Saturday, December 12, 2009

Thanksgiving Ribbon Jello

For Thanksgiving this year I was in charge of pies and my ribbon jello. I made a total of 6 pie shells and 4 pies. Funny story...apparently you need pie weights when you are cooking a pie crust without any filling. It just shrinks right down. I might have taken pictures if it wasn't getting so frustrating. Good news is I made my first ever lemon meringue pie and it turned out BEAUTIFUL. And of course, two banana creams which were gobbled up so fast I only had a chance to enjoy one piece!

But the show stopper.....



My mom made this Jello every year and I decided to make it a family tradition. It takes quite a few hours to make but it always turns out beautiful and tastes absolutely delicious! I've had quite a few requests for the recipe and it's quite easy so here you go:

Thanksgiving Ribbon Jello
You need 5 different flavors (colors) of 3 oz jello. I usually use Cherry, Lemon, Lime, Orange, Grape (grape is hard to come by, if you want to fake the purple, buy strawberry and add blue food coloring).
Bring 1 cup of water to a boil. Add your first jello. Divide in 1/2.
To one 1/2 c add 3 T cold water. Pour that half in your bundt pan (I use a bundt pan because it's pretty, you don't have to), place in fridge. To the other half add 1/3 C of sour cream (Jared has this funny thing about sour cream, he SWEARS he can taste it, so I use cool whip now but make sure it's at room temperature, otherwise you get bubbles and it doesn't set as nicely).
Here is the tricky part, you want to pour the next layer on before the previous layer is completely set. If you wait too long, the layers separate when they're served...who knows maybe you want it that way, it give the kids an excuse to play with their food ;). This is the way I do it. Make sure your hands are clean! I lightly touch the top of the layer, if quite a bit of jello sticks to my finger, it's not ready. Once its barely sticks, I add the next layer.
You have to be careful not to just pour the next layer on because it will break the previous layer and then it won't look as clean. I gently pour the next layer onto the back of a spoon that's fairly close to the previous layer. It seems to help. There is always a little bit of mixing, nothing is perfect, accept it :).
You continue the process until you've done all your colors.
Once you're ready to get it out of the bundt pan, fill your sink with warm (NOT HOT) water. Place your bundt pan in the warm water for about 15-20 seconds. This melts the sides a little bit so it will "let go". Place your serving plate on the top of the bundt pan and flip! Good luck with that, I still haven't ever gotten it perfectly centered...again accept this :)

Enjoy your Jello treat!!!

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