Fruity Jelly Salad

This fruity jelly salad or (Gelatin Fruit Salad) is a Filipino dessert and is made with canned fruit cocktail, sugar, gelatin powder, food colon, tapioca pearls, all purpose cream and condensed milk. This fruit jelly tapioca dessert is a low-cost, low-budget creamy and delightful sweet treat best enjoyed during the summer. Best finale after a heavy meal. Try one today!

Ingredients
1 can (836g) fruit cocktail
4 cups water
¼ cup sugar
1 sachet (25g) gelatin powder (unflavored)
yellow food color
red food color
1 cup tapioca pearls (cooked)
2 cups (500mL) all purpose cream
1 can (300mL) condensed milk

Directions
Strain the fruit cocktail. Transfer the syrup to a pot and add water. Add sugar and the gelatin powder. Stir until completely dissolved.
Let the mixture boil using medium heat.
Once boiling, turn the heat off. Divide the mixture into two parts and transfer to a heat-proof container. Add a few drops of yellow food color on the first container and red food color on the second one. Let the mixtures cool and set.
When the jellies are set, cut them into small cubes.
In a large bowl, add the jelly cubes, fruit cocktail, tapioca pearls, all purpose cream and condensed milk. Mix until well-combined.
Chill the fruit jelly tapioca before serving. Enjoy!

A JELLYCIOUS STORY

Did you know that gelatin desserts have been prepared since the 1600s? Gelatin desserts has a strange history on how it got famous. When gelatin was first discovered, it was bland, colorless, boring and unappetizing. The significant use of gelatin was when Pearl Wait, a cough manufacturer, used gelatin in making the medicine palatability. She used combined fruit syrup with the cough medicine. But the only problem with this is that due to the medicines being delicious, the people eat it all the time (and that’s not how medicines must be taken).

After that incident, cooking eperts try to incorporate gelatin to different dishes. Now, gelatin or jelly desserts has been famous worldwide due to its unique texture and consistency. Jelly has been a popular sweet dessert, especially for the children.

Gelatin Fruit Salad

Gelatin Fruit Salad or Fruit jelly salad is one of the best treats which are nilalako by our favorite manong every summer. In some places, this is called jelly salad. Jelly cubes, fruit cocktail, and milk—this dessert is so simple but very satisfying to the taste buds.

Sweet tooth cannot wait for summer. Sweet tooth craves for sweet at any time of the year. I modified manong’s fruit jelly salad by adding more jelly cubes and tapioca pearls. It is understandable why there is so much little jelly cubes and fruits in his salad since it’s for selling purposes. So to have a full experience of the fruit jelly salad, I started making my own version of it. At a glance, the jellies look like real fruit cocktail! People I shared this treat was surprised that those were made with a bunch of jellies.

If you’re lacking budget in making a fruit cocktail salad for Christmas, this recipe is actually a master hack to still enjoy some but with a lower budget—and lower calories! So fun!

HOW TO MAKE FRUITY JELLY SALAD

Fruit Jelly Tapioca is another jelly dessert which will never cost you a single sweat. First, strain your fruit cocktail and set the fruits aside. We will be using the syrup as the liquid base of our jelly. But of course it is not enough, so just add the needed liquid as stated on the packaging instructions.

In this recipe, I did my jelly in one go and just divided them afterwards to make two jellies with different color (red and yellow to resemble the fruits in the fruit cocktail). Alternatively, you can just use colored gelatin powder but that would make you prepare two pots. Also, if you will be using agar-agar bars for the gelatin, there are yellow and colored ones so you won’t be needing food color anymore.

When transferring them to containers, I recommend you to use large flat containers. In this way, the jellies will cool faster and you won’t be needing to cut them a few times later. When the two jelly mixtures are set, cut them into small cubes. Nothing is more satisfying than cutting jellies! This is actually one of my calming activities haha. Sometimes I purposely make jelly desserts just to have a jelly-cutting activity. 

The last thing you need to do is to combine the jelly cubes, fruit cocktail, tapioca pearls and the rest of the ingredients. Chill them before serving. Aside from directly eating them, you can actually turn this treat into a sweet beverage! Simply add water and ice and you’re good to go. Yum!

Fruity Jelly Salad Recipe (TAGALOG)

MGA SANGKAP:

• 1 lata (836g) ng fruit cocktail
• 4 tasa ng tubig
• ¼ tasa ng asukal
• 1 sachet (25g) ng gelatin powder (unflavored)
• dilaw na food color
• pulang food color
• 1 tasa ng sago (luto na)
• 2 tasa (500mL) ng all purpose cream
• 1 lata (300mL) ng condensed milk

PAANO LUTUIN:

1. Salain ang fruit cocktail. Ilagay ang syrup sa kaldero at lagyan ng tubig. Sunod na ilagay ang asukal at gelatin powder. Haluin hanggang matunaw.
2. Pakuluan ang mixture gamit ang katamtamang apoy.
3. Kapag kumukulo na, patayin ang apoy. Hatiin sa dalawa ang mixture at isalin sa heat-proof na lalagyan. Lagyan ng dilaw at pulang food color ang mga mixtures. Palamigin.
4. Kapag matigas na ang jellies, hatiin ang mga ito sa maliliit na cubes.
5. Sa isang malaking bowl, ilagay ang jelly cubes, fruit cocktail, sago, all purpose cream at condensed milk. Haluin ng mabuti.
6. Palamigin ang fruit jelly tapioca bago kainin. Enjoy!