I’m not much for flowers or chocolate…well, in certain applications, but, you know, not so much bouquets and heart-shaped boxes. More rose water and cacao nibs.
Recently my mom sent me a couple boxes of some vegetarian gelatin substitute. I’ve been in a very use-up-all-the-little-odds-and-ends mood, so in the spirit of Valentine’s Day I created some jiggly, romantic little hearts.
I still had a couple of 16 oz. bottles of Pom Wonderful juice sitting in the fridge, and considering each box of fake gelatin called for 16 oz. of liquid, how could I NOT make pomegranate Jell-O?
I also had a couple of pomegranates sadly getting older in the fridge so I added them for crunchy awesomeness reasons. And for a little romantic mysteriousness, I included a splash of rose water.
The fakey gelatin stuff (which is from Natural Desserts and is vegan, gluten-free and Kosher…here are the ingredients: Vegetable Gum, Adipic Acid, Tapioca Dextrin, Calcium Phosphate, Potassium Citrate) works great and it’s not brittle like agar agar or gummy like pectin. The only real difference is that it had to be added in powdered form while the juice was boiling hot, whisked in and poured into molds immediately. It sets up CRAZY fast and it was actually kind of hard to get the pomegranate arils into some of the small hearts – I had to kind of throw them in to get them to not just sit on the surface.
The recipe below is how you’d make this with real gelatin.
Jiggly Pomegranate Hearts
- 1/4 oz. Knox gelatin
- 16 oz. (2 cups) Pom Wonderful 100% pomegranate juice, chilled
- 1/8 tsp rose water
- 1/4 cup fresh pomegranate arils
Bloom the gelatin in 4 oz. (1/2 cup) of juice. In the meantime, bring the rest of the juice to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in the rose water, then whisk in the gelatin mixture until completely dissolved. Pour into heart-shaped molds and/or ramekins and add arils. Chill until set, about 3 hours.
Because there is no added sugar in this recipe, it’s actually quite healthy, and the rose water adds a slight floral sweetness that counteracts the tart pomegranate juice. The arils are beautifully suspended like jewels and the whole thing really is pretty romantic.
That’s really adorable! I like anything pomegranate.
These look so wonderful! I love anything jiggly! The jewels look beautiful in them too. Happy Valentine’s day!!
I love these! They are so cute and make jiggly jello look so tasty! What a great Valentine’s treat! Happy Valentine’s Day !
They look lovely! So how was the jelly? It sounds like it set up really fast so was it really solid?
Beyond charming. And the color is gorgeous.
Oh, and also… I like the “Lovintimes.” My family calls it Balentime’s but that’s not nearly as creative. :)