Rainbow Layered Fruit Jelly! (Made With Agar Agar)

In this Instructable, you will learn how to make rainbow layered fruit jelly. This jelly is made from agar agar, which is extracted from seaweed, so it is pretty, tasty and healthy!

This makes a great, easily shareable snack or a dessert while chilled.

• Agar Agar powder
• Fruits (see next step)
• Water / coconut water / any other beverage you choose
• Coconut milk
• Condensed milk

Tools:

• Stirring utensils (chop sticks, spoon, etc.)
• Measuring cups
• Kitchen scale
• Pencil & paper
• Calculator (optional)
• Strainer (optional)
• Cake mold (We used rectangular silicone mold with wood frame. You can choose any of your favorite shape with depth of the mold at least 8cm and sturdy support).
• Cutting board and knife

Pick out fruits/flavors for every color of the rainbow. Here are some ideas (we used the bolded ones):

Red: strawberry, raspberry, cherries (pitted), watermelon, tomato, pomegranate

Orange: orange, apricot, melon, persimmon, papaya

Yellow: mango, banana, yellow peaches

Green: kiwi, green grapes, mint, green tea

Blue: blueberries

Purple: plums, purple yam, purple cabbage

Wash the fruits thoroughly. Chop all of the fruits to a small size as needed.

Since we are making a multi-layered jelly, the size of each layer and the number of layers are important. We need to calculate them in advance.

Measure the length, width, and depth of the container in the inside with centimeters. Because 1 mL = 1 cubic centimeter, this allows you to calculate the volume of the container.

Alternatively, you can fill the mold with water then use a measuring cup to measure the amount of water.

Divide the total volume of the jelly mold by the number of layers you plan to have. This will give you the volume of each layer.

For us this was about 180 mL each layer for 8-layer jelly. we want to have a transparent top layer, 6 fruit layer, and one bottom coconut milk layer.

Put some amount of fruits in the measuring cup, depending on how many fruits you want. I aimed for about a 70% fruit mixture. I think I will have more jelly next time for a smoother cut.

Fill with beverage of your chose until it reaches the mark you calculated (180 mL as calculated earlier).

Strain out the fruits and put them back into the bowl. Notice that the beverage tints nicely by the fruit.

Pour the liquid back into the measuring cup and measure the volume.

The total volume for each layer is 180ml for us, but the volume for fruit could be different, so the volume of liquid is different for each layer. This is important as we need to calculate the right proportion of agar agar powder needed for each layer.

We cannot prepare all agar powder in one shot (layer takes time to solidify and the mixture we made could solidify as well and will be wasted)

We had a packet of 173.6 g of agar powder to be mixed with 48 oz of water according to usage note. So it is about 3.62 (173.6/48) gram of agar powder per 1 oz of liquid.

For each layer, depends on the volume liquid, calculated the amount of agar powder needed in grams.

Record this calculated result of amount of agar powder on paper for each fruit layer.

Note: THE NUMBERS WILL BE DIFFERENT FOR EVERYONE, MINE MAY NOT BE CORRECT.

Measure the first layer of agar agar (the plain layer) to the amount calculated earlier.

Boil the beverage and add the agar agar.

Then turn the stove to low.

Stir until the agar agar is completely dissolved in the liquid.

Pour the agar agar mixture into the mold.

Put into the fridge, cool until the jelly is almost solid but not completely. If it is too solid, it will be too hard for later layers to stick; on the other hand, if it is too soft, the two layers might mix together.

It took us a few tries to get the time right. For us this was around 20 minutes.

When making fruit layers, add the fruit first, spread evenly, then pour the cooked agar agar mixture on.

Repeat for all of the layers in rainbow order.

Mix equal parts coconut water, coconut milk, and condensed milk (60 ml each in our case). Use the same amount of agar as with the plain layer.

Repeat the process: cook, add agar agar powder, stir till the powder completely dissolved under lower heat.

The coconut layer will be thicker than the others, so you may need to spread it around to ensure even coverage.

Once the jelly has cooled and solidified, insert toothpicks around the edge to loosen the jelly.

Tips: you typically do not have to do this for shallow jello but it helps a lot with this relatively tall layered jello.

Place an upside down plate on the jelly mold.

Flip the jelly mold and plate together upside down.

Our mold had a wooden layer to provide support for silicone. If yours does too, remove it.

Remove the rubber mold and the toothpicks.

Cut and serve!