We all know that vintage jelly recipes leave a lot to be desired; many are more of a miss than a hit (don’t even get me started on some of the recipes I’ve started… eww), but I’ve been asked repeatedly since last Christmas to try out some vintage recipes. So here we are, one year later and ready to make our first jelly mould. I’m going to be honest and say that this recipe was not my first option, I actually had about two or three other recipes I was going to make for my vintage blog but I ended up with a massive Endo flare up so my plans got altered. I figured making a jelly mould would be pretty simple and something that can be done over a few days (as the layers set) so that’s why we are here. I’m really hoping to tackle more vintage recipes next year but 2020 was definitely the year of taking it easy.

Step one was getting my vintage jelly mould. Oh wait, I need an actually mould for the jelly … let’s go to Blue Bird Vintage! Seeing this mould in the store really got me super excited for the project and I’m tempted to try more gelatine based recipes in the future. If you’re in Perth, Blue Bird Vintage is a haven of delightful treasure, oddities and good quality vintage, go check them out if you can!

Miss MonMon’s Vintage Christmas Jelly:
-Vintage jelly mould
-One packet red jelly
-One packet of green jelly
-One packet of clear, unflavoured gelatine
-Condensed Milk

Steps:
It really doesn’t matter what order you make the jelly and it really depends on your mould. As mine had ‘berries’ on the top, I figured they would look great done in red so I started with the red jelly. I poured the jelly packet into a bowl, added 250ml of hot water and stirred until the jelly had dissolved. I then added 125ml of cool water and mixed again. I poured the jelly mixture into my clean mould until all the berries were covered. I then put the mould into the fridge for several hours.
Don’t worry, the left over mixture was not wasted and poured into other moulds to be eaten later as well.

I left the red jelly to set overnight and took it out the next morning to find it perfectly set. Great! Time for the next layer, let’s go white. There is no white jelly (at least not in Australia or my local grocery shop) so I figured I could make it myself from gelatine powder and condensed milk. I added one sachet of gelatine and mixed it with 125ml of hot water stirring until it had fully dissolved. If I had had any milk in the fridge, I would have added that but I didn’t so I used a bit more condensed milk than I originally planned. I didn’t measure the amount of condensed milk I added and sort of just kept squeezing the tube until I got the colour I wanted. Finally I whisked the mixture until it was smooth and tasted nice. I gently poured the white mixture on top of the red jelly already in the mould until it covered a small section of the mould. I them left the mould in the fridge to set for about 5 hours.

Come the evening, I made up a mixture of green jelly following the same method as the red jelly, and I once again poured it on top of the white jelly layer. I left the jelly in the fridge to set overnight.

The next day, when I gathered all my courage, it was time to de-mould the jelly and place it on a serving dish. I was actually so stressed out by this! I grabbed a large bowl and filled it with hot water, I submerged the mould in the hot water for a few seconds before taking it out, quickly drying the outside and placing it upside down on my serving dish.

I knew it wouldn’t just pop out and needed some encouragement so after a few spanks, I used my finger to pull the jelly from the edge of the mould and it made the most satisfying suction noise ever. I did the same to the other side, another deliciously satisfying suction noise and eventually the mould popped out onto my plate (not centred which really annoyed me might I add). There was a bit of jelly ooze which I cleaned up with paper towels but she was out! She was free! Hurray!!

Results:
I’m pretty happy for my first ever jelly attempt. I know I didn’t follow an actual jelly recipe but most of the ones I found used ingredients that I can’t get in Australia such as Cool Whip so I figured I’d just make up method myself. Let me know what you think!
I plan on taking this jelly mould to my in-laws as a small token of festive joy. I’m really keen to try out and test a few more jelly moulds and I’m even trying to psych myself up to try some … weird flavours. Let me know if you have a recipe you want me to try!

Wishing you all a very happy and safe festive season! Please look after yourself and stay healthy.

Note: This is not a sponsored post. All opinions and thoughts expressed are solely my own and not influenced in any way.