Salted Caramel JELL-Obama

Hello Gelophiles,

Here's the recipe you've all been waiting for. And when I mean all of you, I mean the hyper-inflated world of Jello obsessed enthusiasts I envision in my head.


Michelle and I worked our Jello stained fingers of on this recipe, and we know you'll love it.

The inspiration came from an article in the New York Times about President Obama's favorite candy- the smoked sea salt chocolate covered caramels from Fran's in Seattle. We knew this was the perfect dessert to gellify.

The greatest challenge was designing the right caramel recipe that would fold into the Chocolate pudding, but not ruin the structural integrity of the shot. Here's what we came up with:

Salted Caramel JELL-Obama Pudding Shot
1 4-1/2 cup serving box of JELL-O Instant Chocolate Pudding
2 Envelopes of Knox unflavored gelatin
1 1/2 cups cold whole milk
1/2 cup Salted Caramel sauce (recipe below)
1/2 cup Caramel Bailey's
1/2 cup Godiva Chocolate Liquor

Salted Caramel Sauce
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp Light Corn Syrup
3/4 Cup Heavy Cream
4 Tbsp butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 tsp Sea Salt

In a medium sauce pan heat the sugar, water, and corn syrup until amber in color. Avoid scorching the sugar by stirring occasionally. Some will say avoid stirring but swirl the pan or use a wet brush, but I'm not that fasitidious. After all, you're burning sugar.

Lower the flame and add the butter, cream, and salt. Stir on low flame until the ingredients combine, thicken, and darken. It should look like caramel. Apx 4 min.

Remove from heat and add the vanilla.

For the Pudding shots: in a small microwave proof bowl, add 1/2 cup of milk and sprinkle the Knox gelatin packets over the surface. Let sit for a minute. Microwave the bowl up to two minutes for the gelatin to dissolve. Remove, stir, and let cool to warmer than room temperature.

In a large mixing bowl, pour in the remaining cup of cold milk and add the Pudding mix slowly. Best to start with a whisk and move up to a spoon. It will be a thick paste. Add in the milk/gelatin mixture, Salted caramel sauce, Baileys, and Godiva liquor.

You can add more salt, liquor, or caramel to taste. No more than 1/2 cup of liquid though. And once you get too salty, you can't go back.

Pour the mixture in a pan, silicone baking cups, or plastic shot glasses and refrigerate for an hour. They will be done when firm to the touch. These shots should be removed from any cups and served like finger food. Feel free to drizzle a bit of caramel over the shots. Avoid adding salt unless you are serving immediately. The salt leaches the water out of the jello and makes a sloppy mess.

Enjoy!