Sparkling Gummi Bear Gelatin

This festive treat was inspired by the book, Hello, Jell-O!, a Christmas gift I received from Samantha.  I made the gelatin for the kids at last night’s gathering at the home of our friends Camille and Homero.  Needless to say, it was a hit.

It’s based on the recipe for Sparkling Champagne and Strawberries in the book.  You’ll find the recipe here.  The two changes I made were to swap a Trader Joe’s sparkling white grape juice for the sparkling wine and to swap Haribo Gummi Bears for the strawberries.  I got the latter idea from the book’s author, Victoria Belanger, who mentions the idea of inserting gummy sharks into gelatin somewhere in the book.  I love the Haribo bears because the colors are so vibrant, so jewel-like, so festive.  They remind me of Christmas lights.

I think the plastic champagne glasses (at least they are recyclable) made this even more fun and certainly made this project simpler because the gelatins set more quickly and they didn’t require unmolding which made them easier to transport.

These are Vanilla Meringues (tinted just the tiniest bit pink with a drop of India Tree natural red food coloring) and Elizabeth Falkner’s Mexican Wedding Cookies.  The meringue recipe comes from Mark Bittman.  The only deviation I made from his recipe was to turn the oven off after one hour of baking while still leaving the meringues in the closed oven for another hour.  I was afraid they’d be overdone otherwise.  They came out perfectly.  Funny, they look Seuss-like some how.  Oh how I love meringue.  You should try these.

We went for a chilly walk at Villa Montalvo late this afternoon.  It’s so beautiful there.

Wishing you peace and prosperity in the New Year – Colleen