Spring and summer impress with a variety of fruits, colorful and healthy. What can we do with them: cook, bake, freeze, dry, dry. All this is correct and good, but there is another way to use such healthy fruits - jelly.
Making jelly is very easy these days, because shops and supermarkets are filled with a variety of ready-made products made from dry powder, and they are packaged in packs. Of course, few people think about the beneficial properties of such a product, because it contains a large number of dyes, flavors and chemical components.
Kissel is a purely Russian drink; in ancient times it was prepared from oatmeal, or rather, from their decoction. Now this drink is prepared from:
- fresh and frozen berries;
- rhubarb;
- jam;
- oatmeal;
- Hercules;
- ready-made powder with added starch -
and all this can be done quite quickly at home.
Modern housewives may have a question about how to properly prepare jelly so that it is thick and the fruit retains its beneficial properties. In this article we will talk about this.
The right drink
Kissel has a long history. In fact, the modern, more simplified recipe is very different from the one our ancestors used. Today, everyone is accustomed to the fact that the drink must be liquid enough to be drunk; in ancient times, jelly was cooked thick and most often simply served with main courses as an appetizer. This dish was prepared from oats or oat flakes, or rather, the broth itself was used, and, of course, with the addition of starch for greater thickness.
Now to prepare the drink you need two components: starch and a liquid base and a little more patience. The base can be water, milk, juice, fruit decoctions, various ready-made drinks, and it is cooked with the addition of fresh and frozen berries, rhubarb and even rolled oats or oatmeal. To make the jelly thick enough (it all depends on your desire) you need to add a little starch.
Follow these simple rules, and your jelly will be very tasty and healthy:
- Do not prepare a berry drink in an aluminum pan, because... it can change its bright color to a mass that is quite unpleasant in appearance.
- Before diluting the starch, boil the water, and only then mix the ingredients.
- After cooking, the starch must be immediately added to the liquid, stirring constantly with a spoon, otherwise it will settle to the bottom of the pan.
- It is not advisable to cook the mixture for a long time, otherwise it will lose its thickness. To make the jelly thick, boil it for about a minute and leave to cool. Then pour the finished product into containers and place in the refrigerator. Of course, you can drink it hot if you wish.
- If someone doesn't like the top layer of foam, just sprinkle the surface with sugar or cover with a towel.
By following these tips, you can easily brew a drink for the whole family; all you have to do is sort through the many recipes and various ingredients.
How to prepare jelly for babies
You need to cook jelly for your baby in an enamel container and only before feeding. It is not recommended to prepare it for future use and reheat it, since during storage and reheating, beneficial properties are lost and bacteria may appear.
Oatmeal jelly for babies
Oatmeal jelly is an ideal food for babies. It contains many vitamins A, B, E. It increases vitality and helps strengthen the immune system.
To prepare jelly you will need: a glass of milk, one hundred grams of rolled oat flakes, three teaspoons of sugar, a pinch of salt, half a glass of water. Pour the flakes with water and leave for twelve hours in a warm place. Then you need to strain and squeeze. Add salt, sugar and milk, then mix and put on fire. Cook over low heat until thickened, stirring constantly.
Milk jelly for babies
Milk jelly is very useful for infants. It will be a delicious and healthy nutritious dessert. To prepare it you will need: one teaspoon of potato starch, a tablespoon of vanilla sugar, a glass of milk and two tablespoons of sugar. Boil one hundred and fifty grams of milk, add sugar. Dissolve the starch in the remaining milk and strain. Gradually add starch to hot milk and sugar, stir. Cook over low heat for ten minutes, stirring continuously. Then add vanilla sugar and stir well. Pour the jelly into a cup and cool.
Berry jelly for babies
To diversify your baby's diet, use berry jelly. They can be prepared from one or several varieties of berries. To prepare the drink you need to take two tablespoons of berries. It could be cranberries, raspberries, cherries or currants. Sort the berries, pour boiling water over them and mash with a spoon. Squeeze out a teaspoon of juice and place in a cool place in a sealed container. Pour a glass of boiling water over the berry pomace, put it on the fire until steam appears and strain. Two teaspoons of potato flour are diluted in one quarter of the broth. The rest of the broth is brought to a boil, adding three teaspoons of sugar and, stirring, adding diluted starch. The jelly should boil again, after which we pour it into another container. When it cools down, add the cooled berry juice.
Here is another recipe for cherry jelly. You will need a glass of cherries, half a liter of water, a tablespoon of sugar and starch. Remove the pits from the cherries. Boil water and add berries and sugar, then reduce the heat a little. We dilute starch in a small amount of cold water. Pour it into the boiling mixture and, stirring, bring to a thick state.
To prepare jelly from dried blueberries, take twenty grams of washed berries and place in an enamel pan. Pour boiling water in the amount of three hundred grams and leave for two hours. Then simmer over low heat for fifteen minutes. Strain the broth and mash the berries. Then pour in the broth and boil again for ten minutes. Strain and squeeze out the fruit. Dilute the starch in a quarter of the prepared broth and strain again. Add sugar syrup to another part, and, bringing to a boil, pour in potato starch. Kissel for the baby is ready.
Russian drink recipes
Kissel is very simple! First of all, this is water, “filling” and a substance for thickness. And everything else is your imagination and culinary creativity. You can use anything: jam, frozen berries and fruits, chocolate, jelly can even be made from rhubarb.
Not only do you use part of the starch as a thickener, you can also experiment and add oatmeal, oats or rolled oats. Kissel can be prepared as a drink or eaten directly with a spoon, it’s up to you.
All recipes are accessible and free and easy to prepare at home.
At what age can a child be given jelly?
Nutritionists advise giving jelly to children starting at the age of eight months. You can add such complementary foods to your baby’s diet, starting with a few spoons, gradually increasing the number of spoons. Kissel contains a lot of starch; it is quite high in calories and can be used for complementary feeding of children who are underweight.
Start giving jelly with one or two spoons
Fresh berry drink
So, for cooking we need 300 g of any berries, 3 tbsp. l. starch (preferably in heaps) and, depending on your preferences, sugar from 6 to 10 tbsp. l. for three liters of any base you choose.
Before you begin, rinse the berries thoroughly under water, place them in a deep saucepan, add the base and place the mixture over low heat. While the mixture is boiling, start preparing the starch. To do this, dilute the selected amount of starch with water at room temperature, move carefully and set aside for now.
After the mixture boils, remove all the berries with a spoon or gauze and slowly pour in the starch in a thin stream. Add the required amount of sugar and mix well. Wait for the mixture to boil and turn it off, it is completely ready for use. You can serve the drink hot, or you can cool it and drink it cold.
Perhaps, after milk, jelly is the most children's drink, although adults drink it with no less pleasure. We are not talking about those bright sachets that can be purchased in any supermarket and diluted with boiling water, but about a real, healthy drink made from fresh and natural products.
Even adults, before buying such jelly, should think about and read the composition, which contains dyes and other ingredients that are not the most healthy for health. And giving such a drink to a baby is out of the question. If you don’t yet know how to cook jelly for a child, then we will teach you this simple five-minute task.
Not all mothers know when to give jelly to a child, but it’s clear that there are more adapted drinks for a baby up to a year old, and it’s better to hold off on this option for now. But by the age of one and a half years or a little earlier, you can already treat your child with a healthy vitamin infusion.
Cranberry jelly for children
Cranberry jelly is very healthy for children - it contains a lot of vitamin C and other important microelements. You need to drink it a little warm - it’s both tastier and healthier, because it is known that food in the stomach is poorly digested and not absorbed if washed down with cold liquid.
Ingredients:
- fresh or frozen cranberries – 100 g;
- water – 400 ml;
- sugar – 4 tbsp;
- starch - 2 tbsp.
Preparation
While water is boiling in a saucepan, the berries are washed and crushed with a masher. If the cranberries are left whole, they will not soon release their juice to the infusion, and some of the nutrients will be lost, since most children do not like the berry either in compote or in jelly.
Sugar and cranberries are added to boiling water and brought to a boil again, after which it is simmered over low heat. In a separate bowl, dilute the starch in 100 ml of cold water and pour it in a thin stream into a saucepan with almost finished jelly, stirring constantly. A couple more minutes and the aromatic drink is ready!
After cooling the jelly to 50°C, you can offer it to your child. If you want to cook it thicker, you should double the portion of starch. The same recipe is used to make jelly from other berries.
Milk jelly for children
If your baby loves milk, then there is a recipe for jelly for a child based on his favorite drink.
Ingredients:
- milk – 2 tbsp;
- starch - 1 tbsp;
- sugar – 1 tbsp;
- water – 0.2 tbsp.
Preparation
In a glass of cool water, dilute the starch and pour it in a thin stream, stirring constantly, into a saucepan with boiling milk. Having added sugar, we simmer our drink for another five minutes, and after cooling the jelly is ready for use.
Oatmeal jelly for children
Very useful for children suffering from dysbacteriosis and constipation, jelly made from oatmeal, without starch.
Ingredients:
- oatmeal or ground sifted flakes - 2 tbsp;
- sugar – 3 tbsp;
- water – 6 tbsp;
- salt.
Preparation
At night, pour cold water over the oatmeal and mix thoroughly. In the morning, use a sieve to strain the swollen mixture, add sugar and salt to the liquid part, and cook until it thickens.
Now you know how to prepare jelly for a child from the simplest and most affordable ingredients. To give this vitamin drink in winter, you should take care of freezing berries for it in the summer.
Frozen berry jelly
This version of our drink is suitable for any time of year, and if in the winter season we cannot always have fresh berries and fruits, we will prepare a drink from frozen berries. In the supermarket you can buy packs with a variety of frozen berries. Take a pan and add two liters of water.
Then we do everything as described above: put the container on the fire and bring to a boil, then prepare the thickener - take 4 tbsp. l. starch and mix them with water.
After your “masterpiece” boils, select the berries from the container and add a thickener to the pan. The mixture should boil for about a minute, and you can turn it off. The drink is ready to use.
Homemade or from the store?
In baby food, jelly made from industrially produced bags and briquettes is taboo. There are no useful ingredients in them, while there are enough dyes, flavors and preservatives.
You need to prepare the drink yourself from fresh or frozen fruit.
Give your child only fresh jelly and warm.
Reheating after storage in the refrigerator is excluded.
Pay attention to the cooking technology:
- The juice is first squeezed out of crushed fruits and berries.
- The cake undergoes a longer heat treatment, which is filtered after cooking.
- The squeezed juice is added at the end of cooking to preserve as many of the valuable ingredients as possible.
Use only enamel dishes for cooking, and plastic graters and a sieve for chopping and straining.
Miracle of jam
Many people didn’t even suspect that it was possible to make jelly from jam, let’s make sure of this. We will need a jar of jam, which needs to be dissolved in the base. In this case, it is advisable to use water as a base and continue to work according to the same scheme.
Of course, nothing stops you from showing your ingenuity and creative thinking. Jam can be different or even combined. Don’t forget to add a little starch for thickness, and your jam jelly will be delicious, especially in winter, when it’s so nice to warm up and drink such a delicious drink.
Every housewife has a jar of jam at home, but if not, you can easily buy it in the store.
Kissel with the addition of oatmeal or rolled oats
This recipe for rolled oatmeal jelly replaces the use of starch and will be more healthy. It belongs to medicinal products, was patented by a doctor and was named Izotov’s jelly. To prepare it, you need to take 0.5 kg of oatmeal or rolled oats, 2 liters of water and 150 ml of kefir.
All components must be placed in a sterile jar and mixed. Such a “talker” should stand with the lid closed for at least two days. Then the mixture should be ground through a fine sieve several times, and you will now have two mixtures, one is a cloudy extract from oatmeal, and the other is the oatmeal itself.
You will work with the liquid in the future, or rather, after it has been in the jar for another day. The next day, two layers form: a transparent and a white precipitate.
Drink the clear liquid immediately, and take five tablespoons from the sediment and dilute them in 2 liters of water. Next you need to pour a little salt, sugar and 50 g of butter into the mixture.
When the broth boils, turn it off; as soon as the jelly has cooled, it will become very thick. You can take it for breakfast and store the base in the refrigerator for up to three weeks. In the same way you can make jelly from rolled oats.
Children's jelly recipes
The main ingredients of any jelly are fruits or berries, starch and sweetener.
Pumpkin jelly
Ingredients:
- fresh pumpkin juice - glass
- fructose - 1 tsp.
- potato starch - 1 tsp.
- water - 2 cups, cinnamon (to taste)
Cooking algorithm:
- Dilute the juice with water, mix thoroughly and boil
- Pre-soak the starch in a small amount of water and add it to the pumpkin broth along with sugar, leave to simmer over low heat for 5 minutes.
- Add cinnamon to the finished drink and cool the jelly to room temperature.
Blueberry jelly
Ingredients:
- dried berries - 20 grams
- potato starch - 1 tbsp.
- water - 300 ml
- sugar syrup - 25 ml (or less)
Cooking algorithm:
- Rinse the berries in water, place in a deep saucepan, and pour boiling water over them.
- The blueberries should sit for 2 hours, then boil them for 15 minutes.
- Strain the broth, mash the berries thoroughly and add juice again. Cook for another 10 minutes.
- Strain the drink and squeeze the blueberries a second time. Pour a little broth into a separate container, cool and dilute the starch in it.
- Pour sugar syrup and starch solution into the blueberry broth and bring to a boil.
Dried fruit jelly
Recipes for such drinks are convenient to use at any time of the year, experimenting with dried fruits and their ratio in drinks.
Ingredients:
- dried fruits - 30 grams
- purified water - 300 ml,
- starch - 1 tablespoon
- sugar or fructose syrup - 25 grams
Cooking algorithm:
- Sort through the dried fruits, rinse in plenty of running water, slowly bring to a boil and cook, stirring, until the fruits are completely cooked.
- Strain the broth well through the finest sieve or several layers of gauze, squeeze out the dried fruits a little.
- Pour some liquid into a separate container and dilute potato starch in it.
- Bring the broth to a boil, add syrup and starch solution, and boil.
Children can add rosehip decoction, natural juices, and lemon slices to recipes made from dried fruits and berries. If a child is predisposed to constipation and other types of jelly are contraindicated for him, then using dried fruits can solve this problem. Prunes, raisins, and dried apricots, which are famous for their laxative effect, are suitable for the drink.
Milk jelly
Milk-based recipes are suitable for children of any age, unless the child is allergic to lactose or individual intolerant.
Ingredients:
- milk - 2 cups
- potato starch and sugar - 3 tablespoons each
- a little vanilla or cinnamon to taste
Cooking algorithm:
- Boil the milk, make sure it does not burn (stir constantly and skim off any foam that forms).
- Add sugar and starch pre-soaked in milk.
- Cool the drink until warm, add vanillin or vanilla sugar to taste.
In order not to overload the baby's stomach with extra calories, it makes sense to choose low-fat milk or dilute it with water during preparation.
You can add jam or fruit syrup to milk jelly recipes for children. Raspberries and cherries are perfect additions. Such drinks should be given in small doses before main courses, because... they can improve immunity.
Powdered jelly
The easiest and fastest way to prepare a wonderful drink is to simply buy the powder in the store. Take a saucepan, add 1 liter of water and put it on fire. While it is boiling, pour the powder into a container and add a small amount of water, stir well. As soon as the water boils, pour the “powdered” mixture into the pan in a stream and mix. After the mixture has boiled for 1 minute, turn it off and enjoy the prepared drink.
Kissel from frozen berries and fruits, from rolled oats or even jam - all this is not only quite easy to prepare, but also very tasty. Try, experiment and create drinks according to your taste and desire!
