the weather had been so amazingly warm lately its really unbearable. on some days, temperature would soar to 34 or 35C (95F) during the afternoons and there would be long queues especially at the drinks stalls or ice cream trucks. honestly its like a vicious cycle. sweetened beverages just do not quench thirst, neither do ice creams. and after having those, you'll just realized you're not really satisfied then you want more. what a great way to consume additional calories! i needed something low-cal, refreshing and with the abundance of citruses around, make something fun using them.


as if i haven't already been mesmerized enough by how the japanese do their desserts, i also like how they make their jellies. instead of serving the jellies as-is, they would rake (?) or break them up into tiny pieces, making them look like granita or ice crystals. looks fun and adds texture! recipe is taken from here and the original is just a recipe for grapefruit jelly. i decided to zest it up (pardon the pun) by making it 3 times in total using 3 different citruses. the darkest tilted layer was made using blood orange juice that i froze when the oranges were in season recently. i then made the orange layer followed by grapefruit one which i made in a separate shallow pan and then chopped and added on top. it was really good! very refreshing and beats all that storebought jellies and puddings. its really nice with the mint leaves too so i might consider adding another mint jelly layer in future.

i also used a natural sugar substitute called trehalose. it has some benefits for eg. it does not cause a spike in blood sugar. being formed from a two-glucose unit (as opposed to one glucose, one fructose in table sugar) means its utilized by all the cells in the body. fructose, on the other hand, metabolizes in the liver, like alcohol and turns into fat. fructose is very bad, so is agave nectar, which is over 90% fructose! in terms of baking, trehalose also retains moisture in baked goods. best thing is, its only half as sweet as table sugar and by the way, is very popular with the japanese. i already reduced the sugar by half coz the fruits i used were rather sweet and with the use of trehalose, my jelly is only 1/4 as sweet as what the original recipe intended, techically speaking.


like i said, abundance of citruses around! the supermarket brought in so much 'branded' citrus fruits lately. from left to right : oceanspray's florida grapefruit, florida natural's orange, sunkist's cara-cara orange and a lemon. i'm glad we have so many choices now!