Lychee jelly is a delicate and silky dessert mixed with tantalising fresh lychee pulps. We love how its succulent texture and tropical aroma add a burst of delightful sensation to our drinks and desserts.
Therefore, this fruity dessert is often used as an ice cream or a bubble tea topping. Its tender and bouncy texture makes every sip of your drink a blissful experience.
Out of our love for this topping, we bring you our simple homemade lychee jelly recipe.
You can make this refreshing treat with agar or gelatine. Furthermore, we went the extra step and experimented with interesting variations, including rose syrup and coconut flesh, to test how versatile this dessert is. So, stop wondering what this treat tastes like and try it out for yourselves.
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What Is Lychee Jelly Made Of?
Lychee jelly is made of fresh lychee pulp, sugar, and agar. This bubble tea topping is vegan-friendly and halal when made with agar.
However, if you decide to use gelatine, it won't be vegetarian and may not always be halal. You can use fish or halal-certified gelatine to ensure that your fruit dessert is halal.
What Does Lychee Jelly Taste Like?
Lychee jelly has a sweet-tart flavour with a mix of floral and tropical undertones. This refreshing treat soothes your palate with a fruity-dense sensation, especially when served cold with ice cubes. Moreover, this dessert's tender, jiggly texture offers a mouthfeel chew when you add it to your boba tea.
Lychee Jelly Ingredients
You will need fresh lychee pulp, agar, and sugar for our lychee jelly recipe.
Lychee
Our lychee jelly recipe for bubble tea will use fresh pulp. The pulp offers a more natural fruity and sweet taste with a tender texture that you can't get in fresh juice and syrup. Unlike canned fruit, fresh pulp isn't soaked with sweetened syrup. So you can easily control the sweetness of this dessert.
When making this boba topping, you need ½ cup of sugar for 1 cup of fresh pulp. Furthermore, when looking for fresh lychees, opt for bright red fruits that are firm and ripe. Avoid brown and shrivelled old fruit.
Alternatively, you can use canned lychees as substitutes if you can't find fresh lychee in the supermarkets. However, these canned fruits have higher sugar content than fresh pulp. So, you would want to reduce the amount of sugar when making this treat. Therefore for canned fruit, you only need ¼ cup of sugar for 1 cup of fruit.
In addition, you can use fresh juice and syrup in this lychee jelly recipe. However, using these two ingredients won't give your dessert the chewy taste you can get from the pulp. Use ¼ cup of sugar for 1 cup of fresh juice.
On the other hand, since syrup is quite sweet and contains more sugar, you would need to add less sugar. Therefore, use ¼ cup of sugar for every ½ cup of syrup.
Most juices sold on a shelf tend to have high sugar content. This added sugar often acts as a natural preservative alongside being a sweetener. So, use ¼ cup of sugar for ½ cup of juice. However, if no sugar is added to the juice, you can use ½ cup of sugar for 1 cup of unsweetened juice.
Agar
Agar is a plant-based thickener made from seaweed. This gelling agent has three forms: powder, strands, and flakes.
We recommend you use agar powder to make this boba topping. This variety dissolves in the water more quickly than the other forms. Agar has a neutral taste. Furthermore, it adds a firmer texture and gives your dessert a more mouthful bite than gelatine.
Mix one tablespoon of agar powder for every 1 cup of boiling water to make this fruity dessert. Since this powder is concentrated, don't exceed this amount to avoid getting an unappetising thick and curdled jelly.
Gelatine
This unflavoured gelling agent comes in three forms: powder, granules, and sheets. We recommend using powdered gelatine because it dissolves more easily than the other forms. Since gelatine is less potent than agar, use 7 to 8 tablespoons of this yellowish powder for 1 cup of hot water.
However, if you opt for gelatine sheets, we recommend you soak 4 to 5 sheets in 1 cup of hot water for around 5 minutes to melt the sheets. Gelatine sheets produce a clearer and more transparent mixture, whereas the powder form produces a translucent, whitish-yellow mix.
Unlike agar, you don't need to boil the powder to make this fruity dessert. Gelatine powder quickly melts when the water temperature reaches 25 to 40° C. However, make sure you don't go pass this temperature. If you overheat the gelatine, it will reduce its strength and break its consistency. As a result, you will get a stringy and clammy mixture.
How to Make Lychee Jelly With Agar
- First, you must cut the fresh pulp into tiny pieces. You can also blend the pulp if you prefer a mushy and softer blend.
- Then, combine one tablespoon of agar powder with 1 cup of warm water and ½ cup of sugar in a saucepan. Boil the mixture and keep stirring to dissolve the powder and sugar. Afterwards, switch to medium-low heat and stir for 4 to 5 minutes.
- Bring out a square-shaped tray that measures approximately 10 x 15 x 2 inches and pour the agar mix. Alternatively, for a quick fix, you can use an ice cube tray to make lychee jelly cubes.
- Pour half the hot mixture into the tray to make the base layer. Then, spread the fresh pulps onto the base. Finally, pour the rest of the agar solution to make the top layer. This step ensures the pulps are completely submerged and covered with the jelly.
- Then, set everything aside at room temperature for 1 hour to let the agar solidify. If you refrigerate this bubble tea topping, it will be ready in about 30 minutes.
- If you use a non-silicone mould or metal tray, the solid agar may stick on the inside walls of the tray. So, dip the tray in warm water for 30 seconds to loosen each side of this dessert before cutting.
- Then, place the tray upside on a cutting board. Gently shake and stretch the tray to remove the topping.
- When serving, cut this lychee jelly into tiny cubes to fit into a boba straw.
Using Gelatine
The steps to make this refreshing treat using gelatine are similar to agar. But you must change a few things to get a rich, jiggly, and springy dessert. For instance, you need to use seven tablespoons of gelatine powder with 1 cup of water to get a bouncy jelly.
Since you don't need to boil this alternative, heat it over medium heat for 5 to 10 minutes before adding in the pulp.
Unfortunately, it takes longer for a gelatine dessert to set. At room temperature, it will solidify in about 6 hours and about 4 hours if refrigerated.
Lychee Jelly for Bubble Tea
This bubble tea topping also pairs well with different milk teas like oolong, jasmine, and rose tea. So, choose your favourite flavours and make the tea before adding the fruity topping.
To ensure that the boba topping fits through a boba straw, you would cut the jelly into smaller cubes that measure about 0.5 cm in dimensions. You can also use a shallower tray to create a thin layer that can easily pass through the straw. Then, pour some ice into the milk tea before adding these fruity cubes.
As a Dessert
This versatile boba topping also makes a delicious standalone dessert. Furthermore, you can use decorative moulds to create different shapes for the agar mixture. Then, drizzle this fruity dessert with caramel, chocolate rice, or crushed Oreos for subtle depth and a flavoursome aftertaste.
You can also use pudding cups to mimic store-bought lychee jelly cups. Using these moulds can make it easier to scoop and enjoy this dessert in one go.
Alternatively, you can enjoy this dessert similarly to how we serve coffee jelly and grass jelly. Cut these boba toppings into cubes and splash some sweetened cream. You can also mix these lychee jelly cubes with chilled soya milk to make it vegan-friendly.
Variations
Why not get creative and make different variations of this bubble tea topping?
For instance, add rose syrup to the agar mixture and get a bright red sweet treat with a rose scent. Then, for the extra mile, use a flower-shaped mould to make lychee rose jelly and top it off with rose petals before serving.
Alternatively, you can add syrup and petals to your drink to make a rose milk tea. Then, finish the drink off with this refreshing treat and serve it chilled.
Similarly, you can combine the fresh pulp with goji berries for an added sweet and sour taste. Using these fruits will add extra crunchiness to your goji berry lychee jelly.
In addition, our lychee jelly recipe goes well with other fruity ingredients, like coconut flesh. You can use lychee pulps for the first layer. Then, use the coconut flesh for the top layer. However, if you want a surprising chew when enjoying this lychee coconut jelly, use both ingredients for the first layer.
How to Store
You should store this homemade dessert in the refrigerator to prevent moisture loss and a dry texture. These refrigerated treats can last for 4 to 5 days in the fridge. As for unopened store-bought versions like lychee jelly cups, most of them contain preservatives that can last in a closed cabinet or pantry for up to a year.
Lychee Jelly Recipe (Bubble Tea)
Ingredients
- 1 cup fresh lychee pulps
- 1 tablespoon agar powder
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup white sugar
Instructions
- Blend or cut up the flesh into small chunks. Then, add the agar powder, sugar, and water to a saucepan.
- Heat the mixture to a boil. Then, switch to a medium-low heat. Keep stirring until you get a gel-like translucent mix.
- Pour half of the hot mixture into a square-shaped (15 x 10-inch) tray for the first layer. Then scatter the lychee pulp on top of this base layer.
- Afterwards, pour the rest of the agar mix to make the top layer. Refrigerate this fruity dessert for at least 30 minutes.
- Take this refreshing treat out and shake the tray to remove the dessert. Finally, cut it into smaller 0.5 cm cubes before adding it to your favourite tea!
Notes
- Agar powder doesn't melt properly below boiling temperature. So, avoid using low heat when cooking the mixture.
- If you swap agar powder with gelatine, refrigerate this treat for at least 4 hours to let it fully set.
- If this dessert clings to the mould, dip the mould in warm water for about 30 seconds to loosen each side of this treat.
- You can use ice cube trays to get smaller desserts that you can quickly cut into tiny pieces.
Nutrition
Calories have been calculated using an online calculator. Nutritional information offered on Honest Food Talks is for general information purposes and are only rough estimations.
We recommend you try our lychee jelly recipe for bubble tea and witness how this wondrous treat can satiate your loved one’s sweet tooth during Valentine's Day. You can also swap nata de coco with this refreshing treat to make puddings and fruit cocktails for birthday parties.
Follow us on Instagram @honestfoodtalks for more recipes and glutinous fun.
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