10 December 2007


This is a punch I made for our housewarming party yesterday. I was looking for a cranberry-flavored one because cranberry has become a holiday flavor, for some reason. I had some punch in Texas once that had Jell-O in it, and it was really good, so I looked for a similar recipe. I found one on allrecipes.com that was meant to be a green Halloween punch, as it called for lime Jell-O. I decided to use it and add cranberry Jell-O instead of lime. Well, I wasn't able to find cranberry Jell-O the day I went to the store, so I got raspberry instead so it would still be red at least. Then when I was looking for the ginger ale, I found that Canada Dry had a cranberry flavored ginger ale. So it ended up being a cran-raspberry punch.

Holiday Punch

2 (3 oz.) boxes raspberry Jell-O
4 cups hot water
46 oz. pineapple juice
1 can frozen no-pulp orange juice concentrate, thawed
4 ½ cups cold water
2 liters cranberry ginger ale

Dissolve the Jell-O in the hot water. Allow to cool. Meanwhile, pour the pineapple juice through a fine mesh strainer to reduce the amount of pulp. When the Jell-O mixture is cool, add it to all the remaining ingredients, saving the ginger ale for right before the party so it doesn’t lose its fizz.

It was a huge hit at the party. We had a total of 31 guests and I had to make two batches of it. Tip: Only one batch would fit in the punch bowl, but I guessed that one might not be enough, so before the party, I dissolved the Jell-O in water for the second batch so it would be cool if I needed to whip up another batch during the party. This is a really good idea because it takes a while for it to cool.

This ended up being a bit different from the recipe I found online. First I changed the Jell-O flavor, as I mentioned before. Also, it called for additional white sugar, 2 cups, I think. The reviews from others suggested leaving this out and I’m so glad I did. It was perfect the way it was; I can’t imagine it with extra sugar. And the original recipe didn’t call for straining the pineapple juice, but I think it would have been a little sludgy on the bottom without doing that. I was surprised how much pulp I ended up with after doing that.

This recipe really lends itself to changes. You can use any flavor of Jell-O you like. Ditto with the ginger ale. Also, when I made the second batch, I didn’t add the can of orange juice, and no one could tell a difference. I love flexible recipes!


(The photo above is of the punch when I made it again for my daughter's fourth birthday party in February 2012. Weird that she wasn't even born when I first posted this recipe! It didn't have a picture, so I snapped one of it then. That time I used strawberry Jell-O to get more of a lighter pink color because the party was "My Little Pony" themed.)

Update (3.18.13): I made the green version of this punch for St. Patrick's Day.


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