Jello Recipes
Jello Gooseberry Fool Meringue Cookie Recipe
Gooseberries are often sadly underused in recipes, especially jello recipes, but in this wonderful dessert, you can combine them with meringue and create a dessert to die for. Gooseberries vary in color from red to green and their flavor has been compared to that of the Muscat grape. There are hundreds of gooseberry varieties.
Gelatin sheets are used in this recipe rather than jello powder, which gives similar results but works in a slightly different way. Gelatin is used to make a sticky syrup to stick the meringues together. Jello would not be sticky enough unless you made it really strong and then the flavor would be too strong, so gelatin sheets are the way to do this. You can serve leftover gooseberry syrup with ice cream if you want.
Gooseberries have to be cooked when you use them in gooseberry recipes, else they tend to be bitter. We are going to make a gooseberry puree which holds the meringues together. You might have enjoyed a gooseberry fool recipe before but this would not be able to cement the meringues like the gooseberry puree can. Remember that when these filled meringues reach room temperature they will fall apart, so serve them chilled!
Delicious Gooseberry Jello Meringues
Ingredients -
For the Meringues:
2 large egg whites
½ cup sugar
For the Gooseberry Filling:
3 sheets gelatin
9 oz gooseberries
4 oz sugar
1 cup water
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 210 degrees F
Place some parchment paper on a baking tray. Pour the egg whites into a bowl. Whip with a little sugar. Gradually add the rest of the sugar, whipping all the time until the mixture is glossy and stiff.
The consistency is right when you can tip the bowl upside down without anything falling out.
Drop a teaspoon of the mixture on to the baking tray and repeat to create eleven more meringues, placing them an inch apart.
Place the tray in the center of the oven and bake for 45 minutes.
Turn off the oven, leaving the meringues in there for another hour.
Remove them from the oven and let them cool completely.
Cook the gooseberries, sugar, and water until the sugar has dissolved and the gooseberries have popped open.
Make a syrup-like liquid with a hand blender.
Soak the gelatin in the water for 20 minutes then squeeze the water out.
Add the gelatin to the gooseberry mixture, heating gently until the gelatin dissolves.
Chill until partially set, and then spread this mixture between 2 meringues.
Repeat with the other meringues then chill them in the refrigerator.
(Serves 6)
Photo Description:
Gooseberries grew wild first of all in Northern Africa, but they are now cultivated all over Northern Europe and North America. Gooseberries taste a bit like grapes and you can use them to make delicious desserts like this jello gooseberry food meringue cookie recipe. Serve these meringues after dinner and everyone will be delighted with the light, crumbly meringues and the sweet, fruity filling. These gooseberry jello meringues are also a tasty treat at any time of the day when you fancy a snack.
What is Gooseberry Fool?
Gooseberry fool is thought to date back to the 1400s, making it a very old dessert indeed. Fool was spelt "foole" in old English. A fruit fool is a combination of fruit, sugar, and cream. You need to use a tart-tasting fruit, else the sugar will make an already sweet fruit too sweet. If you cannot find gooseberries but you want to make a gooseberry meringue recipe or a fool, choose rhubarb, redcurrants, or cranberries. These fruits are good substitutes because they have a similar tart, sharp flavor, which is essential to a fruit fool recipe.
It is believed that the word "fool" in this context might stem from the French word "fouler" which means to press or to crush, like pressing or crushing grapes to make wine. Gooseberries are associated with fool more than any other fruit, although you can use other ingredients to make it. Raspberry and apple fool is quite popular. Norfolk fool is a local variation of this dish found in northern England, where the fruit is added right at the end and is treated like a secondary ingredient.
Gooseberry Fool with Jello
You can make traditional gooseberry fool or you can make a gooseberry syrup, which has gelatin instead of the cream. The syrup is especially sticky and great for sandwiching meringues together. A gooseberry meringue recipe blends a smooth, tart-flavored syrup with sweet, crumbly meringues. Meringues and meringue cookies are very easy to make and taste wonderful.
If you want to make a traditional gooseberry fool dessert, you can mash the gooseberries with sugar and fold in cream, and then decorate it with meringues because the flavors and textures contrast so well.
More Old Fashioned Recipes
Fruit has been used in dessert recipes for hundreds of years. If you like gooseberry fool, other old fashioned recipes to try include sherry trifle and apple crumble. Seasonal fruit was used in traditional fruit recipes because refrigeration and freezing were not options, so berry tarts and pies were popular in the summer.
Old fashioned recipes like gooseberry meringue pie and gooseberry fool dessert have fused with modern cooking methods and ingredients, so recipes like gooseberry jello and gooseberry gelatin syrup can be created with ease and enjoyed by many. Gooseberries have a unique flavor and making them into a fruit fool really enhances their natural charm and taste.
