Raspberry Ripple

Okay, who remembers Ripple? Even back in my youth, it was considered laughable, but we drank it anyway and thought we were pretty darned sophisticated because we knew the difference between Ripple and serious wines like Mateus and Lancers.

Which has nothing whatever to do with the frozen yogurt dessert I made last week in my trusty, if crippled, Donvier ice cream maker, except that I made peach FroYo with raspberry coulis ripples.

Béa gave me the recipe at her site, La Tartine Gourmande. She made popsicles with it and so did I, but I had quite a bit of peach base left over after filling my diminutive popsicle molds, so I stirred in my leftover raspberry coulis and popped the rippled results into a freezer container, thinking I'd scoop it like ice cream.

Think again.

It's a better texture for a popsicle. As a scoop, it's too icy and not creamy enough, although the flavor was good. Just sayin'. Some of my best ideas are not.

Pop Art

I had fun drizzling my raspberry-sherry vinegar coulis down and around the sides of my colorful new molds to create pop art for the taste buds.

The recipe comes mostly from Béa at La Tartine Gourmande but her version of the coulis is different than mine. She gets credit, however, for the idea of peach FroYo popsicles with raspberry coulis. Go here for her recipe.

The texture of these is more like creamsicles than popsicles, with a little lingering tang from the yogurt. The coulis is nearly purple and the peach froyo is a soft melon shade, beautiful all by itself and when complemented by the bright colors of my popsicle molds, they were a feast for the eyes.

And, wonder of wonders, the sun appeared before noon. I don't want to complain that this has been a remarkably gloomy summer, but it has been a remarkably gloomy summer. So, sunshine before noon was a good reason to pop open one of these and indulge in a summer treat.

Freezy Fun

This summer's fruits have been an inspiration. Of course, I have gobbled down my share of fresh fruit with no more embellishment than a rinse of fresh water under the tap, but I have also been motivated to make frozen goodies. This seems to be the summer of popsicles.

Here are my latest creations - ice cube mini-popsicles. Made in ice cube trays and pierced with cocktail picks, they are a really pretty shade of strawberry pink, slightly tangy from the Greek yogurt and sour cream but with a hint of sweetness, too. They make a quick and tasty little snack partway through the afternoon or for a light dessert. They are easy to make - minimal fuss - and fun to eat, a little icy and crunchy but melting on your tongue to smoothly creamy. The next hot day we get, I hope you have some of these in your freezer to enjoy.

Strawberry FroYo Popsicles (makes 2-1/2 ice cube trays)

2 cups fresh strawberries
1-1/2 cups Greek yogurt
1/2 cup sour cream
juice of 1/2 lemon
3/4 cup sugar (or more if your fruit is not very sweet - you need to taste as you go)

In a blender container, combine all the ingredients and whirl at low speed until the mixture is homogeneous. Pour into ice cube trays and freeze for about 30 minutes. (The seeds will have settled to the bottom, so you might want to pour those last few popsicles through a fine sieve to remove the seeds). When mixture is partially frozen and thick, set toothpicks or cocktail picks in at a 45 degree angle, to give you more leverage when removing the popsicles from the ice cube trays. Freeze until hard, several hours or overnight.

When popsicles are firmly frozen, remove them from the trays by very briefly running the bottom of the trays under hot water to loosen the popsicles. Using a levering motion, pull out each popsicle and quickly put them into a plastic freezer bag or freezer container (you can leave them in the trays if you have room in your freezer) and return them to the freezer until ready to serve.

It would be fun to vary the recipe and make several fruit flavors, serving one of each flavor as a special dessert.

Popsies

While I was out the other day trying to find parts for my ice cream maker, I came across these popsicle molds. I've been meaning to try Ellen Zachos' recipe for Cucumber-Gin-Mint popsicles and I was charmed by the colors, so I bought these instead.

They snap closed so, once filled, the contents won't run out if they tip over in the freezer. The lids make a little cup to catch the melting juice, too.

It's going to be a fun summer. Stand by for a progress report.