SPICED CRANBERRY & ORANGE JELLIES

I LIKE to serve a jelly at a celebration dinner because it is so nice to have something cool, light and refreshing at the end of a meal that has included a lot of rich food. This jelly is incredibly simple to make, but don’t be tempted to jazz it up — I’ve tried that and found this simple version to be best so far.

Serves 4

570ml (1 pint) cranberry juice

Juice and zest of 2 oranges

2 x 11g sachets of gelatine

½ level tsp ground ginger

1 stick cinnamon, broken into pieces 75g (3oz) caster sugar

For the frosted cranberries

Approximately 20 cranberries

1 large egg white, beaten

1 tbsp caster sugar

You will also need four 200ml (7floz) glasses, or if you prefer, you can make the jelly in a 725ml (1¼pt) jelly mould

FIRST measure the cranberry juice into a jug and sprinkle in the gelatine.

Next use a potato peeler to pare off the outer zest of the oranges, and put the zest in a saucepan with the orange juice, ginger, cinnamon, cranberry juice and sugar.

Bring everything up to a gentle simmer, then remove from the heat and leave aside for approximately two hours, until the jelly is just on the point of setting.

Now strain the jelly through a nylon sieve into a jug, pour into the stemmed glasses, cover and chill in the fridge until needed.

For the frosted cranberries all you need to do is dip each berry into the beaten egg white and roll it in caster sugar to give a generous coating.

Then leave the berries spread out on baking parchment to become crisp.

remove the jellies from the fridge half an hour before serving and pile about five frosted cranberries on top of each glass.