How grown up can jelly be?

I used to live in a large group house in DC and every year we would throw a massive Halloween party. We would usually have between 150-200 people show up at this party. So yea. We needed a lot of booze.

One of the housemates was always on Jello shot duty. We’d make a few hundred of them and they were always a big hit.

While it’s pretty quick to mix some booze with some Jello and get a really tasty shot, sometimes you may want to class it up a bit.

When that times comes, ditch the plastic cups, put aside the box mix, and make these suckers.

Lemon Drop Jelly Shots

Yield: 25 shots (8x8 pan)

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes + 6 hours chill time

Ingredients:

Lemon Syrup:
4 large lemons, cut into eighths
2 Cups water
1 1/2 Cups sugar

Shots:
2 Cups lemon Syrup (you may have some left over)
1/2 Cup water
4 envelopes gelatin (1 ounce)
1/2 Cup Triple Sec or Cointreau
1 1/2 Cups vodka
Large raw sugar for garnish

Directions:

1) For syrup, cut lemons into eighths and add to a medium pot along with sugar and water. Put over medium heat.

2) As syrup heats, stir regularly and mash the lemons to get out juice and oils from the rind.

3) Once simmering, stir for 5 minutes and then remove from heat to cool a bit.

4) Strain to remove any lemon pieces.

5) Add water to measured amount of syrup and sprinkle gelatin over the top.

6) Heat mixture over low heat and stir to dissolve gelatin. It might take 5-10 minutes to get it all dissolved.

7) Remove from heat and add in booze.

8) Pour into an 8x8 dish and refrigerate for at least 6 hours.

9) Cut into cubes with a sharp, hot knife (run it under hot water).

10) Serve cubes sprinkled with raw sugar.

Adapted from the Jelly Shot Test Kitchen.

A Lemon Syrup

Most of the bitter-sweet flavor in these jelly shots comes from a strong lemon syrup. The basics are pretty simple. Just lemons and sugar!

Basics.

Cut your lemons into eighths and add them to a medium pot with the sugar. Add the water and put this over medium heat.

This will smell good!

As this gets hot and cooks, use a large spoon or something to mush the lemons down. Try to press out the juice.

If you’re wondering why you can’t just juice the lemons and add the juice it’s because there is tons of wonderful lemon flavor in the rind. As they get hot, they’ll release all sorts of awesome lemon oils that will make your syrup way more flavorful.

So bring this syrup to a simmer, mashing the lemons the whole time, and let it simmer for about five minutes.

You should see something like this!

Ummm... don't stick your finger in this.

Your syrup is done now. I recommend straining it just to get out any lemon bits and then you can immediately use it in your shots!

The Shots!

Instead of Jello, we’re using straight gelatin for these guys. This results in a really firm jelly that tastes exactly like what you put in it.

Oh. And you’ll need some booze!

Lots of gelatin!

Mix the syrup with some water and sprinkle the gelatin over the liquid. Let this sit for a few minutes and the gelatin should start to dissolve.

You’ll need to heat this up ultimately to dissolve all the gelatin. So you can either mix it in a pot over low heat, or mix it in a metal bowl and put the bowl over some simmering water (double boiler) to slowly heat the mixer.

I did it the second way just because I was worried about burning the sugar. You can do it either way though if you’re careful.

Great blooming gelatin!

Note that this is a lot of gelatin. It might take you 5-10 minutes of stirring as the liquid gets hot before all of it is dissolved. Take your time. There’s no rush.

Once all the gelatin is dissolved, pull the jelly mixture off the heat and add your booze!

Important note: Don’t continue to cook or heat the mixture after you add the liquor. Alcohol evaporates really quickly and if you continue to heat it you’ll lose all the punch in the shots!

Once everything is mixed together, you should have this beautiful shimmering liquid that will smell like an alcoholic lemonade stand.

All ready!

Pour this into an 8×8 dish and stick it in the fridge for at least 6 hours. That was enough to get mine to set completely. Ideally you can do overnight, but 6 hours should do the trick.

When cutting the squares, the easiest way to do it is to run your knife under hot water and then it should slice right through the jelly.

You could obviously make these as big or small as you want, but I found that a 5×5 cut, yielding 25 cubes, was a perfect size.

A hot knife is your friend.

I scooped these into some individual mini-cupcake tins and sprinkled them with a good amount of raw sugar.

The shots themselves are pretty tart and lemony (which is good) so the sugar helps cut that a bit.

If you’re curious, I did the math and each of these shots has about 2/3 of an ounce of booze in it. So if you eat three or four of these, it’s basically like having a martini. And you could eat a few of these way faster than you could drink a martini.

So be careful!

But yea. They are tasty and perfect on a hot summer day!

The worms are pretty straightforward to make. Basically they are a really sturdy gelatin mold that you mix with cream to produce a kind of milky texture. The cream also gives the worms some great color. Why are these worms of doom? Well, just look at them?! Don’t they fill you with a sense of dread?

Creepy!

There are just a few simple ingredients for these guys. You can make 100 worms for under $10 depending on Oreo costs in your neck of the woods. They were definitely the most expensive part for me.

Bloody Worms of Doom

Yield: 50 worms.

Prep Time: 30 minutes + chill time

Total Time: 50 minutes + chill time

Ingredients:

100 flexible party straws
1 6 ounce box of red Jell-o flavoring of your choice (raspberry, cherry, or strawberry are your options I think)
4 packages gelatin.
4 Cups boiling water
1 Cup heavy cream
15 drops green food coloring
20 Oreo cookies (You could set the out without the dirt, but the dirt is pretty tasty honestly.)
Wax paper
An empty paper milk carton or a tall jar or plastic container to keep the worms in while they harden.

Directions:

1) Pour Jell-O and 4 packages of gelatin ingredients all into a large boil and mix them up well. Make sure you don’t have areas of just gelatin or it might not distribute well and you’ll have jelly clumps in your worms!

2) Add 4 cups of boiling water and stir it up well until everything is dissolved.

3) Set the bowl in the fridge for about 20 minutes until the liquid is room temperature. SET A TIMER because if you forget about it, it will turn into a very large red block which will be very hard to re-liquefy.

4) While your mixture is cooling, you can get your straws ready. The ones with the bendy necks work best because they give the end of the worm some texture. Make sure you extend the straws to the maximum length by pulling on the ends. Stretch them all out and then secure them with a rubber band so you have one big bundle. If you use the bendy neck straws, make sure to put the bendy necks at the bottom of your container!

5) Once your bundle is together, stick it in a milk carton (washed).

6) Once mixture is room temperature, add cup of cream. Mix it up well. Add green food coloring.

7) Whisk the food coloring and everything together and then pour it over straws and fill up the container.

8) Let this chill in your fridge overnight or for at least 8 hours.

9) Cut apart your carton and get your straws separated from the mold. Then lay out 12 inches or so of wax paper and starting from the non-bendy end of the straw, squeeze out the worm using your fingers! If the straw or your hands get slippery, have some paper towels on hand to dry out.

10) Once you squeeze the worms out on the wax paper and have an even row of worms, put another layer of wax paper right on top of the worms and keep squeezing1Then add one more layer of wax paper over the very top layer and you can roll up the worms in a nice little package!

11) Take 20 or so Oreos and remove the fillings with a spoon. Then give the cookies a spin in a food processor or you can just crush them up by hand. Toss the worms in the dirt and pile everything up in a big bowl!

Adapted from an Idea Room recipe.

Making the mixture

If you’ve ever made Jell-o then you can probably handle this. First, get your Jell-o ready along with your 4 packages of gelatin.

Worms deconstructed.

Pour these ingredients all into a large boil and mix them up well. Make sure you don’t have areas of just gelatin or it might not distribute well and you’ll have jelly clumps in your worms!

This is how it should NOT look.

Mix this up well. Clumps of gelatin are very bad.

For regular Jell-o you mix some hot and some cold water but for this we want to use all hot water or we’ll run the risk of not dissolving everything well. That’s a LOT of gelatin in the bowl and want to make sure it gets all dissolved.

For regular gelatin users, there’s no need to “bloom” the gelatin for this recipe. By mixing it together with the Jell-o packet it distributes the gelatin crystals enough to avoid clumping.

Anyway, then add 4 cups of boiling water and stir it up well until everything is dissolved!

Kind of slimey.

Cool the mixture

We need to add some cream to this, but don’t do it now! I made this mistake the first time I did it because I wasn’t thinking and my cream immediately curdled and I had to start all over. To do it correctly, set your bowl in the fridge for about 20 minutes until the liquid is room temperature. SET A TIMER because if you forget about it, it will turn into a very large red block which will be very hard to re-liquefy.

Worm molds

While your mixture is cooling, you can get your straws ready. The ones with the bendy necks work best because they give the end of the worm some texture. Make sure you extend the straws to the maximum length by pulling on the ends. Stretch them all out and then secure them with a rubber band so you have one big bundle.

Worm bodies.

You might think that 100 straws is a lot, but it really doesn’t take that long to handle them. Once your bundle is together, stick it in your carton or container. I decided to use a very large, tall jar I use to store pasta normally.

In hindsight, I would’ve used a milk carton (washed obviously) because these straws were a pain in the neck to remove once they were solidified and with the milk carton you can just cut it apart.

One note on straws

If you use the bendy neck straws, make sure to put the bendy necks at the bottom of your container! If they are at the top, your mixture might not fill up high enough to get to the bendy part and you’ll have non-textured worms. If I went to a Halloween party and they had non-textured worms, I would probably leave. Just saying.

In retrospect, a carton might be easier.

Finishing the mixture

Once your mixture is room temperature, add your cup of cream. Mix it up well.

Cool.

Also add your green food coloring now which gives the worms a bit more bloody and doom-like coloring.

Color drops!

Note on the cream: It’s pretty hard to get your cream completely combined. It’s okay if there are some dots of cream in there. It also might separate a bit in the final product, but it should still harden without a problem.

Whisk the food coloring and everything together and then pour it over your straws and fill up your container. It probably won’t go all the way up the straws. Let this chill in your fridge overnight or for at least 8 hours.

Making the worms

Ok. Now for the fun part. Cut apart your carton and get your straws separated from the mold. Then lay out 12 inches or so of wax paper and starting from the non-bendy end of the straw, squeeze out the worm using your fingers! If the straw or your hands get slippery, have some paper towels on hand to dry out.

This is one lonely worm:

Works like a charm! Wax paper is key.

I will say that it does take about 20 minutes to actually get all the worms out of the straws. For me, it was fun for about the first 30 worms. Then it got old. If I would’ve had like two helpers it would’ve been perfect.

Once you squeeze the worms out on the wax paper and have an even row of worms, put another layer of wax paper right on top of the worms and keep squeezing! I did 3 layers of 33 worms each. Then add one more layer of wax paper over the very top layer and you can roll up the worms in a nice little package!

100 worms.

You can keep this in the fridge for a few days without a problem until you need them.

Want to see what I was talking about how I chose the wrong vessel for keeping the straws in place? I had to pry each straw out of this disaster:

Art!

A carton would’ve been much easier.

Making the dirt

Take 20 or so Oreos and remove the fillings with a spoon. Then give the cookies a spin in a food processor or you can just crush them up by hand. Toss the worms in the dirt and pile everything up in a big bowl!

Tastes great with the dirt mixed in.

This was kind of a long post, but now you know how to make worms!

These weren’t really that much work although if you’re like me, they will leave your kitchen and fingers covered with a faint red coating. But seriously, the final product is pretty cool I think.