he was not part of the breakfast action. We love him, but not enough to cook this at 5am.)
Our ingredients:


The recipe for the banana pancakes is:

• 1 cup Flour
• 1-½ Tablespoon Sugar
• 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1 pinch(es) Salt
• 1 whole Egg
• 2 Overripe, Mashed Bananas
• 1 cup Milk
• 2 Tablespoons Oil
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla

We started by mashing some bananas-- Hannah mashed them 'til they were nearly smooth, which helped with the consistency of the pancakes. Here's Hannah hard at work.



Then, we mixed the banana with the remaining wet ingredients. Hannah insisted on taking one of me cracking an egg. Sigh.

(Please note my displaced helper to the right... she was a little irritated that Hannah got to do the usual fun jobs. Only her deep and abiding love for Hannah kept her from going into full pout mode.)
Once we mixed the wet ingredients, we added the dry stuff, and stirred. Now, it's time to pour the mixture onto the hot skillet.


The thinness of the batter mixed with the little bit of texture provided by the banana made for some crazy-shaped pancakes. Ah, well. They're artsy.
As I poured pancake after pancake, Hannah set to work slicing strawberries. They were super ripe, and smelled heavenly.


At this point, the smallest helper was restless, so we let her use the camera for awhile... here's her picture of Hannah chopping strawberries:




Ansel Adams, eat your heart out.

After Hannah completed the strawberry-cutting, she moved on to the mascarpone cheese-flavoring. We decided it was good on it's own, but EVEN BETTER with a little vanilla and some honey. So Hannah adjusted it accordingly:

Hannah really likes mascarpone cheese. Like, a lot.

After everything was cooked, and mixed, and ready to go, we started an assembly line of sorts:



First, we applied a good coating of cheese.



Next, we applied another pancake and then a nice layer of Nutella:



Then, we topped it off with a third pancake, and sprinkled it all over with strawberries.



And now-- the verdict:



Nan thought they were excellent, and pronounced her first taste of Nutella as "tasty good".

Hannah did a bit more doctoring-- apparently the results were not QUITE decadent enough--
and then declared it excellent.


And I found our dish to be delightful. The banana pancakes balanced the nutella nicely, and the fresh strawberries and mascarpone were delicious, too.



And don't feel tooo bad for Jay-- we saved him some leftovers, and he created his own layers of awesome after Nan went to bed. His verdict?


I'd say it was a success. We shall replicate it again someday. And it was super fun working with Hannah.

Good Morning, Glorious Layers of Awesome-- Nikki and Hannah (A Co-Post)

This month, I had the good fortune of conceptualizing and creating the challenge with the lovely Hannah, who graced the midwest with her presence for a short spell. We had planned to come up with a three-course layer meal, but when she arrived around 6pm and the natives were getting restless, we began to brainstorm with breakfast in mind. A strata? Maybe. A skillet of some sort? Meh. How 'bout a tower of banana pancakes layered with mascarpone cheese and Nutella, and sprinkled with strawberries? DING, DING, DING! A winner was declared! We headed off to the grocery to assemble the supplies, and after a good night's rest, we started the cooking. (Poor Jay-- it was his first day back at school, so he was not part of the breakfast action. We love him, but not enough to cook this at 5am.)
Our ingredients:


The recipe for the banana pancakes is:

• 1 cup Flour
• 1-½ Tablespoon Sugar
• 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1 pinch(es) Salt
• 1 whole Egg
• 2 Overripe, Mashed Bananas
• 1 cup Milk
• 2 Tablespoons Oil
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla

We started by mashing some bananas-- Hannah mashed them 'til they were nearly smooth, which helped with the consistency of the pancakes. Here's Hannah hard at work.



Then, we mixed the banana with the remaining wet ingredients. Hannah insisted on taking one of me cracking an egg. Sigh.

(Please note my displaced helper to the right... she was a little irritated that Hannah got to do the usual fun jobs. Only her deep and abiding love for Hannah kept her from going into full pout mode.)
Once we mixed the wet ingredients, we added the dry stuff, and stirred. Now, it's time to pour the mixture onto the hot skillet.


The thinness of the batter mixed with the little bit of texture provided by the banana made for some crazy-shaped pancakes. Ah, well. They're artsy.
As I poured pancake after pancake, Hannah set to work slicing strawberries. They were super ripe, and smelled heavenly.


At this point, the smallest helper was restless, so we let her use the camera for awhile... here's her picture of Hannah chopping strawberries:




Ansel Adams, eat your heart out.

After Hannah completed the strawberry-cutting, she moved on to the mascarpone cheese-flavoring. We decided it was good on it's own, but EVEN BETTER with a little vanilla and some honey. So Hannah adjusted it accordingly:

Hannah really likes mascarpone cheese. Like, a lot.

After everything was cooked, and mixed, and ready to go, we started an assembly line of sorts:



First, we applied a good coating of cheese.



Next, we applied another pancake and then a nice layer of Nutella:



Then, we topped it off with a third pancake, and sprinkled it all over with strawberries.



And now-- the verdict:



Nan thought they were excellent, and pronounced her first taste of Nutella as "tasty good".

Hannah did a bit more doctoring-- apparently the results were not QUITE decadent enough--
and then declared it excellent.


And I found our dish to be delightful. The banana pancakes balanced the nutella nicely, and the fresh strawberries and mascarpone were delicious, too.



And don't feel tooo bad for Jay-- we saved him some leftovers, and he created his own layers of awesome after Nan went to bed. His verdict?


I'd say it was a success. We shall replicate it again someday. And it was super fun working with Hannah.