I enjoy making pastries, but for the many of us who only have occasional cravings for their floury and buttery taste, pastries are often deemed to be optional in our eating habit. In contrast, gelatin desserts, such as jellies, are light, airy, and much more of a gluten-free daily snack. Jellies are classy and fun treats. Furthermore, they are attractive.

Decorative fruits can turn a jelly from good to great. With the abundance of peaches in the kitchen, I couldn't resist a thousand ideas of combinations. While I crave the aromatic flavor of a peach pie's filling, the refreshing, sunshine sweet image of tropical peach jellies seemingly has more to offer!

For this recipe, you will make a four-layer peach flavored jelly. The top one is a see-through layer with sliced peaches followed by layers of fresh milk, peach syrup, and peach milk tea. You may soon realize that making this jelly is no harder than pouring a cup of tea. The hardest little thing, I assume, is having to be quick and patient enough with handling hot liquid when it comes to whisking the jelly mixture, as simple as that.

Let’s dive in!

Choice of jelly powder

I prefer soft, gelatin-based jelly that is not too firm, so I'm using an instant jelly powder commonly available at local Vietnamese stores called Konnyaku. Alternatively, if pure gelatin or agar powder is an option for you, make sure to adjust the powder amount according to the provider's instructions. One thing I like about gelatin is its flexibility - your jelly can hardly ever end up with a rock-like texture. Even with overuse, the jelly can remain stably soft and jiggly.

Peach Milk Tea Jelly Recipe

For this recipe, I’m using the 24cm x 36cm traditional silicone jelly mold for the mini jellies pictured above. Depending on your mold’s size, you will make about 9 mini jellies. Feel free to play around with any other molds of your choice, as any kind of mold would do wonders. Here are what you need:

Jelly base

• 2 packs (20g) of Konnyaku jelly powder
• 1300ml water
• 200g sugar

See-through peach layer

• 200ml peach syrup
• 30 chopped cubes of peaches

Milk-flavored mixture

• 200ml fresh milk

Peach-flavored mixture

• 1 peach half
• 80ml peach syrup

Milk tea mixture

• 2-3 peach-flavored tea bags
• 150ml hot water
• 50g sweetened condensed milk

***Note: If you’d like a sweeter milk tea, feel free to alter the amount of hot water and condensed milk as long as they weigh 200ml as a whole.

The canned peaches I'm using have already come with the syrup, hence additional sweetness. If you prefer making your own peach syrup, make sure to adjust the amount of sugar according to your taste.

Instructions

1. Prepare two medium-sized saucepans. Fill one with 700ml of water and the other with 600ml. We're going to divide our jelly base into 2 separate parts.
2. Slice the peach half. Add the 80ml peach syrup and the sliced peaches into a blender and blend for about 1-2 mins or until you see no chunks left.
3. Drain the peach-flavored mixture and pour it into a separate bowl.
4. Soak the tea bags in the 150ml hot water for 5 mins, then remove the bags and stir in the condensed milk in a large bowl. Flavor your milk tea mixture with more sugar if needed.
5. Arrange the peach cubes nicely at the bottom of the silicone mold. The see-through peach jelly should come out of the mold as the top layer, so we’re going to reverse the ordering of each layer.
6. Bring the jelly base to a boil. You can either handle one or both saucepans at a time if multitasking is what you’re good at ;)
7. Once boiling, gradually add 10g jelly powder into each saucepan. Lower the heat and constantly whisk the mixture while giving each of them another 100g of sugar.
8. When the jelly powder and sugar get completely dissolved, bring the saucepans to a simmer and keep them so until after you finish emptying the mixture into the mold at the end.

9. Separate 300ml warm jelly mixture from the 700ml saucepan. Quickly pour the 200ml peach syrup into the remaining 400ml mixture in the saucepan and stir them well. This is going to be your see-through top layer.
10. Pour this layer into the mold until it equally covers the peach cubes. Now, quickly put the separated 300ml mixture back into the empty saucepan. Meanwhile, whisk the other saucepan occasionally.
11. In the 300ml saucepan, mix in the fresh milk. When the see-through layer is slightly but not completely set, gently pour the milk-flavored mixture. Notice that every next layer should only wait for the previous layer to be slightly set. If the previous layer is too firmly set, the following layers will not attach to this layer when you cut the jellies.
12. Similarly, separate the 300ml jelly mixture from the 600ml sauce span. Add the blended peach mixture into the remaining 300ml and stir it well. Again, pour this mixture into the mold.
13. One last layer to go. Now put the separated 300ml mixture back to the saucepan and stir in the milk tea. Pour the rest of this mixture.
14. Wait for the jellies to cool down, then refrigerate them for about 2-3 hours. Unmold the jellies and serve chilled.

Recipe tips

• Keep the saucepans simmering all the time and try to whisk the mixture as often as you can.
• If the warm jelly mixture solidifies, re-heat until it turns to liquid.

End note

Bravo yourself for making it through the last step! This peach milk tea jelly is perfect for hot weather and can be easily furthered. You can make only 1-2 layers or use a different kind of fruit of your choice. The creativity is endless!

If you like this recipe, please share it around your social channel. I’m curious to see your end result, so don’t hesitate to send me a picture!