Broken Glass/Shattered Glass Jelly - Green & Gold for Australia Day

        I know this is probably a little late if you wanted to make something for Australia Day on Wednesday but I thought I'd share my idea with you anyway. But I'm sure if you are super organised you would be able to throw it together =)

        It's been years since I've eaten Aeroplane Jelly even though my sister occasionally makes it at home. I've never actually tried making anything with it so when I was contacted by Rachel from Beyond the Square Communication if I wanted to receive a gift pack of green (lime) and gold (lemon) Aeroplane Jelly for Australia day, how could I resist? (That's my can of condensed milk by the way).

        I initially had absolutely no idea what I was going to do with 12 packets of jelly but as soon as I mentioned it to Ryan straight away he said 'Broken Glass'. 'What the heck is broken glass?' I ask him, to which he doesn't really offer much of an explanation. When I mentioned it to one of the other PA's at work she also mentioned this broken glass and even sent me a recipe one of the guys in her department had put together.

        The recipe I was given was a little obscure to follow so I decided to do a bit of googling to see what the concept of Broken Glass (or Shattered Glass) was. I'd actually seen it done before but it just never crossed my mind that this is what broken glass jelly was. I decided that I would make my own version of it.

Recipe: Broken Glass Jelly

Ingredients:

6 x 85gr packets of Aeroplane Jelly (or any other brand of Jelly/Jello), 3 of each colour, 2 of each colour etc.

Boiling Water

Cold Water

2 cans condensed milk

1 cup pineapple juice (I only had about 1/2 cup left in the fridge)

Gelatine powder

Malibu or coconut rum (optional)

        First make your jelly. For every one packet of jelly, mix with half a cup of boiling water and then half a cup of cold water (so if using 2 of the same colour, 1 cup hot and 1 cup cold). Leave in the fridge to set. Tip: use a shallow dish or container as this will allow the jelly to set faster. 

        One jelly is set, cut into cubes or simply scoop into small pieces for a more jagged look. Fill the bottom of a deep dish or pan with the broken jelly, mixing up the colours. I used a roasting pan and lined it with glad wrap, made it easier to take out too. I also only ended up using half of the jelly that I made, you can always eat the rest of it as it is.

        Put the condensed milk and pineapple juice into a jug and add about 1 cup of water (or a little less, should make 5 cups of liquid in total). Dissolve 2 1/2 tablespoons of gelatine in 1 cup of hot water then stir into the condensed milk mixture. Tip: I used the McKenzie's brand of gelatine and the instructions said 1 tablespoon to set 400ml of liquid, 2 1/2 tablespoons for 750ml was my approximation.

        Pour the condensed milk mixture over the broken jelly and refridgerate until set. Probably best left overnight depending on how deep your dish is, the shallower the quicker it will set.

        Once set, invert the jelly onto a tray. You can see that all the jelly has floated to the surface so you can invert it again for presentation.

        Cut into slices and serve. The broken jelly pieces look like bits of broken glass hence it's name. I found that my jelly as a whole was still quite wobbly, but I didn't quite give it that much time to set. It set a little bit more when I put it back in the fridge but I did imagine that it would be much firmer jelly. I actually quite like the texture that I ended up with though.

        I just used a spoon to break it up into pieces and served it in a martini glass. Splash on some Malibu over top and it's the perfect adult's treat! Creamy sweet condensed milk jelly with a hint of pineapple, intercepted by tangy bits of lime and lemon jelly, and then the coconut rum just ties it all together. It was so good, Ryan asked for a second helping =D

        A lovely tropical summery dessert, perfect to celebrate Australia Day, or just being Australian =).

        Drizzle some condensed milk over the leftover jelly and you have another dessert on hand - kid friendly too.

        Or serve the jelly with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. This is something Mum taught me growing up, jelly and vanilla ice cream, oh how I've missed you! Perfect for the kids and adults alike this summer.

Happy Australia Day!

       

        Despite all the negative things about this country, I really do call Australia home. I can't quite imagine myself living anywhere else. This is dedicated to all those who have suffered from the floods (both in Queensland and around the country) and all those people who have just opened their hearts and homes to strangers to help them out.

        It is so comforting hearing about all the great help my family is getting up there in Queensland, complete strangers, armed forces, just showing up to help those in need with no reservations or discriminations. Apparantly Channel Seven showed up to interview them and lend a helping hand (and I missed watching it because our family miscommunicated and told us it was Channel 9). It's tough for our family at the moment but they are getting through okay, posessions will eventually be replaced, some things may never get replaced, the main thing is that they're all okay and safe.

        If you havn't already done so please donate to the QLD disaster relief appeal to help out a fellow Australian, it's just heart breaking seeing people's homes completely torn apart. It's going to take a long long time for them to recover and get their lives back to some sort of normality. Take a moment to appreciate all that you are blessed with this Australia Day, and be thankful that you havn't lost your home and think about those that have.