Recipe: Christmas Jelly

**Hi guys, today I have a Christmas recipe for you from Ollie, you might expect some more contributors posts from her in the future and I hope you enjoy!**

It was a very first time I prepared homemade jelly and I need to say it was 100% worth it. Those cute desserts have rich raspberry flavor, they are refreshing and simple to make. You can replace fresh fruits with the frozen once, so you can enjoy this simple dessert all the year around. Jellies are also great alternative for heavy, Christmas dessert - light and fruity won't  be overwhelming after filling dinner. Served with orange shortbread and whipped cream for whom jellies aren't enough.

Raspberry Jelly 

with orange biscuits 

(makes 5 small portions of jelly and around 35 biscuits)

Jellies

270 g raspberries (fresh or frozen)

115 g caster sugar

1 tbsp whisky

120 ml water

3 gelatin leaves

Biscuits

180 g butter

110 g icing sugar

Orange zest from 1 orange

25 g egg white

280 g flour

200 g dark chocolate

Caster sugar to sprinkle

To serve

Whipped cream

The very first step, is to prepare jellies. Put the raspberries, sugar and whisky in a medium size saucepan and add 120 ml of water. Place the saucepan over a medium heat, and bring it to simmer. Stir occasionally, making sure sugar has dissolved. Bubble for around 3 minutes and remove from the heat. Sieve the raspberry mixture over a big dish to get rid of raspberry seeds. Place gelatin leaves into a bowl of cold water. Leave it for around 3 minutes to soak, and when ready and soft remove it and gently squeeze out any excess water. Add gelatin to raspberry liquid and stir gently to dissolve the gelatin. Pour the jelly mixture into small serving dishes, wait until they cool and put into a fridge for minimum 6 hours to set.

For the biscuits, preheat the oven to 180°C. Cream the butter and icing sugar together. Add the egg white and half of orange zest and mix well. Add the flour. Mix to a smooth paste, careful not to over work, cling film and rest for at least 20 minutes in the fridge. Roll out until the paste is around 2 cm thick, then cut desired shapes, transfer carefully to a flat tray lined with parchment paper and bake for approximately 7 minutes, until biscuits just starting to turn brown. Once taken from the oven, sprinkle immediately with caster sugar.