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There are still some recipes in Fany Gerson’s Paletas that I haven’t tried and I’ve got lots of other ideas and yet, I bought another popsicle  cookbook:  people’s pops: 55 recipes for ice pops, shave ice and boozy pops from Brooklyn’s coolest pop shop.  A quick search didn’t turn up another mention of this book, so this seems like as good a place as any for my review.  Bottom line:  It’s a great book for someone looking to explore new, fresh flavors of frozen pops.   The subtitle indicates 55 recipes but the book actually includes ideas for many, many more options.  I think it’s a book I’ll turn to as much for ideas as for actual recipes.

It begins with a bit of background on the people’s pops business, based on using the best fresh, seasonal fruit from local farmer’s markets.  They’re in New York City, so there won’t be any recipes for tropical lime-coconut-avocado-pineapple pops.  That also means no real overlap with the Mexican flavors in Paletas.
Next up are a few pages of "fundamentals” - basics, tips, suggestions for flavor combinations and guidelines for including alcoholic ingredients.  I’m not 100% on board with their classification of fruits and other ingredients as “cool” or “warm” and the recommendation to combine cool with cool and warm with warm.   I don’t think of ginger as a “cool” ingredient and often find contrasting flavors to be more interesting than similar ones but I like that the authors actively encourage readers to experiment beyond the recipes given.

Chapters are organized by season according to the main ingredient and each chapter begins with an intro section that includes a few paragraphs on each fruit with recommendations for choosing and handling that item and suggestions for other ingredients that would work well with it.  Likewise, the header text for each recipe often suggests other substitutions or pairings.  Every recipe emphasizes the variability of fresh fruit and encourages the cook to taste mixtures for sweetness before freezing.  Obviously, the first time through with any recipe, you don’t really know what you are tasting for since the final frozen product usually tastes less sweet than the same ingredients at room temperature but I like the emphasis on tasting rather than just relying on a recipe. Personally, I find it helpful to chill the mixtures down as much as possible before tasting to get a better sense of how the frozen product will taste.  

While most of the recipes are for frozen pops, there’s also a short section at the end with recipes for shaved ices and syrups.

I like the way flavors are combined, infusing herbs or spices into simple syrup or roasting stone fruits to intensify flavor.  Some of the recipes that I’d like to try are blueberry & buttermilk, blackberry & lemon verbena, peach & jalapeño, watermelon & parsley, pear, cream & ginger and pumpkin pie with whipped cream.  

Here’s the result of the first recipe I tried, corn & blackberry pops:

They are cosmetically impared because I got distracted while I had the molds sitting in warm water prior to unmolding.  Nice contrast between the intense sweet-tart blackberries in the top layer and the sweet, creamy, more subtle corn flavor in the bottom layer.    I will be interested whether or not someone would identify it as corn without knowing in advance.