Do you like flan and jello?

Here is the perfect Valentine’s Day dessert especially if you or someone in your family is a flan and jello fan.

I always keep some boxes of jello and flan in the pantry for a quick and easy last minute dessert.

This is an easy way to celebrate Valentine’s Day at home and your little ones will be excited to help.

My kids love to cut out the jello hearts with a heart shaped cookie cutter.

You will need a box of jello and a box of flan.

Choose your favorite red jello flavor for the heart. My kids’ favorite red jello is cherry but strawberry or watermelon are also good options.

I like to make the jello at night, so that it has enough time to set. In the morning it’s ready for the next step, cut out the hearts.

The instructions on the jello-o package are to first boil two cups of water and dissolve the gelatin. Then, stir for two minutes until the gelatin is completely dissolved. After that, add two cups of cold water and stir.

If you follow these instructions, the jello will be jiggly. 

However for this Valentine’s Day dessert flan with jello heart we want the jello to hold its shape. Using less water will make the jello heart firmer.

Read more: Flan with Jello Heart the Perfect Valentine’s Day Dessert

How to Make Firm Jello Hearts

Tip # 1: instead of using 2 cups of cold water use 1 and 1/2 cups of cold water. Using less water will help the jello hold the heart shape.

Speed-Set Method:

Replace the cold water with icy water. Add ice to the cold water. Wait a few minutes until the ice on the top does not melt anymore. Stir into gelatin. Remove any unmelted ice. Refrigerate for 30 to 90 minutes or until firm.

Pour into a 12 x 11 pan.

Tip # 2: You can use any pan you have at home. Keep in mind that you want your hearts thickness to be between 0.25 – 0.50 inches. You may pour less jello if your pan is smaller.

Spray the pan lightly with cooking oil before pouring the liquid jello.

This is to make sure that the heart will not stick to the pan and you will be able to easily remove a beautiful heart.

If you sprayed too much oil, remove the excess with a paper towel.

Also, make sure that your jello heart will fit into the cupcake’s mold so that your heart will stay flat. Put the heart cookie cutter into the cupcake mold to see if it fits.

After 90 minutes, when the jell-o is firm cut out the hearts with a heart shaped cookie cutter.

Even though the cupcake pan has 12 cups I only needed 9 hearts because the flan will only fill 9 cupcakes.

You will have left over jell-o to make extra hearts.

Put the cupcake pan with the jello hearts in the freezer for 15 minutes to make sure the pan and the hearts are really cold.

This is important because the flan will be hot and it may melt the jello heart if the pan is not cold enough.

While the pan is in the freezer, make the flan.

How to Make a Firm Flan

The instructions on the flan packet require 4 cups of milk, which is the same as 1 liter or 1 quart of milk.

Whole milk will make the flan firmer. The less fat the milk has the more jiggly it will come out.

I used 3 cups ( instead of 4) of 2% milk to make sure the flan will be firm and hold it’s shape.

Valentine’s Day Dessert: Flan with Jello Heart

More Valentine’s Day Dessert Ideas with Flan and Jello

This strawberry flan jello cake recipe looks like three cakes in one. There is a cake, flan, and jello layer.

The three different textures and flavors are delicious together.

Get the Strawberry Flan Jello Cake Recipe here.

Do you have a favorite Valentine’s Day dessert?

Let me know in the comments below.