Watermelon Jelly - Jelly Week # 1

Recipe created in June 2011

No....... this is not made in a bowl.
I made this in a square pan.
No egg whites involved too, just good old coconut milk and dragon fruit.

I made this for Reuben's Full Moon Party and tried to use minimal food colouring for this jelly. I am not so keen to use sesame seeds as the watermelon seeds. So, in the end, I chose to use dragon fruit seeds as the watermelon seeds.


The process seems tedious, but I dared not just use the puree straightaway. The fruit pulp may make a streaky jelly. If you don't mind fine worm like lines all around in the jelly, just ignore my long winded instructions on how to extract the fruit colour and fruit seeds.
It's a matter of personal preference.

I used 1 large dragonfruit for this recipe.

I am submitting this to the Christmas Giveaway in

 The Sweet Spot

Just make anything in red / green or red+green to participate
Come let's join in the fun.
Not only sweet stuff, but savories like green veggies or red beets will be great!
Matcha, raw tuna, cherries, green mango.. anything goes!

Giveaway contest ends in less than 2 weeks time

Watermelon Jelly

Recipe created by Wendyywy
Makes 9 inch square jelly (2.5inches tall)

White and Green Layer (You will need twice of this)
500ml water
150gm sugar
2 blades of pandan leave, shredded and tied into a knot.
12.5gm agar powder
250ml water
150gm thick coconut milk
8gm quality cornstarch (1 Tbsp)
1 drop green food colouring /1 Tbsp concentrated pandan juice

Pink Layer
1L pigment liquid (from washing dragonfruit pulp)
250gm sugar
20gm agar powder
250ml water
200gm thick coconut milk
45gm quality cornstarch
Pure dragonfruit juice
Dragon fruit seeds

Prepare the lower white and green layer
1. Combine 500ml water with sugar and pandan knot and bring to a boil
2. Mix agar powder with 250ml water and pour into (1) and let it come to a boil.
3. Mix cornstarch with coconut milk and pour into the pot. Cook until it starts to thicken, turn off the heat.
4. Remove 250ml of the agar mixture. Mix with green food colouring. Pour this green layer into a 9 inch square pan. (Keep the balance warm by placing the lid on tightly)
5. Let the green layer cool down until it doesn't stick to finger but still wobbly then very very gently ladle the balance of white mixture in. Turn the fan /aircond on to quicken the cooling process. (Transfering to fridge may alter the fragile layers)

Prepare Pink Layer
6. Bring pink liquid and sugar to a boil.
7. Mix agar powder with water and pour into (6) and bring to a boil.
8. Mix coconut milk with starch and pour into the pot. Cook until it starts to thicken.
9. Turn off the heat and put in the pure dragon fruit juice and seeds. Stir to combine.
10. The white layer should be wobbly but doesn't stick to fingers. If it has totally solidified, scratch the surface with a fork.
11. Ladle the pink layer very very gently over the white layer. Let it sit for half an hour then ladle the balance in.
12. Set it aside to cool for 1 hour minimum or until the surface is set (inside still a bit wobbly is fine)

Prepare the upper white and green layer.
13. Repeat steps (1)-(3).
14. Remove 750ml of the mixture and gently pour it over the pink layer.
15. Tint the balance of the white jelly mixture in pot with green food colouring. Keep this warm by turning on the heat once a while. (If this has set without you knowing, you can melt it again by using the defrost mode in your microwave oven)
16. When the white layer's surface is no longer sticky (this time it takes much longer due to the hot pink layer underneath) very gently pour in the green layer.
17. Let the whole agar-agar sit on the counter top for another 2 hours to fully set before moving to chill in the fridge.

1. Extracting pure dragon fruit juice.
Mash dragon fruit flesh with fork and strain the juice. Press the pulp in strainer to release more juice. I got about 1/2 cup of pure juice.

2. Washing the pulp to obtain more pigment
Just mix the pulp (after extracting pure juice) with water. Give it s good stir and strain. I washed the same pulp twice, each round with 500ml water and I got 1L of pigment liquid

3. Obtaining clean pulpless seeds.
Just mix the pulp (after extracting the pigment liquid) with water and spoon out the seeds. Do this twice with the same seeds to make sure it's pulp free. (click on picture to have a larger view)

How to cut the Watermelon Jelly