Caramel Apple Cider Gelee Real Apples

Hello Gelophiles,

It snowed last night in Boston! This Pre-Halloween snow may be common occurrence in Montreal where it's halfway between the Equator and North Pole, but Boston?!   Regardless of the weather conditions, it is still technically Fall and I'm going to continue to make Fall themed shots! 

Recently in my Gelaboratory I've been trying to defy the laws of gravity and Newtonian physics with gelatin. I was very inspired by Chef Jose Andres' talk at Harvard about gelation. So, I've been playing with the idea of surprise. Like cutting open a fruit to find it filled with natural gelatin.  I started with tangerines, lemons, strawberries and had just been working on apples when this blog entry came up in my Google reader from That's So Michelle.

D'oh, bested!  Now I believe that ideas are like babies. If you don't birth them, someone else will.  (Okay, that doesn't make a lot of sense) I'm not going to let that stop me. So what's better than one baby..... two babies!  Here's my recipe for Caramel Apple Cider gelee in real apples.

Here Comes Halloween...Here Comes Halloween!

Hello Gelophiles,

It's getting spooky out there. The Halloween decorations are going up and the number one question in the air is, "what are you going to be for Halloween?"

In my own world the question is, "how can I gelify this holiday?"  The other question is, "how do I punctuate a question within a statement ?" I need to hit some grammar books.

Back to gelatin-  Here are the lovely and creepy embedded gelatin shots that I'm calling... 
well. I'm having a creative naming dry spell. So I put it out to you. What should I call these?

I want your input. Keep reading and find out about my contest!

Candy Corns 2.0

Hello Gelophiles,

Happy Socktober!  The unofficial sock celebration month! You can celebrate by wearing mis-matched socks. Also called Opposocks!  Go ahead an trademark that one.

Back on the gelatin front, Halloween is coming up and it's time to create and recreate some shots.  These are the candy corn shots I made last Halloween but this time I used the pyramid molds for a more authentic candy corn look.

The key to these shots is the candy corn infused vodka.

And the Oscar goes to......

Hello Gelophiles,

Although it is snowing outside here in Boston, out in LA, the sun is shining and the red carpet is uhm... carpeting. It is that time of year when directors, producers, and actors pat themselves on the back....again. But this time it's the Academy Awards. Most people will be watching for Best Movie, Best Actor, Best Dressed. I am looking for most translatable into a jello shot.

The best contender so far is for Black Swan. It's those crazy huge pupiled, blood shot eyes that I see when I think of the film. So, here's my version of the movie in Jelluloid.

Black Swan Song Shots

For the black Pupils-
1 3 oz box grape jello
1 3 oz box lime jello
2 cups cola- flattened
1 envelope unflavored gelatin

For the white of the eyes-
1 1/4 cups water
2 enveloped unflavored gelatin
1/2 vodka
1/4 cup blackberry schnapps

Using a hemisphere flexible silicon mold, I spooned 1 tsp of the black jello into the sheres and set in the fridge for three minutes until tacky. Then I filled the remainder of the mold with the room white mixture. Let set for two hours and then remove.

To get the blood shot effect, I took a toothpick and some red food dye and outlined the eyes.


I'm pretty sure Natalie Portman had an eye double for the movie poster. Look closely at the opening photo and you'll see it was my jello!

Kandy Korn Shots

Hello Gelophiles,

Life is accepting challenges. So this weekend I was challenged to design a shot for a Halloween party. Something festive, themey, and delicious. The first thing that came to me was, "Can you melt Candy Corns and put them into gelatin." And just like that, my scientific brain deduced that 1) They are made from mostly sugar and corn syrup, and 2) gelatin is mostly sugar and protein, 3) the sigmoid curve of the viscosity must be equal to one over infinity. Therefore, by the asymptotic angle side angle postulate, candy corn must be dissolvable in gelatin!

I bought a bag of candy corn and had a grand ol' time dividing them into their separate component colors. Come on, who doesn't bite off each color with their front teeth, slowly torturing the poor candy corn from the bottom up, leaving the creamy white head for last? It can't be just me?

It's probably just me.

Anyway, after meticulous candy corn dissecting, I dissolved each color segregated layer into an appropriate gelatin and fortified with some unflavored knox.

Here are the players in our delicious challenge:


Through the ancient art of alchemy, the recombine to form these:



And with the artistic stylings by Allison, here's what a zombie hand holding a devil pumpking eating one of my shots might look like.

Jellobotomy

Fear not friends. Although I took a hiatus in blogging about gelatin shots, I've not taken a break from making them. Remember Lost? That super huge phenomenon that took up precious time for the past seven years? Well, in honor of the mush it made my brain trying to determine what was the smoke monster? Where did The Others come from? Why did they just drop the Walt plot line, I made a mushy gelatin shot brain.

The mold I got on-line and for the gelatinous creation I made a peach/orange shot with food coloring to get the perfect grey matter coloration. The detail of the mold is awesome. You can see the cerebellum, pons, and brainstem. Which, because of a alcohol and the brain curriculum I developed, I can tell you in excruciating detail how they are affected by alcohol. But I digress.

The Jello was amazing, the final episode of Lost...... Well... still debatable.