Thoughts from Popsicle Season

We love trying out new popsicle recipes during the summer.  There's really nothing better than a cold, sweet treat in the evening when the temperature is high.  This year, in addition to chocolate cherry popsicles, we tried roasted strawberry popsicles and orange creamsicles.

After picking up a flat of strawberries from a local berry farm, we turned them into delicious popsicles based on this recipe.  We didn't have cardamom or cane sugar, so I omitted the spice and used honey instead.  After melting the honey into the coconut milk, I was tempted to abandon the recipe and just drink the warm honey/coconut milk mixture. That was the first sign that these were going to be delicious.  The next indication came when I popped a warm roasted strawberry in my mouth and it tasted like a regular strawberry, only richer.

We tried this recipe with fresh berries mixed in at the end and without them; I preferred the version with the fresh berries while HH did not.  Really, though, both versions were excellent.  The flavor was more subtle than that of other popsicles we have tried in the past, but that was a nice variation in this case.

Next, I made two versions of orange creamsicles: one with apricots and one without.  We preferred the version without the apricots, but both were good.  (The apricots just detracted from the pure orange flavor a little too much for our liking.)  The pure orange popsicles tasted exactly like those little orange/vanilla ice cream packs that you eat with a little wooden spoon, without the fear of getting a splinter every time you take a bite.  I appreciated the simplicity of these ones...just put the orange juice concentrate, coconut milk, and sugar in the food processor until smooth.  

Now that fall is here and the weather isn't quite as hot, sadly we won't be making popsicles any time soon.  But, just as we can look forward to a time when the sun still shines bright at 8pm, we can look forward to another season of popsicles in our future.