Or if you’re American, jello slice. This is a favorite sweet slice in Australia, and recipes can be found in almost every school cookbook— by which I mean the cookbooks that are collections of favorite recipes put together by parents at a school and sold as a fund-raiser.

One of my sisters was famous for her jelly slice — she took it everywhere to all kinds of gatherings and it always disappeared fast. It’s pretty simple — no baking, but it takes a while, as each layer has to set.

The gelatine setting can also prove tricky for some. And when I checked her recipe against some on the web, quite a few people didn’t like so much lemon juice as in most recipes. So if you’re a sweet tooth, go easy on the lemon juice. (Personally I like the lemony flavor which cuts some of the sweetness of the condensed milk.)

It’s basically a crushed biscuit (cookie) and melted butter base, the middle is condensed milk and lemon juice thickened with gelatine, and the red topping is jelly, though made with less water than the usual packet instructions. And each layer in turn has to set before the next layer is added. I think getting the timing right is the main difficulty with the recipe, so maybe do a practice run first before making some to take to a friend’s place.
And I’m sorry, but her measurements are a mix of the old imperial ones and the metric ones.

My sister’s recipe:
1 packet of plain sweet biscuits  (about 14 oz)
6 oz butter
1 tin of sweetened condensed milk (about 14 ozs)
juice of two lemons
3 heaped teaspoons gelatine powder
1 packet of red jelly (raspberry or strawberry), made with less water than usual for a firmer jelly.

1) Line a slice tin with baking paper

2) Crush biscuits, melt butter, mix together and press into a tin and put in the fridge to set.

3) Make jelly with 300 mls water  (one and a bit cups) and leave until almost set (about the texture of raw egg white.)

4) Meanwhile, beat condensed milk and lemon juice, add gelatine powder and beat until it thickens.  Pour over the crumb crust base, and leave to set in fridge.

5) When packet jelly is almost set, spoon the jelly carefully over the set condensed milk layer.
Then leave the whole thing in the fridge a few hours before serving. It should have all set well and be easy to cut into squares.

6) Store in the fridge (or cool place) until you’re ready to serve. (Heat melts jelly)
It will last  a week or so in the fridge, but usually gets eaten well before that.

Of course you can use different flavored jelly, but the red is traditional. And there are dozens of variations, including this adult version I spotted on the web, made with shiraz gin!
Here’s a video of a richer recipe that uses cream cheese as well as condensed milk.

If you make it, let me know how you went.

The e-book version of CHRISTMAS CINDERELLA can now be pre-ordered on amazon. If you order it now, it will arrive on your e-reader on 6th October.

It should be up on the other e-book sites very soon.

The official publication date is 6th October.

The paperback version is currently in production. I’ll let you know when it becomes available.

There is also a new method of buying the paperback, which I hope will be faster and more efficient than things were with A Bride For Marcus.

I explained the system in my newsletter yesterday, and will again when the paperbacks become available.

In my “sad farmer” story — no I still don’t have a title yet — my heroine has learned to bake bread in the “Dutch oven” over hot coals, and now she’s moving on to making pies and tarts — sweet and savory. At the moment (in my story) having learned to gather wild spring greens, she’s making a tart with eggs and cottage cheese and spring greens. Sounds yummy, don’t you think? I hope so.

My Irish grandmother was a big fan of feeding us a range of wild spring greens —some of which were quite bitter. She claimed it “cleaned the blood” after winter. I’m not so sure about that, but in  soups or in stews they were quite tasty — though dandelion leaves (of which she was particularly fond) were quite bitter. She claimed the bitterness was doing us good.  :(  She also loved cooking up nettles, but they disappeared quite well into vegie soup. 

I only occasionally gather wild spring greens. My adult students — mainly southern European and Chinese — showed me the best greens to collect. I don’t go out of my way to gather them, but when I do, I feel slightly virtuous. My favorite way to eat them is in the Greek dish, “horta” which is just a range of greens, lightly simmered with garlic, salt and pepper and dressed with olive oil and lemon juice. Yum yum. There’s a recipe for horta here.

Here’s a youtube video that demonstrates the pie-baking process. It refers to American colonial times, but these techniques were also in use in England and Australia. Also, in the video he makes a beef pie and then on his second tasting, adds some mushroom ketchup. Naturally I was intrigued by this, so looked up a recipe for it.

Have you ever baked pies or tarts in a Dutch oven? Ever gathered wild spring greens? Eaten horta? Made your own ketchup?