Red and white are my choice of colours to show national pride. But for many, it is not patriotic until blue is added to the mix. Can you believe it’s July already? When I think July, I naturally think of popsicles. Those icy treats sure are great to beat the sweltering heat! On this day which my friends south of the border celebrate the independence of their country, I would like to add my tribute with some very patriotic popsicles.
Hey, did I get my dates mixed up? Bastille Day is not here for a few more days! I made these red, white, and blue popsicles thinking America but somehow they look more like the flag of France. Well, close enough. I always insist that it’s a fine line between tasteful and gaudy themed food. I would rather err on the side of tasteful rather than to dwell on accuracy and details. So what went into these tri-colour pretty little things? The red layer is minty strawberry with candied strawberry pieces. The white layer is condensed milk thinned with whole milk. The blue layer is whole frozen blueberries suspended in apple juice. It’s a mix bag of flavours but I think the fruitiness of the berries pairs well with milky sweetness. Do you notice the little star on the bottom of blueberries? They are the stars in Stars and Stripes!
Obviously I cannot leave out my home country. We celebrated Canada Day just a few days ago and I wanted to wave these red and white popsicles around to show my national pride. The red layer is once again minty strawberry but with condensed milk and whole milk stirred in to create this gorgeous pink hue. It is on the sweet side so I contrast it with a layer of tangy Calpis Greek yogurt made with Calpis concentrate.
Perhaps you’re wondering about my extensive use of minty candied strawberries when making macerated strawberries is easy enough. Well, it is the result of a jam fail. Strawberries are notoriously low in pectin yet I insist on making strawberry jam without commercial pectin. Last Saturday, after meticulously cleaning and cutting and cooking over a hot stove, I thought I had five beautiful jars of garnet strawberry jam with whole berries suspended in jewel-tone preserve. I was wrong. Instead, I had five beautiful jars of strawberry sauce. Oh it tastes phenomenal! The berries were barely cooked to retain that lovely taste of summer and the mint infusion was subtle enough to add a bit of freshness in the background. I was so disappointed that it did not gel.
A girl can only use so much strawberry sauce to make sundaes before creativity stepped in. It was a shoo-in when I thought of making red layers in popsicles. However, with such a high concentrate of sugar, the strawberry sauce would not freeze solid. I either thinned it with a bit of water or with milk in both examples of popsicle I made. The texture was still soft enough to be pleasantly biteable (I prefer to take frozen bites out of my popsicles. Brain freeze doesn’t run in my family.).
It had been years since I last made popsicles so I went a little overboard. In fact, the one recipe that started it all was the deep chocolaty icy treat from Matt Armendariz’s On A Stick! cookbook. A close adaptation of his recipe is posted on smitten kitchen. For me, it was love at first bite. I have always been partial to fudgesicles for as long as I can remember. That silky smooth texture is so much more satisfying than neon colour sugary ice on a stick. I’ve always wondered what makes fudgesicles fudgy because chocolate milk obviously does not share that unctuous smoothness. Now I know! The secret ingredient is cornstarch! The beauty of making childhood treats from scratch is that I can source my ingredients like the adult that I am. For my batch of fudgesicles, I used whole raw milk, Valrhona cocoa powder, Lindt Excellence 90% dark chocolate, Nielsen Massey vanilla extract. Why bother with using inferior ingredients when I have all these good stuff readily available in the kitchen? Let me know you, these are the best fudgesicles I have ever had. Too bad none of them are leaving my house otherwise I would love to share them with everyone I know!
