The Jujup Experiment

Today is December 1st and in our house it's the day when we start playing X'mas carols. Sort of officially ringing in the X'mas season. So to usher in the festive spirit on the blog, here is my first post of X'mas. Two new flavour combinations for jujups...

Jujup making has been a part of our family's Christmas tradition for years now. My mom is an expert and last year, when we decided to spend Christmas in Gurgaon instead of going home to Baroda, I tried my hand at them for the first time. They turned out pretty well. Personally, I have never been a fan of these jelly sweets, but the hubby is and well it's a tradition... 

This year I decided to experiment with some new flavour combinations. Last year I made strawberry and peppermint, but I find these flavours to taste very synthetic in jujups, although I know that kids, and a lot of grown ups love them :) This time, I wanted to gourmet things up a bit. I tried orange & cinnamon and mulled wine. They came out pretty nicely even if I do say so myself :) Even I found myself popping a few of these jellies into my mouth when no one was looking... These jujups actually taste like Christmas :)

Jujups are not too difficult to make actually, they are just a little messy and you need a little patience. You can see the basic jujup recipe that I made last year, here. 

Orange & Cinnamon Jujups

Follow the basic jujup recipe and when it comes time to add the flavouring, add 1 tsp cinnamon powder that has been sieved, 3 tsps of orange extract or essence and 2 tsps vanilla extract or essence. and for the colouring, I added half a tsp of black food coloring. This will give the mixture an amber color.

Follow the instructions for cooling as mentioned in the basic recipe. When coating with castor sugar, add 2 tsp of sieved cinnamon powder to the castor sugar. 

Mulled Wine Jujups

For the gelatin mixture...
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 water
50 g gelatin granules

For the sugar syrup
400 g sugar
1 cup dry red wine (use a really cheap one)
1 cup orange juice
1/4 cup water
1 tsp cinnamon powder (sieved) 
1/4 tsp clove powder (sieved) 
1/4 tsp cardamom powder
4 star anise 

For the sugar coating
Castor sugar
1 tsp cinnamon powder (sieved) 
1/4 tsp clove powder (sieved) 
1/4 tsp cardamom powder

Follow the instructions for making the gelatin mixture as in the basic recipe, except use the ingredients mentioned here.

For the sugar syrup mixture, add the sugar, wine, orange juice, star anise and water to a pot and heat on a low flame till the sugar dissolves. Once the sugar has dissolved, raise the heat and let it come to boil. Now add the spice powders and stir well. Strain this mixture and return to pot and reduce the heat to lowest flame. Carefully stir in the gelatin mixture and stir with whisk until the gelatin has dissolved completely. Raise the heat slightly and continue to stir. At this point you must keep watch on this mixture as it may start to boil over. 

Boil and continuously stir this mixture for about 30-45 minutes (this is the part that requires patience). Around the 30-40 minute mark you will notice that when you dip your spoon into the liquid and remove, a string of the syrup will form. If the string is still runny, continue to heat. Once the string starts forming and setting without immediately falling back into the pot, the mixture is ready. Pour into a greased tray as mentioned in the basic recipe and cool for a minimum of 12 hours. 

To cut and coat the jujups, once again follow the basic recipe, except instead of plain castor sugar, use ingredients mentioned in this recipe. Here are some pics to give you an idea of the coating process. Remember that you will need to keep the sugar coated jujups open in a plate for at least 12 hours so that they get a chance to dry a little more. Once this is done, pack in an airtight container. 

I use a brownie tin to set the jujups

Cut the set jelly into strips and coat with sugar like in the pic. 

The cut this sugar coated strip into squares and make sure 

to coat every surface with the sugar mixture. 

[All images by Shalini Pereira. Please do not use without prior written permission]