Our lychee jelly recipe is a delicate tropical jelly mixed with fresh lychee pulps. It has a sweet-tart flavour with a mix of floral and tropical undertones.
You can enjoy this fruity dessert alone or chop it into small pieces for Taiwanese shaved ice or as a bubble tea topping. It's tender and bouncy texture adds a fun chew with every sip of your drink.
Out of our love for this topping, we bring you our simple homemade lychee jelly recipe. You can make our refreshing recipe using agar or gelatine. Or take it a step further and add rose syrup and coconut flesh.
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Lychee Jelly Ingredients
For our lychee jelly recipe, you will need lychee, agar, and sugar.
Lychee
You can use fresh pulp, canned fruit or juice in our lychee jelly recipe. Depending on your preference, taste and texture, one will be better than the other.
The pulp offers a more natural fruity and sweet taste with a tender texture that you can't get in fresh juice and syrup. You need ½ cup of sugar for 1 cup of fresh pulp when making our boba topping. Look for bright red lychees that are firm and ripe. Avoid brown and shrivelled old fruit.
Canned lychees are our solid favourite as they are convenient and come with a lychee syrup that we repurpose for lychee boba or the jelly itself. Use the lychee syrup with canned fruit and omit sugar from our recipe.
In addition, you can use fresh juice for our lychee jelly recipe for bubble tea. Fresh juice is an excellent option for making boba topping as there's no pulp; you'll get more uniform jelly strips. Use ¼ cup of sugar for 1 cup of fresh 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 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.
You can also use vegetarian-friendly gelatins like vege-gel in our lychee jelly recipe.
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 melts when the water temperature reaches 25 to 40° C. However, make sure you don't go past 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.
Lychee Jelly Recipe (Bubble Tea)
Ingredients
- 1 cup fresh lychee pulps
- 1 tablespoon agar powder
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup white sugar
Cooking 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.
Recipe 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 6-8 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 quickly cut smaller desserts 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 is only a rough estimate.
Cooking Tips for How To Make Lychee Jelly
Blend the fruit pulp if you prefer a mushy and softer texture in your jelly. We like to do this for boba topping.
Use a spoon to remove any bubbles before cooling in the fridge. Doing this will give you a clear and smooth surface for your dessert.
You can use an ice cube tray to make lychee jelly cubes for a quick fix.
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 down on a cutting board. Gently shake and stretch the tray to remove the topping.
If you use gelatine, it will take longer to set. You will need to refrigerate it for about 6-8 hours.
Lychee Jelly For Bubble Tea
This bubble tea topping also pairs well with 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. These moulds 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.
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.
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.
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.
Let us know how our lychee jelly recipe for bubble tea went for you. Subscribe to us on YouTube at Honest Food Talks for more boba recipes.
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