This jelly will change your life!  Tee hee.  No really, it’s pure delicious raspberry juice sweetened with very little sugar, maple syrup or honey then set with gelatine.  In pàtisserie the more gelatine, the less the flavour (when I forgot to put gelatine in my caramel mousse it was absolutely delicious!).  So try using as little as you can.  On our Cordon Bleu course the chefs confessed the quantities of gelatine in our recipes were rather high.  They were probably playing it safe to avoid potential gloopy disasters amongst us (ahem).  Anyway back home I resolved to carry out The Gelatine Experiments to explore that balance between flavour and setting ability.

Luckily fresh raspberry kicks you in your taste buds and leaves them zinging happily away even when the gelatine is trying to calm it down.  But you still try to use as little gelatine as possible.  So I suggest less for the bottom layer in a tart shell because then it will be nice and softer.  Unless you want to keep the tart for more than a day, then you don’t want it making the pastry too soft … so increase the gelatine!

And a little more gelatine helps raspberry inserts keep their shape in a mousse dome (for example) so they don’t bleed into the mousse immediately.

The more jelly-like texture is fine and many Parisian multi-layered cakes have a tasty gelatinous layer in there, possibly flavoured with citrus fruit like yuzu.  You could actually adapt this recipe by using other fruit juices.  Oooh… must do that soon!

Okay, back to the recipe.  Here’s what you’ll need for a 20cm/8in diametre tart or 8 small 8cm/3in tarts (see my Passion fruit or St Clement’s raspberry tarts recipe):

• 250ml/g (1 cup) raspberry juice – press around 340-400g (12-14oz) fresh raspberries through a sieve to eliminate seeds and extract the juice
  
• 30g/2 tablespoons caster/superfine sugar, or more to taste (I used unrefined golden caster sugar) HEALTHIER OPTION:  use the same weight of honey or maple syrup
• 2 and a half sheets gelatine (5g)

And here’s what you’ll need for firmer jelly inserts in 10 individual mousse domes – see my Caramel mousse-raspberry dome cakes recipe:

• 125ml/g (1/2 cup) raspberry juice – press fresh raspberries through a sieve to get rid of the seeds and extract the juice (needs about 170-200g/6-7oz fresh raspberries)
  
• 15g/1 tablespoon caster/superfine sugar, or more to taste (I used unrefined golden caster sugar).  Healthier option:  the same quantity of maple syrup or honey.
  
• 1 and a half sheets gelatine (3g)

Method

1. Soak the sheets of gelatine in a bowl with a good quantity of cold water for about 5 to 10 minutes, till softened.
2. Stir the raspberry juice and sugar or maple syrup/honey in a small saucepan and bring just to the boil.  Take off heat.
3. Squeeze the gelatine in your hand to get the excess water out then add to the raspberry mixture and whisk till it dissolves.
4. Pour into a clean bowl and wait for it to cool to room temperature or 30°C/86°F then pour carefully into the pastry case or mould (if it starts setting too much just warm it again on a bain marie and stir to bring it back to a more liquid state).
5. Place in the freezer to set, between 30 minutes to 4 hours (depending on the size of the mould/pastry case).  Freezing overnight or a few days guarantees a very set insert.

If you have extra you can just keep inserts in the freezer (in airtight tupperware) for next time you need them or improvise a trifle in a glass with one or two.

No need to be wary or scared of raspberry jelly inserts or layers.  They really are easy … and delicious!

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