This is not anything really new, but several ideas put together.
I rarely use cold water when making jello. I use juices or syrups from canned fruits, sour cream or plain yogurt, cottage cheese and almost any canned fruit or fresh banana slices.
I always begin with a large package of Jello. Our favorite is cherry. I reduce the boiling water that's needed to one cup instead of 2, and stir it into the dry jello until it's thoroughly dissolved. I add a cup of miniature marshmallows and stir until they are pretty well melted, then I add 6 ice cubes which amounts to about 1/2 cup water (my ice-cubes, yours might be different in size). Stir until the ice-cubes are all melted, then add an 8oz cup of sour cream or plain yogurt and stir it in.
Then add a cup of cottage cheese and a 20 oz can of crushed pineapple packed in its own juice (use juice and all). Stir well, pour into a glass or stainless steel pan and refrigerate overnight or at least 4-6 hours depending on your fridge's temp. It should be very well set before serving.
The fruit will probably settle to the bottom of the dish or pan which is just fine. It really doesn't matter since you can either cut and serve it in squares or dish it up into sherbet dishes with a spoon. It's beautiful. All pink and creamy and utterly delicious. A good way to get the children to eat yogurt and cottage cheese too.
I've made this jello dessert using lime jello with crushed pineapple and maraschino cherries, fruit cocktail or canned pears. I've used it to make orange jello with mandarin oranges and crushed pineapple with a few maraschino cherries.
Strawberry jello makes a delicious dessert using canned peaches. As long as each is made with the marshmallows, sour cream or plain yogurt, and cottage cheese, it turns out to be a wonderful dessert, and looks so pretty too.
If you like coconut, by all means try the pineapple jello with crushed pineapple and coconut, and maybe maraschino cherries for color.
Use what your family likes best, and make it your own family dessert. Always enjoy!
Source: This originally started with my Mom whose greatest pleasure came from making us happy.
By Julia from Boca Raton, FL
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To easily remove gelatin from a mold, rinse the mold pan in cold water and coat with vegetable oil. The oil gives the gelatin a nice luster and it can be easily removed from the mold.
Place your jello mold in fridge to chill before adding the jello mixture. This will keep the "skin" off the mold.
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When making jello, always add the dry jello to the boiling water rather than the other way around and it will dissolve faster and more completely. By June S.
