Four years studying English and History and a year spent making popsicles. What have I learned over the past year? I have learned that the shortest time you can count on for a popsicle to freeze solidly is four hours. No matter how hard you wish it, you can't change that. I learned that family and friends will generously put up with random cylinders of test popsicles falling out of their freezer for days, weeks, and months on end. I learned that popsicles can be made and eaten in winter. I learned that there should be more spicy popsicles in the world. I learned loads about English and History, but that is for another project. It was a year of fun, a year of family and friends, and a year of receiving a lot of popsicle-based gifts. Thank you to everyone in my life who supported the project, chatted with me about the week's flavor, or engaged with me about my popsicle plans. It was an absolute joy to get to spend a year churning out popsicles. Now, on to pie. While I would never say no to a spicy plum or raspberry lime popsicle, at the end of the day, I exit this popsicle project how I ended it: deeply in love with lemon popsicles. Perhaps it is my allegiance to my childhood camp "nature" name or maybe I just seek out the tart in life. Regardless of reason, a lemon popsicle is still my go to popsicle. There is no recipe - just freeze lemonade!
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Guava Pineapple Popsicles
Yield: 6 popsicles | Prep Time: 10 minutes | Total Time: 6 hours Ingredients 2 cups guava juice 1/4 cup guava paste 1/4 cup pineapple Directions Thinly slice the guava paste and pineapple into ribbons. Fit into molds. Pour in guava juice. Freeze until solid. The project was supposed to have a loquat popsicle a long, long time ago. However, to acquire the loquats for the popsicle required shenanigans, the cover of darkness, and potentially breaking the law. So, the project had no loquat popsicle. However, I felt adamant that the project have some sort of quat. Thus I present the kumquat popsicle - an entirely different flavor profile and texture, but a sure and reliable quat. The loquat is a meaty quat - similar to the apricot in ways. But the kumquat is a zinger of a fruit. You can eat the skin. Its tang attacks you. Thus, it felt correct to pair it with another food item that attacks you - sparkling water. I mixed one of the project's staple liquids, tangerine juice, with the sparkling water to create a sweet, punchy base to complement the kumquat's sour, bouncy flavor. I made the popsicle tiny because I love tiny things and felt that the project did not have enough tiny popsicles. Sparkling Kumquat Popsicles
Yield: 6 tiny popsicles | Prep Time: 5 minutes | Total Time: 5 hours Ingredients 1 carton kumquats 3 cans sparkling water 1 cup citrus juice (I used tangerine) Directions Mix the sparkling water and citrus juice. Fill molds 3/4 full with liquid mixture. Thinly slice the kumquats and distribute between the molds. Freeze until solid. Gooseberries are so cool. They are a little pop of flavor in an ornate wrapper. Serrano chiles are also cool, but in a more terrifying way. This week's popsicle, then, is very cool, while also being quite hot. Gooseberry Serrano Popsicles
Ingredients Serrano chiles, sliced Gooseberries, sliced Any citrus juice Directions Add sliced gooseberries and chiles to mold. Pour citrus juice to fill. Freeze until solid. In the summer of 2008 I worked at Novakovich Orchards preparing apricots to be dried. My role was to stand in front of a large, waist-high flat, cut each apricot in half, remove the pit, and return the apricot to the flat. I managed a small part of the apricot-drying process, but I took pride in the entire chain of events (picking, slicing, drying, packaging, etc). Whenever a customer came and purchased a bag of chocolate-dipped fruits, I smiled. My work station was conveniently placed in the shade of the orchard's market stand, so I got to observe the comings and goings of the customers. The older girl (I was eleven, so I imagine she was around thirteen) who worked the cash register had a long, thin ponytail, a fantastic half-apron to store her cash, and a sense of authority over the market that I lusted after. I wanted nothing more than to ring up orders and maintain polite conversation with the hungry customers of Saratoga, California. While I spent the summer with my eyes on the cash register, I managed to also have even bigger dreams. The Jonas Brothers were coming to Shoreline Amphitheatre, and Eve and I were saving up go see them. Each time I slipped and slit my thumb a bit, or opened an apricot to find nothing but maggots, or had to decline a hangout invitation to go to the high school's pool for the afternoon (that is a joke-my only companions at eleven were Eve and Fiona-Eve making her own Jonas Brothers money and Fiona to my left, also slicing apricots) I focused on the image of Nick Jonas crooning his songs as I breathed in the warm summer air of the bay area's greatest open-air arena. That slightly shorter and plenty tanner version of me is still very much alive this week as I present the apricot pudding pop and listen to the Jonas Brother's new song. Life is round. Apricot Rice Pudding Popsicles
Yield: 6 popsicles | Prep Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 4 hours Ingredients 1 1/4 cups white rice, rinsed 2 1/2 cups water 1 tsp kosher salt 1 cinnamon stick 2 1/2 cups milk 1 cup sugar Zest of 1 lemon 1 tsp vanilla extract 1/3 cup diced dried apricots Directions Bring the rice, water, and salt to a boil and then cover and let simmer until most of the water is absorbed. Add in the milk, sugar, and zest and bring to a boil once more. Again, let the mixture simmer until all of the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla and apricots. Pour into molds. Freeze until solid. The feeling of horror I felt when I realized I didn't have a cherry popsicle yet in the project was...immense. Cherries are difficult to work with and fantastic to eat. Tangerines are also difficult to work with and fantastic to eat. For this popsicle, I only dealt with the difficulty of one of the ingredients. Cherries. I pitted them. For the tangerines, I bought tangerine juice. If you can't find tangerine juice, use orange (or really any citrus juice you like). Cherry Tangerine Popsicles
Ingredients Cherries, pitted Tangerine (or citrus) juice Directions Add desired amount of pitted cherries to molds. Pour tangerine juice to fill. Freeze until solid. What is my favorite moment of the Dim Sum experience? Is it the anticipation leading up to the meal, the memories of tall ceilings and orchestrated commotion inside a packed restaurant? Is it the joy of the classics - knowing that you love how something tastes and feeling the joy of its dependability? Or is it the joy of the new - trying something you and your group have never had? No. It is none of these things. It is the moment at the end of the meal when you believe yourself to be stuffed but then, glorious before you arrives a perfect round of mango pudding and above it, a thick curl of sweetened condensed milk. Ha! I love mango pudding. Mango Pudding Popsicles
Yield: 6 popsicles | Prep Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 6 hours Ingredients 2 1/2 cups cold water 1 1/4 cups sugar 1 lb frozen mango pieces 2 (1/4-ounce) packets unflavored gelatin 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup sweetened condensed milk Directions Pour a bit of sweetened condensed milk into the bottom of your molds. Begin to freeze. Place 3/4 cup of the water and 1/2 cup of the sugar in a small saucepan over high heat. Stir until sugar is dissolved and mixture comes to a boil. Remove from heat. Place mango pieces in a blender and add in just-boiled sugar mixture. Blend until smooth. Bring 1 1/4 cups water to a boil and pour over remaining sugar, gelatin, salt, and 1/2 cup water. Mix until everything is dissolved and uniform. Combine mango mixture and gelatin mixture. Pour into molds. Freeze until solid. This week's popsicle combines the josephine raspberry, known for its large fruit and rich flavor, and the bearss lime, known for its seedless nature and sweeter-than-normal juice. There is nothing more enjoyable to me than seeking out regional varieties of a fruit. I have been a long time fan of the bearss lime, as the nearby UC Santa Cruz campus keeps it in many bay area farmer's markets. It felt right to combine this lime with a gifted Josephine raspberry syrup. Raspberry Lime Popsicles
Yield: 6 popsicles | Prep Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes | Total Time: 6 hours Ingredients Peel and juice of 3 limes 1/2 cup sugar Raspberry syrup Directions Fill bottom third of molds with raspberry syrup. Freeze until somewhat solid. Mix together lime juice and sugar. Pour lime juice into final two-thirds of mold. Arrange peel at top of mold. Freeze until solid. At first, the plan was to do chocolate-covered-banana popsicles. But then a pantry-cleanout revealed a jar of bourbon caramel sauce. The popsicle changed direction. Dipped Banana Popsicles
Ingredients Bananas Dipping sauce (caramel, chocolate, etc) Directions Cut peeled bananas into desired size. Insert popsicle sticks. Freeze until almost solid. Bring dipping sauce to dippable temperature (for chocolate, melt; for caramel, warm up slightly in a water bath). Dip frozen banana into sauce. Place on wax paper. Freeze until solid. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and there is no better way to start your day than furiously licking a parfait pop to consume it before it melts. Morning Parfait Popsicles
Ingredients Granola Honey Yogurt Fruit Directions Mix a little honey and water into your favorite granola and press it into the bottom of your molds. Spoon yogurt over the granola, add fruit on top, and insert popsicle stick. Freeze until solid. |