Chocolate Jelly

Chocolate Jelly
1 envelope Knox unflavored gelatin
1 3/4 cups boiling water
1/4 cup cold water
1 ½ oz. chocolate (1 1/2 cup chocolate bits)
2 tablespoonfuls sugar
1 teaspoonful vanilla
Pinch of salt
Dairy-free whipped cream (optional)
Chopped nuts (optional)
Dairy-free chocolate sauce (optional)

Bring 1 3/4 cups water to a boil in a saucepan. Add salt and chocolate. Cook, stirring until chocolate melts. Soften gelatin in 1/4 cup cold water and pour boiling mixture over it. Stir until gelatin is dissolved and add sugar and vanilla. Serve with whipped cream, chopped nuts, or chocolate sauce.

Note: This is not a pudding but substituting a dairy-free milk or cream for the water will produce a creamier texture.

Original Recipe
Charles B. Knox Gelatine Co.’s Dainty Desserts for Dainty People, c. 1920

1 envelope Knox Sparkling Gelatine
1 pint boiling water
*Unk. amount cold water
1 ½ square chocolate
2 tablespoonfuls sugar
1 teaspoonful vanilla
Pinch of salt

Put boiling water, salt and chocolate in a sauce pan. Cook, stirring until chocolate melts. Let boil five minutes. Soften gelatine in one cup cold water and pour boiling mixture over it. Stir until gelatine is dissolved and add sugar and vanilla. Serve with whip cream.

Additional thoughts: Several things drew me to this recipe. For one, I love chocolate, and let’s be honest, most of us celebrate chocolate in any form! I figured that it would be a crowd-pleaser, despite its less colorful and opaque appearance.

Secondly, I was curious about the taste and texture now that the combination of gelatin and chocolate has disappeared completely from the American diet. It’s closest contemporary relative, JELL-O chocolate pudding, is a truly distant descendant! I learned through my review of cookbooks and booklets from the early 1900s that the dessert was promoted and featured to a point that the JELL-O company marketed a chocolate gelatin product. In these recipes, walnuts are suggested as a complement, which is why they are included in the adapted recipe. This is yet another reminder of changing culinary tastes and the existence of food trends at every age.

Another reason this recipe interested me was the ability to control the quality of the chocolate, and I started to think that this recipe might pass as a fancy version of pudding, perhaps the dessert for the adult table when more kid-friendly desserts were being served elsewhere. While I loved the taste of this jelly, my dedicated tasting team was unimpressed with its lack of creaminess. A dairy-free milk alternative may be the solution for those who like a more substantial dessert, as would the addition of dairy-free whipped cream to the serving table.

This Knox recipe was one of many that I found featuring chocolate! Stay tuned to learn more about others, including the chocolate variation of the once-ubiquitous “Bavarian Cream.”