Strawberry Lemonade Jello Shots

Hey, everyone! Hope you had a nice fourth of July! Hope you stayed cool too. I went to a BBQ and surprisingly it wasn’t too hot, we had a nice breeze where I was. The bad thing about summer parties is everyone wants to be outside no matter how hot it is, and I hate the heat.

This past weekend I was at my friend’s graduation party and I made some jello shots I’ve been dying to make. So today you get to see how that went. If you’re a pinterest user, I’m sure you’re familiar with these kind of jello shots. Like I said I’ve been dying to make them, and everyone loved them.

The pin I found gave a recipe for pink lemonade jello shots in a lemon peel. Well I show a lot of different comments saying that one way worked and another didn’t. I couldn’t find pink lemonade jello, so people were saying to use plain jello and then add pink lemonade, others were saying to add pink lemonade concentrate. Well I didn’t want to take chances because I was making these the day of so I just went with strawberry jello because who doesn’t like strawberry lemonade..?

Here’s what I started with:

I bought 7 lemons which will make 28 shots and I only made one of the jello boxes, but I had a lot of jello left over. I would suggest getting closer to 10 lemons. What I had left over I just put into normal jello shot cups.

Whats good for you, is that I’m going to give you some tips to speed the process up a little bit since I’ve been there, done that.

My first step was to the gut the lemons but I would start with the jello first, during my lemonade/lemonade concentrate research I discovered you should let the jello mixture cool after you boil the water before adding the alcohol because the alcohol will cook if you don’t wait. So I suggest starting the jello, follow the boxes directions until the end when you substitute some of the water with alcohol. So boil the water and add the powder mixture when called for.

During this process you have to gut the lemons. Start by cutting them all in half the long way. I did this to 14 halves so after a while I figured out the best way to do this. I think it helps a little if you haves semi-long nails and hopefully no cuts on you fingers because you’ll be getting a lot of lemons juice in them =) The process I found most effective was to start by squeezing some of the juice out of each half first- this makes the process less messy and slightly easier. Then with a sharp tipped knife, dig the point into one end of the lemon half. Try and shimmy (like my highly technically term?) the knife down between the skin of the lemon and the outer layer of inside skin. Try not to break the inside skin, if possible- it makes the process much easier. Shimmy the knife as much, at least enough to stick your finger in between the skins. And then just work back the lemon guts until its all out. For some that weren’t as easy I used a melon peeler to help get everything out.

I squeezed each lemon before gutting and then after gutting and I saved the juice so I had some fresh lemon juice to stick in the fridge for later but I also put some of it in the jello mixture as well.

So after I gutted each lemon I put them onto a cookie sheet. The only difficult part I had was getting the lemons to sit flat so that the brim was even.

Most of them sat pretty even but when I started to fill them with the jello I wanted it to be completely fully so what I did was moved each half to the edge of the cookie sheet so they would lean against the edge.

For the jello mixture, after you let the jello mixture cool, I added 3/4 cup cold water and 1/4 cup lemon juice because I wanted to make it strawberry lemonade. I then added one cup vodka. I’m sure if you’re making these then you’ve probably made jello shots before, if so I would stick with you’re ratios. Everyone thought mine were strong but I think it was the lemon juice that made them seem strong. One cup vodka to three cups water doesn’t seem like it would make them that strong. Next time I plan to add more vodka =)

They get a little wobbly when you try and transfer them from your counter to the fridge so if you can leave some room above the cookie sheet in the fridge. What I did was filled them pretty high but then added some more once they were sitting on the shelf in the fridge. I tried to get them to fill as high as possible.

After they are set choose a very sharp knife. The knife I used was semi-serated but sharp. Also I suggest using a long knife, so it doesn’t get caught in the lemon. I would start by cutting slightly through either side of the lemon peel first them cut all the way through the jello.

And ta-da! You have the most awesome jello shots you’ve ever made and certainly the coolest thing at the party. Mine were a hit, they went pretty fast and somehow nobody understands how you get the jello to set in a quarter slice of a lemon. Just tell people it’s magic =)

Enjoy!