B is for: Blood Orange Mimosa Jello Shots

Remember when you were younger, playing youth sports like
soccer or tee-ball, and one of the moms would bring a bunch of orange wedges
for halftime or after the game? Well, fast forward about 20 years or so. I now
find myself playing on an adult kickball league (yes, I said kickball), and
instead of orange wedges, I bring orange peel jello shots. Hey, we’re all still
kids at heart, right? 

Making jello shots in fruit peels is nothing new on e is for
eat. I made Lemon Meringue and Arnold Palmer jello shots in lemon peels. I made
Ruby Red Greyhound jello shots in grapefruit peels. I’ve also made orange
creamsicle jello shots in orange peels on my own before, but I wanted to step
it up a notch for the blog. As you might have noticed, I’m sort of obsessed
with blood oranges at the moment. (The citrus salsa, the blood orange mojitos and margaritas in Arizona). And if you’ve read the blog from the beginning, you
know that I’m also partial to champagne. Enter the blood orange mimosa jello
shots!

As with the other fruit peel shots, you need to make a “cup”
to hold the jello while it sets. To do this, cut the orange in half and
carefully remove the fruit portion using a paring knife, grapefruit knife, or
just your fingers. I discovered about halfway through that it’s better to cut
the orange with the navel on the cut line instead of on the bottom. The reason
for this is sometimes the navel has a tendency to make a little hole in your
cup, which pretty much renders them useless. With them on the side, it won’t
matter. (For some reason, the fruit came out easier as well).

I wanted to use this precious blood orange juice for the
base of my shots, so I squeezed out as much juice as I could from the removed
sections. With 5 oranges, this only produced about a half cup of juice so I had
to add regular orange juice to make it equal a cup. (Next time, I would buy
extra oranges so I could use all blood orange juice).

Strain the juice to remove any pulp or seeds and place in a
small saucepan. Sprinkle with 2 packets of Knox unflavored gelatin and a
tablespoon of sugar and let soak in for a minute or two. Heat on medium until
everything is dissolved.

For the champagne, I thought the little cans of Sophia work
great because you don’t have to open a whole bottle when you only need about ¾
of a cup. To equal 1 cup of liquid, I added Grand Marnier to enhance the orange
flavor even more (about 3 or 4 tablespoons. )

*Note: If you aren’t using the Sophia cans, just measure
about ¾ cup of champagne and ¼ cup of Grand Marnier. 

Place hollowed out orange halves into a muffin tin to help
keep them secure in the fridge. Stir champagne mixture into the gelatin mixture
and pour into orange halves. (Also, as some readers have noted in the comments section, slightly flat champagne works best, or you can wait until the bubbles subside before pouring into oranges.) Allow to set at least 4 hours or overnight
(preferred).

Once jello has set, you can slice them into wedges. Perfect
for brunch or kickball! J