planet goth... halloween tricks & treats
jelly brain
Make your own wobbly edible brain - the perfect centrepiece for a Halloween party.
you will need:
Tin of sweetened condensed milk
Packet of blueberry or blackcurrant jelly
Brain jelly mould – if you don’t have one you can make one
Red food colouring
making the mould
you will need:
Heavy-duty foil
Mixing boil
Spaghetti – about 20 strands
what to do
1.
Part-cook the spaghetti so that it is just soft and bendy.
2.
Shape the heavy-duty foil into a brain shaped mould and stand in a mixing bowl.
3.
Arrange the part cooked spaghetti in the base of the foil mould - this will give the jelly a wrinkly appearance like the outer portion of the brain, the cerebral cortex.
making the jelly
1.
Make up the jelly following the instructions on the back of the packet but substitute four tablespoons of water with four tablespoons of condensed milk and mix well. The blue jelly mixed with the condensed milk should make the jelly brain opaque and give it an authentic grey colour.
2.
Pour the jelly mixture into the mould and place in the fridge to set.
3.
When the jelly has set take it out of the fridge, place on a plate and remove the spaghetti strands.
4.
Place the left over condensed milk in a jug and add a few drops of red food colouring so it resembles blood. Pour the red condensed milk over your jelly brain.
what's happening?
You can make your jelly into a brain shape because jelly contains the protein gelatine. Before you add boiling water the amino acid strands that make up the gelatine are arranged in a triple helix structure and are held together by weak bonds.
The heat from the boiling water breaks these weak bonds so the amino acid strands can’t hold their structure and the jelly dissolves in the water. Once the jelly is a liquid, it can be poured into a mould and left to cool.
As the jelly cools down the bonds between the amino acids start to reform producing a mesh of interlinked fibres with water trapped between them. When enough bonds have formed, the jelly becomes set in its new shape.
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