Monday, February 8, 2010

Sugared strawberry jubes

Sugared strawberry jubes / Jujubas de morango

Before I started the blog I used to spend hours at imdb.com reading the movie trivia – I’d go from one to another, then another...

I still do that sometimes, but nowadays I usually share my browsing time between movies and recipes – one thing I love is to go to Gourmet Traveller’s website, click on a recipe and then check the end of the page, where there are four related recipes. I go from one to another, then another... This is how I found these strawberry jubes.

Sugared strawberry jubes / Jujubas de morango

Sugared strawberry jubes
from Australian Gourmet Traveller

500g hulled strawberries (about 2 punnets)
280ml sparkling wine
530g caster sugar, plus extra for coating
2 teaspoons lemon juice
9 gelatin leaves (titanium strength), softened in cold water*

Combine strawberries and 1/3 cup (80ml) wine in a saucepan, cover and simmer over medium heat until strawberries are tender and juice is extracted (5-7 minutes). Strain through a fine sieve (you should have about 200ml). Add half the remaining wine and enough water to make 450ml and combine in a saucepan with sugar and lemon juice. Stir over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil and cook until mixture reaches 120°C/248°F on a sugar thermometer (15-20 minutes) – if the mixture bubbles too much and looks like it is going to spill over, swirl the pan around. Remove from heat and stand for 10 minutes.
Squeeze excess water from gelatin, add to strawberry syrup with remaining wine. Stir to combine, then pour into a lightly oiled 16cm-square cake pan. Stand in a cool place overnight – I refrigerated mine for a couple of hours, too.

Scatter sugar over cutting board. Dip base of pan quickly in hot water (that was not necessary, I just ran the knife on the sides of the pan) and invert pan onto board to remove jelly. Cut jelly into cubes with a hot knife and toss in sugar to coat. Sugared jellies will keep in an airtight container for 1 week.

* make sure your gelatin is really strong – mine wasn’t that powerful and the jubes were on the soft side (thought still delicious)

Serves 8 - I made 2/3 of the recipe above, used a 15cm (6in) square pan and got 64 small jubes

Sugared strawberry jubes / Jujubas de morango

18 comments:

  1. these are beautiful! I love strawberries. Candies with strawberry flavor is heaven!

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  2. Mmm! These look both gorgeous and tasty!

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  3. How fun! My family used to buy something similar to this at a special shop in Gatlinburg, TN. How special to now have a recipe!

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  4. SO cute. But where do you get gelatin leaves? I'm assuming these are leafs of gelatin, not an actual plant....

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  5. Absolutely beautiful!! Perfect to use up those summer strawberries.

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  6. I wish we had a huge crop of strawberries to do this with! It looks so perfect! :)

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  7. Something nice and sweet for Valentines! Thanks for this one. I like strawberries a lot. And this one is something I am so excited to try.

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  8. They look like little jewels!

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  9. Yum! They look similar to pate de fruit.

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  10. Lovely, Patricia. And just in time for Valentine's Day. What a great treat...and are those champagne glasses?

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  11. I love, love that magazine, the strawberry jube looks like a bit with turkish delight. Must be delicious.

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  12. Gorgeous little ruby red cubes! What a great way to use berries!

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  13. CarinE, thank you for stopping by!

    Rachael, thank you!

    Laura, thank you for visiting! I'm glad the recipe will be useful for you!

    Abby, Nigella uses gelatin leaves all the time, have you seen her doing that on her show? And it's not a plant. :)

    Anh, thank you!

    How to eat a cupcake, tks!

    Mark, thank you, my friend! I'm so glad you like the jubes!

    Joey, thank you!

    Anna, indeed!

    Barbara, they are. ;)

    Anna, that magazine and Donna Hay's are my all time favorites. :)
    Thank you!

    Lisa, thank you!

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  14. Oh dear, I love these jewel-like candies. Now I can't wait until strawberry season.

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  15. Any conversion of the gelatin leaves to powdered? Also, do the jubes "sweat" once dredged in sugar? This is major problem of mine when making jelly candies.

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  16. Marysol, I love strawberry season, too!

    Lisa, I'm sorry but I do not have a conversion measurement - have you tried looking in the gelatin package? Some here in Brazil have that kind of info.
    My jubes did sweat a bit, but nothing serious.

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  17. Thanks, Patricia! I'll take a look at the packaging. Can't wait to try these -- so springy and summery! So technicolor!

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