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Maple Walnut Jello
1 Package Peach or Orange Jello 1 Cup Maple Syrup 1 Cup Boiling Water 1 Cup Walnut Meats Dissolve jello in the boiling water.
Add the maple syrup. Cool and add walnuts. Serve with whipped cream.
A two-ingredient gelatine with nuts folded in, of the sort that turned up constantly in early twentieth-century dessert chapters. It works, but the proportions need a word.
- Package sizeA modern 3-ounce box of flavoured gelatine is meant to set 2 cups of liquid, which is exactly what the recipe supplies (1 cup water, 1 cup syrup). Sugar-free or 6-ounce boxes will throw the ratio off.
- SweetnessSweetened gelatine plus a full cup of maple syrup gives a dessert that is very sweet by current taste. Half a cup of syrup topped up with half a cup of cold water still reads clearly as maple and sets no differently.
- Do not boil the syrupDissolve the powder completely in the boiling water first, then stir in the syrup off the heat, as the recipe directs. Prolonged heating is generally thought to cost some of the volatile maple aroma.
- When to add the nuts"Cool and add walnuts" is the hinge. Chill until the mixture is the consistency of raw egg white, then fold in the nuts; add them to warm liquid and they all float to the top, which shows badly if you unmould it.
- WalnutsA cup of walnut halves, roughly chopped. Toasting them for 8 minutes at 350F and cooling before use sharpens the flavour and helps them stay crisp against the wet gelatine.
- Setting and yieldFour hours in the refrigerator for a bowl, closer to six for a mould. Serves six in small dishes; the sweetness argues against larger portions.
- UnmouldingIf you use a mould, rinse it with cold water before filling. Dip the set mould briefly in warm water and invert onto a chilled plate.
- The whipped creamWhip it unsweetened, or with the barest pinch of salt. It is there to cut the sugar, not add to it.
Flavoured gelatine desserts became a fixture of American home cooking after Jell-O, developed in Le Roy, New York, in the 1890s and marketed aggressively from the turn of the century by the Genesee Pure Food Company, put a shelf-stable powder within reach of any kitchen. Earlier gelatine work meant clarifying calf's-foot stock or buying sheet gelatine, so a packet that needed only boiling water was a genuine convenience. The maple-and-walnut pairing here is associated with the northeastern states and eastern Canada, where both were local products; the same combination was also popular in ice cream of the period. Note the small economy in the method: the maple syrup does double duty as sweetener and as part of the liquid, which is why the recipe calls for only one cup of water rather than the usual two.