This recipe inspiration comes from the YouTube channel Schnelle Rezepte, which asks “Do you have milk and chocolate?” And: “Delicious dessert! NO flour and NO oven, NO gelatin!”
Just looking at the beautiful chocolate concoction I was a little surprised that it didn’t contain gelatin. And in truth, when I watched the video, sure it didn’t contain gelatin, but it DID contain agar agar. Also known as carrageenan, agar agar is a vegan substitute for gelatin. And it does a remarkable job at jellying things.
Often used in desserts in Asia, you can watch me use it in my Unicorn Jelly Cake a Vietnamese vegetarian coconut cake called rau câu, or in my Raindrop Cake, the beautifully transparent ball from Japan.
The nice thing about agar agar as opposed to gelatin is that it sets up at a lower temperture. Also, it tends to be firmer and a little less bouncy than gelatin.
There are different brands of agar agar out there, and they do have slightly different properties in terms of solidifying and transparency. I used Telephone Brand from Thailand, but for this recipe, since we’re going to be mixing it with the chocolate, I think any brand of agar agar will do.
Easy Chocolate Jelly Dessert
Equipment
- saucepan
- refrigerator
Ingredients
- 400 ml. mik whole
- 100 g. granulated sugar
- 1 pinch Kosher salt
- 100 ml. milk whole
- 30 g. unsweetened cocoa powder plus 1 tbsp. for garnish
- 90 g. dark chocolate chopped
- 10 g. agar agar
- 20 ml. water
- 1 tsp. vanilla paste or vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp. desiccated coconut (optional) for garnish
Instructions
- Wash and dry a quart-size paper milk carton. Cut off the top leaving the remainder as a mold.
- In a saucepan, add 400 ml. of milk, sugar, and salt. Place on medium heat.
- In a separate bowl whisk together 100 ml milk and cocoa powder. Whisk the chocolate mixture into the hot milk.
- Whisk in the vanilla paste and dark chocolate.
- In a small bowl combine the water and agar agar. Then add to the chocolate milk mixture.
- Bring to a gentle boil. Whisking to ensure that the agar agar has dissolved.
- Pour the chocolate mixture into the milk carton.
- Allow to cool to room temperature and then refrigerate 2-3 hours.
- Gently squeeze the sides of the carton to release the jelly. Carefully rip the carton apart to unmold the jelly.
- Dust with cocoa powder and garnish with a coconut.
My daughters love your videos, and I put them on while I’m brushing their hair in the morning. After watching this video my youngest would NOT stop talking about CHOCOLATE JELLY for days, so I ordered some agar agar to give it a go this morning.
The recipe worked perfectly! there were a few lumps of agar agar in there but that’s entirely my fault. I was genuinely surprised by how good it tasted. No coconut, so I tried garnishing with some salt flakes and some cinnamon. Also took your advice about adding whipped cream!
Wonderful! 🙂
Hi, I used Gelatin because I did not have agar agar would that still be okay. I haven’t checked my fridge yet to see the finished product.
So good!! I cut up pudding into squares, added some strawberries, and sprinkled a cinnamon and powdered sugar mixture on top. Yum!!! Thank you!!!
I need to make this again using a different conversion from metric to US. The one attached to this recipe has the agar at 2 tablespoons, where everywhere else has 10 grams equivalent to one tablespoon. 2 tablespoons is……. Interesting. It’s not really jelly. Not quite sure how to classify the texture…. But fairly certain 2 tablespoons is too much! Put in a muffin tin to set.
Wonderful flavor! Super delicious! But mixing the agar agar with water first made my pudding lumpy. Would probably been better to add to the mixture without mixing with water first. Or use more water to mix it up with than 20 ml.
Holy cow!
I used to make a recipe when I was maybe 12, from a Hershey cookbook that was chocolate jello jigglers. I loved them. I crave them now. But I don’t eat gelatin. I can’t wait to try this! Happily, I have a jar of agar.
Yay! I’ll have to look for that jigglers recipe. You’ve got me intrigued. 🙂
Hi thank you for recipe. Just wondering did you use agar agar flakes or powder? Thnx!
Oh my gosh! Finally made this after a half a year, and the whole family likes it.
In order to get it a little more like the gelatin based one I used to eat, I cut down on the agar in the 2nd batch I made in a matter of 3 days. Also found the various steps of mixing things unnecessary; 2nd batch i just immersion blendred everything except the chocolate chunks together before heating and it worked just fine.
Hi I loved the recipe, can I use cornstarch instead of agar agar?
Thanx