Agar-Agar or simply agar is a vegetarian alternative to gelatin, made from a certain species of algae. Algae – for dessert?! Exactly. Agar is neutral in flavour and is considered to be pretty wholesome as it is 0% fat and 80% fiber. Although I’m not a big fan of these jelly things, I was surprised at how flexible they are and how creative they allow you to be.
Making desserts with agar-agar turns out to be very easy – though a bit tricky at times. For instance, if you try to cheat on the amount of the agar-agar powder you’re using you might end up with a sort of tasty compote instead of jelly… You see, with my third jelly experiment I was having my Scrooge moment, which was a very bad timing. Well, two successful attempts out of three is a pretty good result.
Be careful when selecting your agar-agar powder: 10 g of seemingly same substance can have a very different effect. I bought two different brands and found out one was twice (if not thrice) more powerful than the other. So do read the instructions on the packaging – if it says 10 g per 400 ml, do not try to increase the amount of liquid.
1 year ago – Ryazan and a Bit of Moscow
2 years ago – Orange Coloured Post: Glazed Orange Cake and Persimmons
3 years ago – Sugary Knots from My Babushka’s Recipe
4 years ago – Winter Light and Lemon Cake
5 years ago – Those Were the Days or 90s in Russia Continued
6 years ago – Birthday Mega Torte and Lots of Flowers
Fruit Jelly will make quite a few portions of sunny jelly with chewy fruit bites.
Ingredients
- 800 ml of liquid – or half water half orange juice plus a splash of freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 4 tsp agar-agar powder (read the instructions on the packaging!)
- 100 g sugar
- 2 tangerines, peeled
- 1 small apple, diced
Procedure
Pour your liquid into a large non-reactive pot, put it on medium heat, and add the agar-agar powder teaspoon by teaspoon, whisking well after each addition. Add your sugar and whisk well. Add your fruit.
When the mixture starts boiling, whisk regularly for 5 minutes. You should notice how really thick it gets. Leave the mixture in the pot for a bit and then pour it into desired forms like cocktail glasses, shots or small glass bowls. Leave to set completely and then store in the fridge (just in case).
Remarks
I can imagine you can add spices and virtually anything to the mixture, depending on your idea of a perfect jelly. If you want your fruit chunks really crunchy, put them into the pot closer to the end of cooking – or add them when the mixture starts boiling for a more ‘mushy’ result. The fruit jelly was somewhat nicer in texture than my previous (first) attempt with mixed frozen berries – I added them before the mixture started boiling which increased the amount of liquid and reduced the jellying power of agar-agar. So frozen fruit might be that tricky ingredient which spoils the whole thing, who knows. However, berries add that tang and a nice deep red wine colour to your jelly.
Result
Sweet, soft in texture with chewy fruit chunks. Can also be used as an extra sweetener for your piece of cake (spreads well) or even your oatmeal / muesli. A flexible recipe that you can adapt to anything you have on hand at the moment.
Adding this post to the Apples and the Sweet recipe collection.
G.
