Deep in day two of a juice cleanse, Tess and I were confronted with an issue. We were dropping a friend off at their home, and their mother kindly invited us in and offered us mugs of chai from a gorgeous, simmering pot on the stove. We panicked. How does one politely explain that they are !cleansing! their body and thus can not introduce dairy into their system without things going haywire? How does one turn down a mug of home made chai and not live to regret it? Was the fastest route home 101 to 85 or 280 to 85? We decided that no cleanse was worth missing out on chai, and that clearly 101 was the better route. It was spicy, and warm, and completely worth it. I didn't use black tea as a base for this popsicle, because I wanted it to be an any-time pop. Instead, the chai spices are mixed in with the milk. This would be great without the nuts and chocolate, if you were feeling a little less lavish.
Chai, Macadamia, and White Chocolate Popsicles Yield: 6 popsicles | Prep Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 6 hours Ingredients 2 1/4 cups milk (I used macadamia nut milk, for flavor synergy, but any milk would be fine) 1/2 tsp nutmeg 1/2 tsp cardamom 1/2 tsp ginger 1/8 tsp allspice 1/8 tsp cloves 4 tsp maple syrup (or honey!) 1/4 c white chocolate, melted 1/4 c macadamia nuts, crushed Directions Whisk spices and syrup into milk. Pour into molds and freeze until solid. To serve, drizzle melted chocolate on top of popsicles, and sprinkle nuts over chocolate. Let harden.
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It would have been wholly unfair to NOT have this week's popsicle be moon-related, as this upcoming new moon has taken over all of my mental space. I can't pinpoint exactly when I became such a deep moon fanatic. It really does feel like one day I was a fourteen year old going to football games and wearing ugg boots and suddenly I am a twenty one year old who makes monthly moon water, reads many moon-centered blogs, and seriously considered paying OVER thirty dollars for a moon-related sound bath. Life comes at you fast. But the full moon does not. Half the fun of the full moon is preparing for it. And that is where these popsicles come in. They celebrate the phases of the full moon while reminding us that there is chocolate-sandwich-creme-cookie goodness to be found in every part of the moon's cycle. If you wanted to make these cookies not around the full moon, you could simply place a full chocolate sandwich creme cookie into the mold, rather than a moon-architected chocolate sandwich creme cookie.
Full Moon Cookies and Creme Popsicles Yield: 5 popsicles | Prep Time: 15 minutes | Total Time: 6 hours Ingredients 7 chocolate sandwich creme cookies 1 box vanilla pudding mix 2 cups milk of your choice Directions Prepare pudding per box instructions, using whatever milk you prefer. Let pudding cool, then blend with two chocolate sandwich creme cookies. Pour mixture into molds and let chill for one hour. Prepare chocolate sandwich creme cookies to look like the phases of the moon. Insert cookies into front of molds. Freeze until solid. One thing I have learned this weekend (Ken and I spent the better part of Saturday making pate a choux without a mixer and thinking back on the past) is that my life has had many Important Churros. The not-quite-fried-enough churros in the Castilleja lunchroom, the enormous and fantastic churros at the San Jose Giants stadium, the small, looped, non cinnamon-sugared churros of christmas morning in Madrid. And now, this small, popsicle-stick churro. This popsicle is ridiculous in all the right ways and has certainly made its place on the list. Churro Popsicles
Yield: 12 small popsicles | Prep Time: 2 hours | Total Time: 6 hours Ingredients Churros (use this recipe) Vanilla bean ice cream (use this recipe) Directions Prepare churros according to recipe, but pipe out the dough into a log measuring a bit shorter than your popsicle stick. Chill the piped dough for half an hour before inserting sticks into the logs. Fry the dough and roll through cinnamon sugar. Prepare vanilla ice cream and scoop churned ice cream into dixie cups. Stick churro sticks in as you would popsicle sticks and freeze until solid. To serve, remove cups. I love mochi as much as the next person-who-gets-self-serve-frozen-yogurt-multiple-times-a-week. Possible more! It is soft and fluffy. A lot of my life was spent in the comfortable space of not knowing what was in mochi, but knowing that if I ever needed it, a yogurt location was never too far away. Sophomore year of high school, Izzy Lyseggen taught me how to make mochi and I moved to the even more comfortable space of knowing that I could make mochi for myself. As you can see in the photos, the mochi will likely disappear into the strength of the green as the pops freeze. Also, the matcha will grab onto the mochi and form a troubling, algae like situation. Ways to combat this are to pre-chill the mochi and to whisk your powder with passion.
Matcha and Mochi Popsicles Yield: 6 popsicles | Prep Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 6 hours Ingredients Mochi (use this recipe) 3 cups coconut milk 1 tsp coconut sugar 1 1/2 tsp matcha powder Directions Form mochi dough into small balls and freeze 2-4 at bottom of each mold. While mochi is chilling, whisk coconut sugar and matcha powder into coconut milk. Don't be afraid to really let the whisk work. Pour mixture over balls. Freeze until solid. It is surprising that a plum popsicle didn't come around until this first week of September, as most days of the summer involved our kitchen counter littered with around 10 to 30 harvested plums waiting to be consumed. But, nonetheless, plum popsicle inspiration didn't strike until about a week ago, when I ordered a pizza so spicy I couldn't finish a single slice. The menu said "ricotta, plum, and chile pizza" and my mind read "ricotta and plum pizza" (pizza pictured in this week's email blast). After one bite it became clear that the chile was the dominant ingredient and that I had made a huge mistake. Feeling defeated by my order but not ready to give up altogether, I translated the pizza disappointment into a popsicle. The popsicle is not too spicy and certainly not too sweet. It takes the exciting tartness and sweetness of a plum and joins it with the fear and allure of a touch of spice.
Spicy Plum Popsicles Yield: 6 popsicles | Prep Time: 15 minutes | Total Time: 6 hours Ingredients 3 red plums 1 black plum 2 dried thai chiles Directions Roughly chop red plums and bring them to an eventual boil with enough water to cover their flesh. Once boiling, break down any large chunks of plum and add in thinly sliced chili peppers. Let mixture simmer until fairly reduced. Fill molds 80% full with mixture. Thinly slice black plum and wedge one slice into each mold. Freeze until solid. |