Lemon and Blood Orange Gelée Parfaits
- Total Time
- 1 hour 30 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 1tablespoon powdered unflavored gelatin (1 envelope plus ½ teaspoon)
- 1¼cups water
- 6 to 7tablespoons sugar (to taste; I like to use organic sugar, which is coarser than regular granulated sugar and has an off-white color)
- ⅔cup strained freshly squeezed lemon or Meyer lemon juice
- 2tablespoons powdered unflavored gelatin (2 envelopes plus 1 teaspoon)
- ½cup water
- ¼cup sugar
- 3½cups freshly squeezed blood orange juice, all but ½ cup of it strained of pulp
For the Lemon Layer
For the Blood Orange Layer
Preparation
- Step 1
Get out six 6- or 8-ounce glasses (I use 6-ounce tumblers that taper out from the bottom).
- Step 2
Make the lemon layer. Place the gelatin in a medium bowl and pour in ¼ cup of the water. Allow the gelatin to sit and “bloom” for 10 minutes. Combine the remaining water and the sugar in a saucepan and bring to a bare simmer. Simmer until the sugar has dissolved and remove from the heat. Pour over the gelatin mixture and stir until the gelatin has dissolved. Stir in the lemon juice. Pour about an inch into each of the glasses. Place in the refrigerator until set, about 1 hour.
- Step 3
Make the blood orange gelée. Juice all but one of the oranges and strain. Juice the remaining orange, strain out the seeds but not the pulp, and add to the strained juice. Place the gelatin in a medium bowl and pour in ¼ cup of the water. Allow the gelatin to sit and “bloom” for 10 minutes. Combine the remaining water and the sugar in a saucepan and bring to a bare simmer. Simmer until the sugar has dissolved and remove from the heat. Pour over the gelatin mixture and stir until the gelatin has dissolved. Stir in the orange juice. Make sure that the lemon layers are set and fill the tumblers with the orange juice mixture. If you want, you can make different patterns, alternating stripes of orange and yellow, but you will have to allow each layer to set before you add the next one. Refrigerate for several hours, until set.
- If the gelatin mixture sets up before you are ready to pour it into the glasses, place in a bowl and set over a pan of simmering water. Heat to 80 degrees, until liquid.
- Advance preparation: These will keep in the refrigerator for few days.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
I used 6 blood oranges and they only yielded 1 1/2 cup of juice, which was disappointing. 2 juicy Meyer’s lemon yielded a out 2/3 cup of juice.
How many lemons and oranges should I buy?
While the end result was a delicious, light, and healthy end to our Memorial Day dinner it looked nothing like the photo. We had two layers, a lemonade-looking one on the bottom and an opaque, deep pink top layer. I suspect the dessert in the photo was deliberately made with three? I'd like to know how the vibrancy of the lemon layer was achieved as mine, made with fresh lemons, was far paler in color. I don't think Meyers would have made that much of a difference, but maybe so?
Meyer's have definitely more robust colored and sweeter juice...
I prepared and froze my blood orange juice with some pulp when they were in season. And saved till I made the recipe. Fantastic.
I also made one variation where I did one more layer - pommelo gelee. (not a lot of sugar to go with pommelo)
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