Children and adults will love this fun and yummy Christmas Finger Jello. They’re firm enough to pick up and eat with your fingers!
Fun for the little ones and adults too!
First, please excuse me if I inconsistently call these finger jello or jelly. Here, we call them jelly and that’s what I know them as. Either way, I’m a massive fan since I was a kid until now.
Whenever we go to buffets, I would always help myself to a few cubes of their jelly in the dessert bar. Buffet jellies are much firmer than regular jellies! You won’t need a spoon as you could pick them up with your fingers and bite into them.
I definitely prefer my jelly this way rather than having watery jelly. To put this into perspective, I could turn down regular jelly, but I can never say no to finger jello!
Our Christmas is in summer and if we’re lucky, it’s going to be a beautiful and warm sunny day. For some funny reason, it rains often on Christmas Day. Sorry, I don’t want to jinx us this year!
On a hot summer’s day, these refreshing jellies would be most welcome.
You’ll probably be surprised to see a few adults in there amongst the kids trying to get the best-looking jelly. In fact, these jellies have disappeared from my fridge. My hubby, Tomi, blamed our toddler, Kai, but it won’t be long until Kai can tell me the truth! He’s already ‘dobbed’ his father in a few times.
Simple and cheap Christmas treats
Last week, on an early weekday morning, I drove to our local Westfield (shopping centre) and it was chaotic! I can’t deal with crowds because they make me super anxious! People were frantically running around doing their last Christmas shopping. Finding parking was a complete nightmare!
Have you blown your budget this Christmas? We’ve blown ours since Kai was born and that was 3 years ago!
These cute little treats won’t cost you much and best of all, they won’t take much of your time!
You’ll need unflavoured gelatine and flavoured jelly (like Aeroplane Jelly crystals). Unlike flavoured jelly, unflavoured gelatine has no sugar, colour or flavour added. The unflavoured gelatine gives these finger jello firmness. Don’t worry about the large amount of gelatine added to this recipe, it’s flavourless and shouldn’t affect the overall flavour.
For the best results, prepare these finger jello the night or the day before. This gives time for the jelly to firm up nicely, and they’ll be easier to work with.
I made two batches of green and red jelly, one batch I placed in a tin. Once set, I used Christmas cookie cutters to cut the jelly out. I placed the other batch in silicone moulds and they came out way more beautiful! However, you could simply just cut them into cubes or whatever shapes you like.
Here are some more fun treats to try:
Chocolate Bananas
Mini Banana Muffins
Banana Oat Pancakes
Black Bean Choc Cake
Ingredients for Finger Jello (Jelly)
Unflavoured gelatine – I used 3 sachets to get the firmness I was happy with, which is roughly 3 tablespoons. Supermarkets usually stock unflavoured gelatine near the baking area. They’re usually sold in sachets of 12gm/0.4oz over here.
Flavoured jello/jelly – I used ‘Aeroplane’ Jelly granules. I used strawberry for the red jelly and lime for the green jelly, and I made two batches for the different colours. One batch makes approximately 1 litre/34fl oz of jelly. This is quite a lot of jelly, so if you don’t require as much, just halve the amounts called for in the recipe.
Sugar (optional) – Without adding the extra sugar, the jelly is still a little sweet from the sugar from the Aeroplane jelly, but not as sweet as regular jelly. My 3-year-old happily eats it without the extra sugar, but if I was making it for myself, I would add a tablespoon of sugar.
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How to make Finger Jello (Jelly)
Step-by-step guide with photos
In a bowl, mix the unflavoured gelatine and 1 1/2 cup of cold water together and set aside.
Lightly grease a rectangle 23x33cm (9x13in) baking tin. You could also use silicone jelly moulds, but place them on a baking tray and lightly grease the insides of the moulds with oil spray.
In a saucepan, place the flavoured jelly, boiled water and sugar (if using) over medium-high heat and bring it to a boil or until the jelly granules have dissolved.
Give the gelatine and water mixture a stir, then pour it into the saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low, and then simmer for 5 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in 1 cup of cold water.
Pour the jelly mixture into the tin or moulds, then carefully place it in the fridge for at least 6 hours, but is best when left overnight. Use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes or cut them into cubes. For the ones in the silicone mould, stretch the mould in different directions to release the jelly and carefully use your fingers to remove it.
Leftovers – Transfer the finger jello into a sealed container and store it in the fridge. It should be good for up to a week.
I’ve used a third-party application to calculate the calories and nutritional information, so please use this as an approximate guide only.
Cooking measurements are in Australian standard spoon and cup measurements. For specific details and conversions, visit our Australian Cooking Measurements page.
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Cheers – Cat T
Finger Jello (Christmas jelly)
Ingredients
- 36 gm unflavoured gelatin (3 tbsp) (NOTE 1)
- 1½ cup cold tap water
- 170 gm flavoured strawberry or lime jelly/jello (2 x 85g/3oz packets) (NOTE 2)
- 2 cup boiled water
- 1-2 tbsp sugar (optional)
- 1 cup cold tap water
- oil spray for greasing
Instructions
- In a bowl, mix the unflavoured gelatine and 1 1/2 cup of cold water together and set aside.
- Lightly grease a rectangle 23x33cm (9x13in) baking tin. You could also use silicone jelly moulds, but place them on a baking tray and lightly grease the insides of the moulds with oil spray.
- In a saucepan, place the flavoured jelly, boiled water and sugar (if using) over medium-high heat and bring it to a boil or until the jelly granules have dissolved.
- Give the gelatine and water mixture a stir, then pour it into the saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low, and then simmer for 5 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in 1 cup of cold water.
- Pour the jelly mixture into the tin or moulds, then carefully place it in the fridge for at least 6 hours, but is best when left overnight. Use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes or cut them into cubes. For the ones in the silicone mould, stretch the mould in different directions to release the jelly and carefully use your fingers to remove it.
