Serve these pretty as a picture alcoholic jellies at your next dinner party

Mention the word jelly and it conjures up images of wobbly raspberry red numbers that get served at kids parties....or for the invalid in hospital. But jellies can be one of the easiest way to turn your cocktail into an adult dessert worthy of being served at the even the most sophisticated dinner party. This sparkling gin jelly was inspired by the French 75 cocktail and you can of course serve it with its liquid version. The use of agar agar makes this suitable for vegans but also I prefer a firmer texture so I tend to use this seaweed based setting agent rather than gelatine.

You'll want to use a drier sparkling wine or champagne, as the rest of the recipe is quite sweet as it is.

Spoonful of gin and sparkling wine jelly

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 2.5 teaspoon agar agar powder
• 1.5 cups champagne or sparkling wine
• 60ml gin

INSTRUCTIONS

• Dissolve sugar and water over a low heat.
• Bring to boil then add two teaspoon of agar agar powder
• Continue stirring over a low heat until powder all dissolved
• Take off the heat
• Add in 1.5 cups of champagne or sparkling (whether Australian sparkling wine or prosecco) slowly.
• Also add in about 60ml gin (I used a citrus driven gin for this one from Australian producer Baker Williams, which has rather big citrus notes as it also uses cumquat and oranges as part of its botanical mix and it goes well with the whole mix)
• Pour into mould.
• Garnish with whatever you want - I went with blueberries, dried flowers and mint but feel free to cut out the mint if you’re not a fan of eating it fresh