Dinner Party Series: Prosecco Jelly Recipe

This recipe is one of the ‘dinner party series’ recipes from Recipes Reimagined. They’re pro level recipes which are themed to show your guests something they will have never seen (or eaten) before. This prosecco jelly recipe is part of an ‘end of the world’ series and based on the idea that in around 6.5 billion years (according to NASA) our sun will turn into a red dwarf and expand to engulf our solar system, including earth… Can a jelly show that? You bet it can…

This is the dessert to end all desserts; it took me a year of designing and refining to make this recipe. The prosecco jelly has a sparkling liquid passion fruit and Pimms centre which spills out over the plate when you cut through the jelly with your spoon. The plate’s then dressed up to look like our solar system, and as the sun spills out it engulfs the world… morbid maybe, but is definitely spectacular and something your guests will have never seen before!

Prep Time: 1hr (+24hr cooling)

Cook Time: Nil

Difficulty: Pro

Serves: Makes 6

Ingredients

For the Jelly

  • 1.5L x prosecco (2 bottles)

  • 400ml elderflower cordial

  • 18-20 sheets gelatine (beef)

  • 2-3 tsp ground nut (or other flavourless) oil

For Passion Fruit Coulis

  • 4 x passion fruits (or passion fruit coulis)

  • 2 x mangos

  • 50ml Pimms (or other sweet liquor)

  • (Optional) edible gold dust / extra fine gold glitter

To Serve (Optional)

  • 1 x pack Oreos (white centres removed)

  • Popping candy

  • Earth chocolates (see recipe)

Special Kit

  • Small low glasses (c.300ml) sufficient size to mould the jellies - I used the 310ml Gio range glasses from LSA (about £2.65 per glass)

  • Spherical moulds (c. £10 on Amazon) c. 1 inch (2.5cm) diameter

Method

Prosecco Jelly Step One - Freeze the Coulis Centre

Slice the mango, scoop the passion fruit centre, and add them plus the pimms to a blender.

Blend, adding water / pimms, to reach a smoothie like consistency.

finely sieve to remove the passion fruit seed remanence.

Pour the coulis into the silicone moulds, and freeze for 6-12 hours to form ice balls. Try and leave a few teaspoons of the coulis for serving, it can stay covered in the fridge.

In the mean time, get the prosecco in the fridge for later, it needs to be very cold.

 

Prosecco Jelly Step Two - (Optional) Glittery Balls

If you have bought edible gold glitter / dust, follow this step, if not skip to the next one. Rolling the ball in gold dust is purely for aesthetics, the gold dust bleeds slightly into the jelly, giving it a look like the rays of the sun.

For this step, once the coulis balls have frozen, take them out of the silicone mould, slightly warming them in your hand so they're sticky, roll them in the gold dust. Put them individually in cling film and place back in the freezer.

 

Prosecco Jelly STEP Three - Morning Jelly Making

This is best done before noon as you'll need to watch it on and off for up to 6 hours afterwards.

First, take the prosecco out of the fridge and place into the freezer for 20-30 mins. it needs to be as cold as possible without freezing it (as to get the fizz into the jelly, it needs to set before all the carbon dioxide bubbles from the prosecco can evaporate, it does that quicker at lower temperatures).

Get the glasses into a tray which can go in the fridge (it'll let you transfer them quickly), and brush the inside of the glasses with the ground nut oil. put them in the fridge to cool.

Soak the 18-20 sheets of gelatine in cold water for a minute or two (you may need a few bowls of water at the same time as they'll try and stick, which you want to avoid). It's a lot of gelatine, but needed to set alcohol and hold the liquid core.

In a pan, heat the elderflower cordial and gelatine, in-line with gelatine instructions (they vary from brand to brand).

Once done, pour the elderflower / gelatine mix into a large jug / bowl (with a pouring spout) and pour in the very cold prosecco, it'll bubble, that's okay. mix gently, and pour into the glasses (leaving enough room to fit the ball in), then return to the fridge to start the setting process. 

 

 

Prosecco Jelly STEP Four - A waiting game

This is where practicing it before the dinner party comes in handy. Dependent upon; the glasses used, alcohol percentage of the prosecco, temperature of the fridge, quality of the gelatine, and the heating temperature of the elderflower cordial when mixing in the gelatine, the timing to add the frozen balls of coulis to the jelly will vary.

I've done this a few times, and it's taken from 1 to 6 hours for the jelly to be; firstly, set enough to hold the coulis ball without melting into the jelly, and secondly, not so set that you can't get the ball into the middle of the jelly without leaving a mark.

The trick is checking it every 30 mins or so, by sticking your (hopefully washed) finger into the middle of the jelly. What you're looking for is it feeling quite firm (that you can imagine the ball holding it's shape in there), but just before your finger start to leave a permanent mark in the jelly when removed. It's one of those things you'll just know when, as it get closer, test every 5-10 minutes (the window for it being perfect is about 20 minutes, and you can't miss it)

Once you're there, get the jellies and coulis balls out, push the coulis ball into the middle of the jelly (test with one to start, you should have a bit of resistance from the jelly, if not, leave the jellies to set for longer). Once all balls are in, put back in the fridge to fully set, about another 6-12 hours. if they leave a small mark in the jelly, that's okay it'll go whilst setting.

 

Prosecco Jelly STEP Five - Bring it All Together

In advance of serving, separate the oreos, discarding the white centres and keeping the biscuits. It might be worth scraping the biscuits of the centre is you want them really dark. Put them biscuits in a blender and blitz into a crumb (or in a cloth and crush using a rolling pin).

coat the plates with the biscuit crumb, scatter over popping candy, drizzle around a bit of the left over coulis.

Take the jellies out of the fridge, and gently heating them in your hands, try to turn them out into the middle of the plate. If they don't turn out straight away, fill the sink with warm water, and bath the glass, one at a time, in there for 5-10 seconds, then try again - repeat until they turn out.

As above, with the practicing in advance, you may find that they split. This is likely due to one of two reasons:

  • Quality of the gelatine - if so, increase the quantity of gelatine by 25% for the dinner party; or

  • Size/shape of the glass - if so, either try a smaller spherical mould, or using warm water, shrink the coulis balls.

It's worth the effort getting this one right. Hope you enjoy...