Probably a weird request, but I’m making jello. Seems simple enough, right?
Sugar free strawberry jello powder in a bowl, 2 cups of boiling water, stir to dissolve and then I get some weird idea.
I dissolve a big spoon full of smooth peanut butter in the hot water/jello powder mix, then add the 2 cups of cold water and stir it to completely mix it all together. Well, the peanut butter slurry settles out in only a few minutes. I really don’t want layers. I want peanut butter and strawberry jelly with every bite no matter where in the jello I scoop from. So a slowly cooling bowl of this possible abomination is cooling on the counter right now. I’ve never suspended anything in jello before let alone a slurry of heavier stuff like dissolved smooth peanut butter. I searched the 'net and really came up with nothing.
Help me out here, please. Give me some experienced speculation on how I should proceed. It has to have something to do with stirring everything together at some point while it’s cooling, but beyond that I’m lost. Thanks.
You could try making a layer of Jell-o and letting it set. Make a layer of slurry on top and let it set. Make another layer of Jell-o on top and let it set.
Thanks Susan but I think it’s a little too late for that. No more jello to use anyway. And I think I would have had to make little batches of each every time I needed to add another layer. I can’t see that being any fun.
You’d probably do it the same way you’d suspend fruit. Put in the fridge to cool as normal, and take it out when it’s thick but still mixable. Then you fold your peanut butter into it. No need to make a slurry.
But layers are definitely the way to go. There are recipes online for PB&J(ello) bars that are just one layer of PB and one layer of J. They look tasty.
After 1/2 hour on the counter I stirred again and put it in the fridge. An hour later it was just beginning to set up. The peanut butter had settled out again. I whisked it all up well to get the peanut butter back into suspension and evenly mixed and put it back in the fridge. It seemed just thick enough to maybe keep the peanut butter from settling out. It was bed time though, so time would tell.
When I took it out this morning it looked just like it did when I put it back in the fridge after mixing it. Smooth on top, fine grains of peanut butter evenly dispersed throughout. Tastes like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Which is what I was shooting for.
I think the next time I make it I’ll add at least twice as much peanut butter to the hot jello. That might be all I need to make this what I really want it to be. The letting it cool for an hour in the fridge really seems like the answer.
The first time was an experiment and that worked, but this time it was for real. A lot more peanut butter this time. After an hour and 15 minutes in the fridge and a real good stir it firmed up and turned out tasting exactly like the inside of a peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich. As far as I’m concerned this is a winner.
Now I want to make a stabilized whipped cream topping that tastes like buttered toast. This will complete the peanut butter and jelly sandwich idea I envision.
Maybe ground up buttered toast till a good glob of the mixture on top of the peanut butter and jello I made would provide the right taste balance? It might look ugly though. Too much bread. Unless there was a way to condense it down to just the browned parts of bread and maybe ghee to intensify that side of the equation.
Toast some bread. Remove the crunch brown bits by grating the slice on a cheese grater. Eat the rest of the toast. As for the butter … Cream is basically the starting point for butter, so maybe just whip just shy of butter, and don’t sweeten it.
