Wednesday 24 August 2011

Damson Jelly



Please stop sniggering long enough to read this very serious post on jelly making! Mr CC and I went to a local antiques fair last month and I was delighted to find a ceramic cone jelly mould. Once I’d checked it over for cracks and found none, I was so excited I almost forgot to haggle. Almost! My vintage mould cost me £12, which seems ridiculously cheap.




Making a jelly with damsons as beautiful as these cannot result in anything less than deliciousness!



Ceramic, like glass, can be a nightmare for turning out jellies therefore I made this jelly much firmer set than I usually would. Also, this mould is tall and tapers towards the top making it far less stable than a lower, rounder jelly. I gave the very tip of the mould a squirt of cake release spray and I think this helped (you don’t taste it).



Turning out a jelly is always a heart in your mouth moment but thankfully, this one came out perfectly. As you can see, it suffered a little with “Brewer’s droop” but that didn’t matter as it caused mirth all round...a little too much mirth perhaps, we reverted to 5 year olds. And yes, I am fully aware of what it looks like!



Damson plums have such a lovely fruity flavour that they are perfectly suited to jams and jellies. Didn’t it come out a pretty colour?




Ingredients

Note – this is the basic quantity for the jelly – you can scale it up as required but allow extra setting time. For my mould I used 1.5x the quantities.
8 leaves gelatine
750g damsons – washed, but no need to stone
225g caster sugar
600ml cold water

To serve: cream

Method

Start by soaking the gelatine leaves in cold water until they are soft.
Place the damsons, sugar and water in a saucepan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved.
Simmer further and mash the damsons with a spoon or – and I found this really productive – the masher you’d use to make mash potato.
The stones will naturally come out of the fruit and be captured in the next stage.
Pass through a sieve and return the liquid to a clean pan.
Heat gently and then remove the pan from the heat.
Squeeze all the water from the gelatine and whisk into the damson juice – it will dissolve very quickly.
Leave the jelly to cool a little.
Pass through a sieve into your chosen mould – sieving again will strain out any bits that passed through first time.
Chill until set – I left overnight.
Turn out of the jelly mould any way that you find works for you! For this ceramic mould we stood it in warm water for a minute then gave it a vigorous shake!
Serve with cream.
Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have made.
Eat.


21 comments:

Soo said...

I'm speechless - no matter what comment I start to write it sounds like innuendo!!

Unknown said...

Laughing and so impressed at the same time!

Brownieville Girl said...

It looks like an elves hat to me ... I can't imagine what you think it looks like!!!!!

Pink Plum Tree said...

I think it looks like the sorting hat from Harry Potter films. Looks good whatever it reminds you of...

Victory Rolls & Mixing Bowls said...

I love vintage finds like these, I do love the comical shape. After all it's better to be an interesting shape than the normal boring ones?

Jules said...

I'm loving all your damson posts at the moment. I haven't sniggered at the jelly, honest!

blackbookkitchendiaries said...

i am with BrownievilleGirl! i thought it looks like an elves hat:) very cute. what a cool vintage find..

Caroline said...

That really made me laugh! Looks like a great dessert though. I obviously have an innocent mind, it just looks like floppy jelly to me....

Kate@whatkatebaked said...

I actually snorted out loud at this photo...brilliant!

Baking Addict said...

Brilliant post. I will refrain from inappropriate commments :) seriously damson jelly sounds great and a great find with the jelly mould!

Katie said...

Hehehe I couldn't help but smile when I saw this. Its such a gorgeous colour too! Love your jelly mould, not seen one quite like this before.

Perdita Tinsel said...

I multi-tasked and read the delicious recipe whilst laughing my head off. Brewer's droop! He he he!

I heart cupcakes said...

I was reading this on the train yesterday on my phone and was getting incredibly strange looks from people as I lol'd at it. I have a filthy mind!

♥Sugar♥Plum♥Fairy♥ said...

Omg , this is super cuteeee!

Gloria Baker said...

Look amazinh and fun, yes like Haprry Potter film! nice! gloria

Grace said...

thank you for making me smile tonight :)

anna and the ring said...

He he he! What a jelly!

Cakelaw said...

Bombas and Parr and Heston Blumenthal, eat your heart out!

Unknown said...

Just saw this on Twitter, I chuckled all the way to the bottom! Part of me think it looks like a worm though! I'm trying to imagine what it'll be like watching it wobble

Anonymous said...

researching how to use a newly acquired ceramic jelly mould and I came across this site: http://www.historicfood.com/Jellies.htm Looking at your mould, it could have been one part of a two part mould?

The Caked Crusader said...

Hi Anonymous

Thanks for your comment - I love Ivan Day's site. I first saw my mould at an event with Ivan, never dreaming I would ever find one at a boot sale/antiques fair and it is a one-piece mould. I covet those 2-piece sets though and would love one!

Happy jelly making!