Vegetarian Jelly - Any Tips?

[NotQuiteCockney]

Ok, I've got agar-agar. I tried making jelly with cranberry (juice drink, I know, I know) and some dried cranberries, and it tasted ok, but didn't really gel. It was properly cold by the time I served it, but it was a bit loose.

The instructions on the agar-agar were really specific, and I followed them pretty closely. (quantities, and also no stirring before boiling, then stir) The agar agar definately did melt. DH thinks the acid in the juice kept it from gelling?

Any ideas?

your dh is probably right. I know pineapple doesn't work for that reason.

Try strawberries next time?

just noticed my name.

Ah, should have added, I wanted to do this as jelly for a kids' thing on Thursday. And have bought lots of cranberry juice drink to make it.

Could add apple juice, I guess, but that's still pretty acidic, isn't it?

Perhaps it's just a balance thing. Do you think you need more sugar? Or more cranberries?

I do a cranberry sauce every year that is just fresh cranberries, wine, sugar, cinnamon stick and orange zest. It always thickens up nicely.

Yeah, cranberry sauce is lovely, but I'm trying to make jelly, to serve to kids. (Ok, my kids would probably eat cranberry sauce, but this is for a group of other kids.)

More sugar might help, I'll try it, I guess. It wasn't impossible, without the sugar, but it just wasn't quite jelly.

Right, I know. What I meant was that this sauce gets very thick - pretty close to a jelly consistency.

we usually buy it, asdas own brand in sachets is veggie. have never noticed my kids going loopy afterwards if thats what you are worried about

Did it boil for long enough?

I've looked it up in my books and the 3 that mention it all say it needs to boil for 5 mins.

Haven't made it for a while but I remember combinations of apple/orange/pineapple juice working well.
You can get Just Wholefoods sachets - no artificial colours or flavours but no nutrition and doesn't taste nearly as good as homemade.

I'll try boiling it longer. I think our local health food store has the natural sachets, but I thought juice would be less gross. It's for our co-op, and we're meant to avoid processed food, hence trying to make it from scratch, more or less. (ok, I lie, I just wanted to try making it)