Plum and cinnamon jellies

Plum jellies – to me, this dessert sounded so unusual; my thoughts exactly after reading, a long time ago, that Sean Penn would play a gay man in a movie. Turns out he was perfect for the part and the movie was excellent – and I’m not even a fan of Gus Van Sant.

As for the jellies, I ate 3 out of the 4 portions – I thought you should know that. :)

Plum and cinnamon jellies
from Kitchen: The Best of the Best

6 large plums, stoned and quartered
1 cup + 1 ½ tablespoons (218g) caster (superfine) sugar
1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise, seeds scraped with the back of the knife
750ml water
juice of 1-2 oranges
6 gelatin leaves
sweetened whipped cream, to serve

Put the plums, sugar, cinnamon stick, vanilla seeds and bean and the water into a saucepan. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from the heat and strain the syrup through a fine sieve into a measuring jug. Add enough orange juice to make 600ml plum syrup*.
Soak the gelatin leaves in a large bowl of cold water for 10-15 minutes or until very soft. Return the syrup to the saucepan over low heat, until the syrup is warm. Squeeze any excess liquid from the gelatin leaves, then stir them into the warm syrup. Pour the jelly into four 150ml capacity molds and refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight. Serve with cream.

*I got 600ml without having to add any orange juice

Serves 4