Most of us are not going to make homemade jelly from scratch. But there are better jelly mix brands on the market (most are made from gelatine, which is basically another word for bones).
Before cooking, read up on food safety for people and pets. Recycle soft packaging at supermarket bag bins, if your council does not collect.
Where to Buy Vegan Jelly Crystals
Wibble makes good jelly packs in several flavours with natural ingredients: strawberry, raspberry, forest fruits or orange. The gelatine is replaced by a kind of seaweed (usually people with thyroid issues should not eat ‘proper seaweed’. But this is mild so you should be okay – check your medication).
This brand has recently released a ‘cola jelly’ made with natural ingredients, and sweetened with stevia. Try serving it with a scoop of your favourite vegan vanilla ice-cream to make a homemade sundae.
Or use the forest fruits flavour to make this cosy crumble recipe. The jelly is combined with autumnal berries, then serve with a homemade oat crumble topping, sweetened with coconut sugar.
Just Wholefoods is another brand made with natural ingredients, and easy to make (no faffing around with adding hot then cold water). Just add the crystals to a jug, leave to cool and set. One pack serves 4 (1 pint). In raspberry, strawberry, lemon and tropical flavours. You could even add plant milk, to turn these into 70s-style ‘milk jellies’
How to Make Your Own Vegan Custard
Vegan custard is super-simple to make, and the flavour is out of this world, if you splurge on a little real vanilla. This recipe for quick vegan custard (The Veg Space) will soon become a weekly staple, to top your favourite desserts. The recipe’s a simple blend of plantmilk and cream, sugar and vanilla, with a little turmeric to make it yellow (not too much or you’ll make curry custard!)
Once you’ve mastered the basic recipe, you can vary things up. You can stir through melted squares of chocolate to make chocolate custard, turn it into a boozy custard for Christmas puddings with a little rum. Or even add more cornflour to make a vegan pastry cream, to pipe onto fancy cakes.
Oat or soy milk make the best thick creamy custards (don’t use rice milk!). Sweetened soymilk means you won’t have to use too much sugar either.
Did you know that custard is most popular in China? Apparently people living there go crazy for this dessert. It’s also popular in Italy, where people often eat custard-filled pastries for breakfast with coffee, in local bars.
Homemade Vegan Brandy Custard
This vegan brandy custard (Doves Farm) uses sugar, vanilla and plantmilk with cornflour, then adds in some brandy for festive recipes (you can sub with spiced rum, if preferred).
Make Your Own Vegan Party Trifle
This vegan sherry trifle (The Veg Space) is a homemade version of the traditional Bird’s Trifle, that most of us grew up eating in childhood. It’s super-simple to make: a vegan sponge (see below) soaked in sherry, then you add berries, vegan custard and cream, and top with toasted almonds.
Obviously you can amend the recipe (like omitting the nuts and alcohol for children), or vary things up by swapping the booze or or fruits.
If you’re going to top your trifle with colour, make vegan sprinkles instead of ‘hundreds and thousands’ (which are usually made from dead insects).
Make Your Own ‘Sponge Fingers’
The main bugbear is finding a vegan sponge cake that ‘s free from palm oil. Instead, just make your own pound cake (Full of Plants), a European classic recipe created during the 18th century. They were invented during rationing times, and were an easy way to use up a pound of flour, sugar and butter.
