Agar-agar jelly dessert
Wholesome, light, pretty, appetizing, and delicious! This agar-agar jelly dessert is great for anyone who doesn't eat animal gelatin, since agar is made from seaweed. It's very easy to make, and any berries will do — even frozen ones.
Cooking method
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Step 1:
How do you make an agar-agar jelly dessert? Gather your ingredients. My strawberries are frozen — no need to thaw them first. If you're using fresh berries, sort, wash, and dry them. Adjust the amount of sugar to your taste.
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Step 2:
Put the strawberries in a saucepan and add 100 ml of water and the sugar. In a separate container, cover the agar-agar with 250 ml of water and set it aside for now.
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Step 3:
Set the saucepan of strawberries over medium heat, bring it to a boil, and cook for one minute.
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Step 4:
Then strain the liquid through a sieve, catching the berries — you can use them or not, your choice, adding them to the jelly or leaving them out.
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Step 5:
Pour the agar-agar water into the syrup you've made and return the pan to the heat. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook it for a minute or two. This is how agar differs from gelatin — it can be boiled, and in fact boiling is what activates agar's gelling power. Gelatin, on the other hand, breaks down when boiled.
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Step 6:
This is optional, but I put a few frozen wild strawberries in the bottom of the cups. Or, alternatively, you can use the cooked berries if they've held their shape. I covered the berries with a little of the hot agar-agar syrup and put them in the fridge.
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Step 7:
After 20 minutes in the cold the berries had already set, which kept them from floating up when I filled the cups to the top.
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Step 8:
Pour the syrup into the cups all the way. Put them in the fridge and keep them there until fully set. Enjoy!
- For cooking, it's best to use filtered or bottled water with a neutral taste. If you use tap water, keep in mind it can give the dish an unpleasant off-flavor.
- Instead of sugar, you can use a sweetener that holds up to heat.
- Before adding the agar, check its labeling. The numbers on the package — 600, 900, or 1200, for example — indicate the strength (firmness) of the resulting gel. The higher the number, the firmer the jelly. Always keep in mind that the agar-agar proportions in a recipe are approximate, since the result depends not only on the gel strength (the number on the package) but also on the quality of the agar and the amount of sugar and acid in the dish. To be sure of the result, it's worth running a test: take 1 tablespoon of the finished but not-yet-cooled mixture and put it in the freezer for 1 minute. If the jelly sets to the consistency you want, your proportions are right. If not, you'll need to thicken or, conversely, thin the mixture.
Caloric content of the products possible in the composition of the dish
- Strawberries - 30 kcal/100g
- Fresh frozen sweet strawberries - 44 kcal/100g
- Granulated sugar - 398 kcal/100g
- Sugar - 398 kcal/100g
- Water - 0 kcal/100g
- Agar-agar - 301 kcal/100g
