Have you given any thought to your New Year’s Eve plans? Since having kids, we keep it pretty low key (“Wake me up when the ball drops!”), but it’s still nice to commemorate the occasion with a special treat. Steph asked me if I could come up with a spin on champagne jello shots for the holiday (she was inspired by a post at Perpetually Engaged) and I was all over it!
L to R: champagne jello with sugared cranberries and rosemary, pomegranate jello with sugared raspberry, a second line of champagne jello, clementine jello with sugared raspberry and sliced orange.
I really liked the champagne jello idea, but I thought we could make the jello a little easier to handle by using plastic push-up pops as a mold. This means you don’t have to cut perfect jello squares (phew!). The push-up pops can be passed out quickly at midnight and no one will have sticky hands after eating them, win-win!
I put together the stand for the pops in about five minutes by wrapping an empty cardboard box with festive paper and poking a dozen holes in the box with a pen. Pretty easy. There are lots of other dreamy ideas out there for DIY push-up pop/cake pop trays, too – a quick web or Pinterest search will give you some more inspiration.
And we can’t forget the kiddos, can we? I know my kids would be pretty bummed if Mom and Dad were eating jello without them. In order to make these kid-friendly (or just non-alcoholic), I simply substituted the champagne for sparkling fruit juice. We used sparkling pomegranate and clementine juice for the pops pictured, but apple, grape, pear or other sparkling juice would be yummy, too.
There was a little planning ahead required to buy the pop containers, but other than that, this was a project that was finished in just a few hours. Schedule-friendly and kid-approved!
Sparkling Jello Push Pops
This recipes makes about 1 dozen push pops. You will need empty plastic push-up pops, which can be found online. I purchased mine on Amazon. They are washable and reusable, so you can use them for future recipes as well.
Ingredients:
- 20 ounces plus 10 ounces (30 ounces total) champagne, sparkling wine, or sparkling juice
- 2 tablespoons sugar (omit if you are using sparkling juice)
- 6 envelopes or 6 tablespoons unflavored gelatin
- fruit, herbs, whipped cream or decorative food picks for topping
Directions:
- Pour 20 ounces of your sparkling liquid into a medium saucepan. Add sugar for champagne or sparkling wine, but not for sparkling juices (the juice will be sweet enough). Sprinkle the gelatin over top of the liquid and let sit for a few minutes until the gelatin starts to bloom (that means the white powder disappears and the gelatin starts to activate in the liquid).
- Put the saucepan over low heat and whisk lightly until the gelatin is completely dissolved. You will know it is dissolved if you dip your finger into the liquid, rub your fingers together and the liquid is smooth – you don’t feel any grit or granules. Take it off the heat and mix with the remaining 10 ounces of liquid. Let the liquid rest until the foam dies down.
- Pour your liquid into the push-up pop container. (I found the best way to do this was to insert the disc into the main piece and then take out the stick so the container would sit flat for pouring and setting. I then gently pushed the sticks back in after the jello was set and I was assembling the toppings. You could also place your pops into your tray ahead of time, but they may not set completely level.) Let cool in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours or until the jello is set.
- Remove from the fridge and add toppings. Serve cold.
*To make the sugared fruit, dip the fruit in cooled simple syrup (1/2 cup sugar dissolved on the stove in 1/2 cup water, then cooled), then roll in coarse sugar and cool in the fridge.
*Post contains affiliate links.
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