Bring to a Boil

Saturday get together was cancelled and moved to Sunday due to someone's birthday celebration.  Since we'd already eaten most of the slow cooked chicken (that the two boys worked on) for dinner yesterday, I have to whip up something new for tonight.

I can think about what to make for dinner later considering the shops are still closed and I have nothing in stock that will enable me to prepare a double recipe for dinner tonight.

So I  decided to make Almond Jelly to bring as an added dessert, mainly because I wanted to finish off the canister of gelatin that had been sitting in the pantry for a while.  

The instructions seemed easy enough ... bring water and gelatin to a boil then add milk, sugar and almond extract until sugar dissolves.  

Of course this was my notated (see what it looks like below) and modified version of the recipe.  From where? I have no idea.  I believe the original recipe had called for a stick of white gulaman and it required me to wash and shred the gulaman.  So I am 100% sure that this recipe is NOT from someone else's cookbook.  

Bring to a boil.  How difficult could those instructions be?

Not too difficult, I thought,  as I measured out the gelatin and sprinkled it over the pre-heated water in the pan.   I finished off the contents of the old canister and got the needed amount from new one.    I flipped on the induction cooker to get the boil rolling (get it?) then moved to measure the milk and the sugar.  

Next thing I knew, something was stinking and there was a circle of burning gelatin in the bottom of the pan!

Yikes!   How was I to know that would happen?

I tossed that mixture down the drain fast and scrubbed the saucepan to destroy the evidence pronto.

I started a new batch in a different saucepan over the regular oven top.  This time, I dissolved all the gelatin in the measuring cup before I put it over the heat.  As I was stirring the water and gelatin mixture, waiting for it boil, I wondered WHY that had happened.  It had never happened before.  

We just got the induction cooker recently.  Maybe the induction cooker was too hot, I thought.   Other thoughts crossed my mind.  Does gelatin have an expiry date?  Apparently, it does.

But of course, in hind sight,  I think what I did wrong was that I didn't dissolve the gelatin before bringing the mixture to a boil. 

In my defense, the recipe didn't tell me to do that.  

Yeah, I know, I wrote the recipe.  SIGH!

ALMOND JELLY  

2 c water                     (water and gelatin)

2T + 2t gelatin               Bring to a boil

1/2 c sugar

1/2 c milk                    (sugar, milk and almond extract)

1t almond extract          Add till sugar dissolves