Strawberries and Cream: Jelly Edition

On the whole, I would say I find jelly more fascinating than I find it tasty. It appeals to the scientist in me, as it demonstrates a visible change in physical states. Proteins cool and bond, trapping water and turning a liquid into a semi-solid. Also, it's all wibbly-wobbly.

Eating it is a different matter. I want to like it, I really do, but generally I find the traditional cubes of fruit jelly dull and oversweet, and it's difficult to gauge how much leaf gelatin to use in any given recipe. But I still want to make jelly. The answer? To customise that shit, baby. Now I pimp my pudding by taking fruit jelly cubes and adding stuff.

I make up lime jelly with gin and tonic (highly recommended), I add citrus bitters to orange jelly to give it a grown-up, marmaladey twang. And now I've found something to do with strawberry, the boringest of all the jellies.

Take a packet of strawberry flavoured fruit jelly. Separate the cubes. Although the instructions say to dissolve it in a pint of hot water, I always add just a little water and stick it in the microwave for a few seconds to dissolve. This means you can add the rest of the liquid cold, and the whole thing will set quicker. Clever, non? Anyway. Add about 200ml single cream to the dissolved jelly, then make it up to a pint with cold water. Chop some ripe strawberries, lightly mashing a few as you go, and add them to your jelly moulds. Pour the jelly mix over the top. The strawberries will probably rise to the top, but there's not much you can do about that. Leave in the fridge for a few hours to set, and serve on its own, or with more cream and strawberries.

The jelly tastes creamy, but not fatty or cloying. It's a soft, milky, puddingish base that offsets the tartness of the fresh strawberries. And it's all wibbly-wobbly.