Our three-day-weekend was particularly enjoyable because my husband's family came to visit! It was pretty epic, and so good to hang out with Jacob's parents and siblings (we hadn't seen them in a little over a year) and, of course, to introduce them to Peter. In the course of one of our conversations, I mentioned how I recently discovered the existence of coffee jelly (Am I the only one here who pages through Japanese food websites in my free time?). Of course, we simply had to make some so that we could see what this gelatinous substance would be like.
What is coffee jelly, you ask? To put it quite simply, it's a magical coffee Jell-0 that will make your life better. Some internet articles claimed that coffee jelly first was introduced to the world in Japan in the 1960s, and other articles claim that it's been around for longer than that. Whatever the case, coffee jelly is amazing, and yet another reason why Japanese food is fantastic.
My sister-in-law and I looked through many different websites to find a good coffee jelly recipe, and we consistently found that the recipes were all slightly different. So, we decided that we would just figure it out based on the recipes we had read. This is so easy to make that it's kind of scary-now I don't have an excuse to not have coffee jelly sitting in my refrigerator all the time! When the Jell-O from your childhood meets your morning cup o' joe, the result is surprisingly delicious! Smooth and cool and jiggly and wonderful. Even my husband-who doesn't drink coffee-enjoyed it.
1 box of unflavored gelatin (our box had four small envelopes, and we used all of those)
4 cups hot, strongish coffee
1-2 T. white sugar
Sweet Whipped Cream (if desired as a topping)
Mix all of the ingredients together until the gelatin and sugar are dissolved.
Pour into a 9 inch square pan, stick it in the fridge, and run off to chat with relatives while eating an incredible meal at Whisky Cake (I highly recommend the Kale & Pomegranate salad and, obviously, the heavenly whisky cake).
Open the fridge and tentatively poke the coffee-colored substance with a clean finger, and get really excited when you discover that it has set properly.
Cut this substance into small squares with a knife and plop these cubes into a mug and top with very sweet whipped cream!
This is so bad.
I just went over to the fridge and popped some coffee jelly into my mouth.
These things are so terribly dangerous. I could probably eat a whole pan in one sitting, except that it would be the equivalent of consuming 4 cups of coffee at a time, and that would not be acceptable for my daily caffeine intake. These things are so good with whipped cream on top, but the one I just ate was pretty tasty even though it wasn't that sweet. Starbucks in Japan recently released a Coffee Jelly Frappuccino, so of course I'm going to have to figure out how to make that, because I'm sure it's super heavenly. It's a good thing that I still need to do my weekly grocery shopping, because I'm pretty sure I should pick up several boxes of unflavored gelatin.
haha! We live in the land of all sorts of jellies, although the most popular are brightly-colored, very firm, coconut-flavored jellies. I've seen coffee jellies before, too. Funny thing is...I can't stand any sort of jellyish gelatinous thing. It's just not a texture I like.
ReplyDeleteCoconut jellies would probably be pretty tasty! That's too bad that you don't like the texture when you live in the land of jellies! (I think that bears similarity to a relative of mine who lives about an hour away from the beach but she can't stand the beach & ocean)
DeleteI have never heard of coffee jelly either! So do you just eat it like a square of jello, with a fork/spoon?
ReplyDeleteYes, just like eating jello! Though I read that the Starbucks coffee jelly frappuccino comes with a really wide straw, so that you can slurp it up that way.
DeleteI have never heard of this! I won't lie: it sounds dreadful. BUT. That's because I don't like coffee. So there's that ;)
ReplyDeleteYou don't like coffee?!?! *gasp* (though I guess that leaves more coffee for the rest of us haha) Then this would be completely disgusting for you, I am sure.
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