Over Labor Day, 1987, a gang of Crawleys were gathered at the home of the mother of a Crawley in-law. We were there to celebrate the new-ish arrival of my brother and his wife’s son. Huzzah, another male Crawley is born! Thankfully I was not chosen as godfather, since I’ve racked up 3 godchildren, which is enough.
My pregnant sister (the Crawleys are prolific) and I approached the buffet table warily.
“Is that a…”
“Yes, it’s a Jell-O mold and apparently the mother gets really angry if someone refuses to try it. Put a small piece on a plate and if it’s completely disgusting, hand it to me and I’ll take it into the bathroom and flush it down the toilet. No one questions the actions of a pregnant woman.”
So I cut myself a small slice and spooned over some of the Cool Whip (of course) provided in a bowl.
“This is actually…really good. Here, try some!”
“No thanks, I’m feeling a little nauseous as it is. If you like it so much, go talk to the bored jealous mother. She looks like she’s ready to kill her own daughter and rip the baby out of her hands.”
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1 1/2 cups boiling water
2 3-oz. packages of strawberry Jello
1 cup cold water
1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries
1 8-oz. tub of Cool Whip, thawed
Author’s note: I have made this myself twice, and not ironically. The first time I made my own whipped cream. You actually really need Cool Whip for this. The following is copied verbatim from the Kraft/Heinz website, because I haven’t made this in many years and I now realize I can’t read my distant relative’s handwriting anymore, and she’s no longer around to ask. But this is it; she no doubt copied it herself from a box of strawberry Jell-O sometime during the Ford administration.
Add boiling water to gelatin mix in large bowl; stir 2 min. until completely dissolved. Stir in cold water. Place strawberries in 6-cup mold; cover with 2 cups gelatin. Refrigerate 30 min. or until gelatin is set but not firm.
Meanwhile, refrigerate remaining gelatin 30 min. or until slightly thickened. Whisk in 2 cups COOL WHIP until well blended. Spoon over gelatin layer in mold.
Refrigerate 4 hours or until firm. Unmold. Serve topped with remaining COOL WHIP.
Author’s note the second: This works best in a glass Jell-O mold, apparently, but I only had a stainless steel bundt pan to work with. Why it’s styled as COOL WHIP is known only to the company.
There’s always room for Jello
Is that a gd bundt pan?
Yes! But as I mention in the recipe, you’re supposed to use a glass Jell-O mold, but I don’t have one, so I used one of my Bundt pans (I have more than one).
I genuinely believe jello to be gross. I can’t do the texture, even in jello shot form.
However
It’s one of those products that was a game changer for home cooks once they had powdered gelatin they could buy in stores, which is awesome.
The only problem with this dessert (“only”) is the mouth feel. You have the creamy mousse, the melt in your mouth Jell-O, and then the chunky strawberries. I really like it though. I should make it again, even though I’m down to just one Better Half and one Ravenous Hound who can’t have any. When Jell-O hardens there are few things on earth less appetizing, so it’s not like you could snack on this over the course of a few days.
Make smaller ones in ramekins or something instead maybe?
Or just omit the strawberries, and skip the “in a separate dish” step altogether, and make yourself a nice big bowl of “Whipped Jello!”😉
Because the cool-whip/jello layer*** is something that goes back on my mom’s side of the family for three generations now.
It’s always been knowe as Whipped Jello in our family (another pro tip for the lazy–use an electric mixer, starting off slow, to incorporate the coolwhip if your jello gets a bit “too” set before you add the Cool Whip, OR if you’re feelin’ lazy or are making a couple gallons’ worth for the family potluck😉😁💖)
The texture of *just* the Whipped Jello is somewhere between Jello & mousse, and it’s perfect if you don’t add anything to “chunk” it up…
I’ve never had someone not like it, once they managed to get past the “This is NOT a color found in nature!!!!” aspect🤣
Technically, you can make the Whipped Jello with any flavor of jello… but in our family, the only proper/”allowed”/”correct” flavor is Strawberry or Wild Strawberry(😉) because of an unfortunate incident back in the 1960’s, when two of my aunties pretended that Black Cherry jello was the same as Lik-em-aid/Fun Dip, and made themselves sick by eating so much of it😖😱
***Addendum to @MatthewCrawley‘s note on “you MUST use Cool Whip (or the generic/store-brand version thereof!”…
You ALSO must use regular jello–the sugar-free version typically won’t set up properly, *AND* you can’t use the “fat free” version of Cool Whip/generic cool whip–those are missing *some* particular chemical that lets the Whipped Jello set up properly, too!!! (Between my mom & I, we’ve produced all those errors at various points over the years!😖😱)