The ingredients list of cherry jello, unflavored gelatin, sweetened condensed milk, and a decent splash of vodka make these candy cane jello shots super easy to make, and also easy to cater to your own tastes.
1/2ounceunflavored gelatin mixTwo .25 ounce packets of unflavored Knox gelatin
1/2cupsweetened condensed milk
2cupsboiling waterdivided
1/2cupcold water
1cupvodkadivided
whipped creamoptional as garnish
Christmas sprinklesoptional as garnish
Instructions
Set a large tray out for your cups, we are using 1-ounce plastic shot glasses. This is also a good time to make sure you have room in your fridge for the tray of jello shots.
In a large measuring cup with a spout, or a mixing bowl with a spout, add 1 cup of boiling water and your cherry jello.
Whisk until the jello is dissolved.
Next, add in your ½ cup of cold water and ½ cup of vodka and whisk again.
Carefully pour the mixture into the cups about a third of the way up.
Place the tray in your refrigerator for 30 minutes or until that layer is set.
Meanwhile, begin making your white jello. In a small saucepan, add your unflavored gelatin and one cup of hot water over medium heat. Stir until the gelatin is all dissolved.
Remove from the heat and add in the sweetened condensed milk and ½ cup vodka. Set aside to cool a bit.
Carefully spoon the white mixture into each shot cup on top of the cherry layer filling the cups ⅔ full.
Place back in the fridge for 30 minutes until all set.
Fill the cups the rest of the way with the cherry jello.
Place back into the fridge for another 30 minutes until set.
When ready to serve, top each one with a squirt of whipped cream and festive sprinkles.
Notes
This recipe yields around 30-36 shots in 1-ounce glasses.
Some people prefer the 2 ounce cups for jello shots and those work well too, you just will get less shots out of each batch.
We used cherry jello but strawberry, cranberry, or raspberry can be used as well. The white layer is a mixture of sweetened condensed milk (NOT evaporated milk) with unflavored gelatin. If desired, you can swap out the white layer for a green layer of jello by following the same steps as the red layer - simply use a green apple or lime flavored gelatin mix.
Flavored vodka would work great in this recipe. We opted for regular, but we've made plenty of jello shots in the past using vanilla vodka, cake vodka, and whipped cream vodka with tasty results. To keep it nice and festive try peppermint vodka! You can also sub in cranberry, raspberry, strawberry, or cherry vodka to match the flavor of your jello.
I recommend using either homemade stabilized whipped cream that you can pipe on top or aerosol whipped cream as garnish. Regular homemade whipped cream will melt rather quickly.
Candy cane jello shots can be prepared up to 2 days in advance if stored in the refrigerator. I would recommend holding off on adding any garnishes (whipped cream/sprinkles) until you are ready to serve.