Frozen Blackberries For Muscat Jelly

Our answer

Nigella's Blackberries In Muscat Jelly (from NIGELLA EXPRESS) sets fresh backberries in a soft muscat wine jelly (gelatin). The sharpness of the blackberries contrasts with the sweet, almost honey-like flavour of the jelly.

Whilst in some recipes it is possible to substitute frozen fruits for fresh, these tend to be recipes where the fruit is cooked or turned into a purée or sauce. Freezing affects the texture of fruits and as they defrost they become very soft, so we suspect that the thawed blackberries will be a little too mushy if used for the jelly. In addition, as the fruits defrost they let out water. This will stain the jelly and spoil the look of the dessert and may also dilute the jelly enough to stop it from setting, as the jelly is so softly set. So we would recommend using fresh blackberries for the jelly and if you have frozen blackberries then we would suggest using them in Nigella's Blackberry Crisp, Blackberry Galette or Blackberry And Apple Kuchen.