Popsicles

[helenjp]

My guess is that it's a pure juice thing. The reason I　add a bit of banana often is to improve the texture - I'm guessing the sugars/starches in the banana "hold" the water more effectively (big guess!).

[Jenni]

^^

That's a good idea, but does it dilute the taste with banana-ness a lot? That's the reason I don't like most commercial smoothies as they taste too much of banana to me!

[helenjp]

I try not to use much, for that very reason, and find that about 1/4 of a banana per cup of other stuff helps the texture without making much difference to the taste.

Plum and red wine is still a favorite here, but plum and red shisosorbet sounds like a good popsicle.

The latest here is green melon, wanted to add green shiso but sadly had done on hand.

[Darienne]

On the other hand, there were more dairy-based recipes than I had anticipated.

Looking forward to trying that coconut recipe too.

I made the roasted banana recipe (with milk but without cream) - Japanese "black" sugar goes well with this.

A little banana added to other fruits helps them to freeze softer - an advantage with the cone-shaped Ice Stick molds I'm using, as you otherwise get a largeish icy chunk as your first bite.

The molds hold only 50 ml (2 oz), exactly what I wanted. I've read reviews where people say they get an "off" taste - I'm careful to scrub to the very bottom of the mold with a tiny bottle brush, and hang them over chopsticks to dry...they've been fine. I only had one leak - overfilled the mold.

Bits and pieces: my molds are small too. And the DH has asked me to make the coconut recipe into ice cream which I will do today. I would think that it's too much coconut for ice cream. I also make some with Tequila in them. Very nice.

I did not notice the dairy content, but you are right.

Have had no off taste to date.

[Darienne]

I've been freezing pure grape juice in ice lolly moulds recently. Thing is, sometimes parts of them come out a bit icey and flakey. There are two possible reasons I can think of for this:

*My power goes off a lot, usually for between 10 minutes - 2 hours. My lights and fans are on the backup battery but my fridge is not. This means that it does get a bit warmer sometimes! It still keeps the fridge part rather cool, but I imagine the freezer gets to more of a fridge than a freezer temperature. Don't worry food health and safety people - I don't keep milk in the fridge (I buy fresh everday) so generally all that is in there are veggies (only a few at a time, again I buy fresh everyday), water/other drinks and ice lollies!

*I'm using pure juice which I guess is kinda watery. Should I be using puree?

What do you guys think? Is the occasional partial defrosting making them flakey or is it the juice thing?

Sorry Jenni. I don't have enough experience with that aspect of the popsicle world to answer you. Ask back in a few months.

[Emily_R]

I think its very very likely the all juice thing. Another strategy is to add a little bit of gelatine to the liquid base -- I've heard this helps reduce icyness... Same with some corn syrup (which is supposed to do that trick in ice cream base).

[Darienne]

Bits and pieces: my molds are small too. And the DH has asked me to make the coconut recipe into ice cream which I will do today. I would think that it's too much coconut for ice cream. I also make some with Tequila in them. Very nice.

Just reporting back. The ice cream came out very well. Added 3 tablespoons Tequila. Ice cream for big guys.

[helenjp]

Sounds good enough that I　might need to find a shop that stocks tequila!

Frozen gazpacho is good, but I want to get some molds that I　can keep separately for use with onion/garlic.

[Jenni]

Frozen gazpacho is good, but I want to get some molds that I　can keep separately for use with onion/garlic.

Omg...I want this now!

[threestars]

You can do any flavors with a popsicle, right? I love fruit flavors! I tried coconut flavor a couple of times.

[Darienne]

Sounds good enough that I　might need to find a shop that stocks tequila!

Frozen gazpacho is good, but I want to get some molds that I　can keep separately for use with onion/garlic.

Rum if often identified with coconut and if I had had some, I would have used it. As it was I had Tequila and so in it went.

[helenjp]

Ha! I had no tequila for one recipe so I used rum...

So far the favorites have been the plum ices, followed by mango with yogurt and Calpis - anything with a luisciousness plus a tart nip.

Today will be either grapefruit or maybe sweetcorn.

[blue_dolphin]

We have warmer weather predicted for the next few days and I've had a lot of melons in my CSA box so to use them up I've stocked my freezer with melon popsicles:

 

Round 1 was Saticoy melon (similar to canteloupe but sweeter) and lime:

4 cups Saticoy melon, ~1/3 cup lime juice, 1/4 cup homemade lime cordial and 1/4 cup homemade melon liqueur

The mixture was rather foamy coming out of the blender and I noticed that it separated a bit.  I sort of tried to hide it in the picture by putting the tops down in the glass, but you can see the separation.  For the other batches, I stirred the mix a bit to de-aerate it and used a gravy separator to leave the top layer of foam behind.

 

Round 2 was yellow watermelon-margarita popsicles:

I used 4 cups of yellow watermelon, 2 oz tequila, 1 oz Cointreau, 2 oz homemade lime cordial.  I tossed in a few cubes of pink watermelon for color.

 

Round 3 was pink watermelon and rosé wine with sort of a sangria-twist.

I intended to just use the watermelon and wine but I decided to add a little more fruit.  I ended up using about 4 cups of pink watermelon, 1 and a half cup of rosé wine and the juice of 2 smallish oranges and half a lime.  I added diced orange, yellow watermelon and cranberry.  Cherry would have been nice but I didn't have any.

 

Now, here's the sad part.  I started this post around 8 this AM, right after I unmolded the last batch and took them out for their photo.   My post was interrupted when the power went out.  Ah, I forgot, planned outage from 8 - 4.  Really not the best day for this since it was 97 by 10:30 AM.  I came home from some errands around 3 PM and decided to risk a quick reach into the freezer for a popsicle.  I had to eat it REALLY fast as they were almost melted already  - they were on the top shelf in a rather elderly side-by-side.  And the power didn't come back un until after 7 PM.  I haven't opened the fridge or freezer since and I'm wondering if I will have any popsicles left or just big blobs of frozen fruity ice!

 

Anyone else making popsicles?  I want to try to recipe from the Paletas cookbook with cherries and sour cream next.  Depending on how warm things got and how my fridge recovers, I may have plenty of room in the freezer for more! 

[Anna N]

blue_dolphin

Sorry to hear about your power outage. Do hope your popsicles survived. But you did jog my memory that I own the Paletas book and have not yet made anything from it. I must to rectify that before the summer is over.

[blue_dolphin]

Anna N, If you make any of the Paletas book recipes, please do share.  The lime pie pops are very good.  I've made them several times. Another recipe that intrigues me (not in the book) is the Mexican Street-Corn Paletas that Francis Lam wrote up after an afternoon with Fany Gerson.

 

My popsicles, well, last batch that I'd just unmolded and left on the top shelf don't look as pretty but I think a few can be salvaged.  Thankfully, the melted stuff stayed confined to the waxed paper lined baking sheet and didn't decorate everything on the shelves below. And the other pops had been packed up into freezer bags on the lower shelves and were fine. 

Sort of silly to complain about melted ice pops when there were several crews on my street working up on the poles all that time!  I will make more careful note of these outages in the future and on hot days, I'll consider getting some dry ice for the freezer in case the outage runs longer than anticipated.

[blue_dolphin]

Sour cream, cherry and tequila ice pops from Fany Gerson's "Paletas"

 

These are very tasty.  A little tang from the sour cream balancing the sweet cherries.

I love to sneak frozen cherries direct from the freezer as a sweet treat and I was a little disappointed that they were cooked down with sugar to almost a jam-like consistency and marinated in the tequila. It absolutely works in this combination but I missed the firm texture and fresher flavor of the plain fruit.  

 

I think this sour cream pop would pair very well with strawberries, using some of the berry-infused tequila por mi amante instead of plain tequila. Mmmmm!

[blue_dolphin]

Here we have strawberry, sour cream and brown sugar pops.

 

As mentioned above, I thought a sour cream-strawberry combination sounded good.  I remember the first time a friend served a bowl of perfect strawberries with small dishes of sour cream and brown sugar for dipping.  So simple and so good!  I tried making this combo into a popsicle, using the cherry, sour cream, tequila pops from Paletas as a starting point:

 

I wanted the three components to stay separate but still have a bit of each in every bite.  I reduced the sugar in the sour cream mix from 1/2 cup to 1/8 cup.  I was concerned this might make it too icy.  The texture was a little firmer, but still good however reducing the sugar that much made this component a bit bland.

 

For the berries, I chopped them a bit and used about 1/3 of the original amount of sugar, plus 1/4 t balsamic vinegar and heated them just until they barely began to soften. That worked out very well, and yielded firm, flavorful bits in the pops.  

 

For the sugar, I used a mix of mostly dark brown sugar and a little turbinado sugar, thinking some of those larger crystals might retain some crunch.  I tried 2 variations, stirring the sugar into the sour cream mix (on the right above) and layering it separately in the molds (pictured on the left).  

The separately layered sugar had a slightly more distinct flavors but the sour cream base tasted bland due to the reduced sugar.

The mixed-in sugar compensated for the reduced sugar in the sour cream mix and made for a tastier pop, even if the flavors were less distinct.

 

I'll give this one more go, using a combination of stirring in a bit of brown sugar and layering a bit more in with the berries.  I might try adding some ginger snap or molasses cookie crumbs with the added sugar to see if it might add that little bit of crunch you get when dipping the fresh berries themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Smithy]

I'm thoroughly enjoying your heat wave relief efforts, blue_dolphin. The popsicles look beautiful! I like your idea of getting a little of each element in each bite, and the crunchy element you propose to add sounds like it would be a nice addition. Thanks for posting your results.

[TicTac]

Any suggestions on non PLASTIC molds?

 

I cannot bring myself to freeze things in direct contact with that devil material and then consume then.

[blue_dolphin]

Any suggestions on non PLASTIC molds?

 

I cannot bring myself to freeze things in direct contact with that devil material and then consume then.

 

There are silicone pop molds available.  The Zoku molds like this seem to be popular.

Upthread, disposable paper cups were proposed.

The Paletas book suggests using shot glasses or any vessel that isn't too wide and has smooth sides. 

[blue_dolphin]

My last effort on the sour cream/strawberry/brown sugar combo (sweetening the sour cream with a bit more brown sugar - still significantly less than the original recipe - and including some crushed ginger snaps into the dark brown sugar mix for crunch) was OK but still not exactly what I wanted with respect to that sugar crunch.  I could experiment with some larger sugar crystals or making some brown sugar brittle but I think dipping the tops of the pops into some turbinado sugar before serving will be good enough for this round of experiments:

 

Next up is a test of an iced coffee pop.  I wanted this to be like an icy iced coffee, not a coffee ice cream, although that certainly has its charm!  I used approximately equal parts of coffee and whole milk plus a bit of simple syrup to sweeten it just a little. I piped a little bit of Trader Joe's Nutella-like Cocoa Almond Spread into the molds, alternately with the cold coffee mixture and was pleasantly surprised that it didn't all sink to the bottom but stayed distributed in the pops.  I did chill the coffee mixture until it was almost frozen before filling the molds.

Without much fat or sugar, these are on the icy side.  Not sure others would like them but I'll probably make a few from time to time when I have leftover coffee.  Perfect for those days when it's just too hot for a second cup of coffee!

 

Last up are some yogurt pops.  One of my favorite combos is mango, blueberries and yogurt, lightly sweetened with maple syrup so I made these:

I used 2 cups of Greek-style yogurt, 3 T maple syrup and alternated that in the molds with diced mango (Trader Joe's frozen mango chunks, thawed and diced) and fresh blueberries (cut in half).  I'm happy with these, too. Not too sweet, something I'd feel comfortable having for a snack.  For comparison, the Paletas recipe for yogurt and berry pops uses a 1/2 c sugar + 1/2 c water syrup to sweeten 1 1/2 c yogurt and adds an additional 2T honey, which would make a much sweeter treat.  I don't think the mouthfeel of my pops suffered from the reduced sugar but someone accustomed to commercially sweetened yogurts might not like the yogurt tang that comes through on these.  

 

[Anna N]

Your popsicle experiments are inspiring. A Vietnamese iced coffee popsicle would ring my bells.

[blue_dolphin]

Your popsicle experiments are inspiring. A Vietnamese iced coffee popsicle would ring my bells.

 

Well, since I don't have an Instant Pot,  I have to make up easier experiments with my popsicle molds  !  

 

I am also tempted to try some Vietnamese iced coffee pops but I didn't have another use in mind for the rest of the can of sweetened condensed milk so I tabled that idea until I have enough limes on my tree to make another batch of the lime pie pops.   Also until my freezer is less full of popsicles - I need to have people over an serve them popsicles for dessert!

Edited September 5, 2015 by blue_dolphin (log)

[Anna N]

Well, since I don't have an Instant Pot,  I have to make up easier experiments with my popsicle molds  !  

 

I am also tempted to try some Vietnamese iced coffee pops but I didn't have another use in mind for the rest of the can of sweetened condensed milk so I tabled that idea until I have enough limes on my tree to make another batch of the lime pie pops.   Also until my freezer is less full of popsicles - I need to have people over an serve them popsicles for dessert!

Caught red-handed with my Instant Pot! Freezer space is what holds me back at the moment. See in the link from David that he suggests that you don't need to use condensed milk but could use just milk and up the sugar content. Just saying.

[blue_dolphin]

Hot here again.  103 deg F today so 2 more popsicle variations.   First up are the Vietnamese Iced Coffee pops for Anna N.  These are good and very easy.  Just 2 ingredients:  2 cups (500 ml) extra strong coffee plus 2/3 cup (160 ml) sweetened condensed milk.  I used leftover regular drip brewed coffee which was fairly strong but David said the coffee "should be chest hair-raisingly strong" so I supplemented with 2 packets of Starbucks instant Italian roast coffee - free samples that had been hanging around in my cupboard for some time (best by date = Aug 2010  ).  I was lazy and just weighed 160 gm of the sweetened condensed milk into the coffee without bothering to look up the density (1.29 g/ml) and calculating that I should have weighed 206 gm so they are a bit less sweet (29% less) than they should have been.  However, they taste fine and pack a serious caffeine hit.  I'm feeling pretty hyper at the moment and will ration them to 1 per day.  

 

Next, I tried a recipe for Negroni Orange Popsicles from the LA Times.  Basically, orange slices are soaked in a sweetened Negroni and then frozen on a stick.  The picture online looked appealing but my result was less so.

 

Here are the orange slices in their Negroni bath:

 

Drained and sticks inserted, ready for the freezer:

The 3 slices with the holes in the center are from a large navel orange.  The other is from a smaller Valencia orange.

 

And after freezing:

 

These taste OK but I suspect a longer time or maybe a vacuum infusion would get more Negroni into the slices as the flavor was much stronger on the periphery of the slices compared with the centers.  The frozen orange slices were hard (not surprising really  ) and the navel oranges tended to break apart along the membranes.  The frozen membranes were unpleasantly chewy, more pronounced in the navel oranges.   I don't think I will bother to perfect these.