I went shopping on Saturday, and one thing on my list of things to look for was a popsicle mold. For the past few months, I have been making my own 'ice cream' out of canned coconut milk, and Branden suggested that it would be nice to make them into popsicles. I headed to a new, super cheap store in town and found 2 types of molds. I picked the one that had the biggest cups, because in the dessert world size completely matters, and headed to The Market for some meat shopping. Since Branden works at the market
and I sort of needed more cash I stopped in and let him know of my find.
"So I got a popsicle mold," I proudly beamed, "They are decent sized cups with multi-colored tops that have sippy straws in them!"
"Great!" Branden happily contributed to my proud purchase.
"They technically are for little kids though," I began to let the cat out of the bag a bit and Branden looked questioningly at me, "They are VERY brightly multi-colored...and they have eyes."
"Eyes? How do they have eyes?" he managed to giggle his question out.
"Well, they have these random eyeball stickers on them for some reason so they look a bit childish, but they should work!" I defended my now seemingly ridiculous purchase...which still only cost me less than 2 Euros. (Yes, that probably should have explained a lot!)
Not wanting to pull out the silly things from my backpack, I got the money from Branden, went to my usual butchers for pork chops, sausages, and ground beef, and headed home. When Branden came home from work, I showed him the molds. He giggled a bit and pointed out that the 'sticks' that you hold were actually 'ears'...bunny ears to be exact.
"So that's why they have eyeballs!" I stated my revelation out loud, "they are bunnies!"
At this point our African housemate came into the kitchen, had his eyes drawn instantly to the colorful neon plastic thing on the counter, and took a few more notches out of my pride, "What's with the kid's toy?"
"It's a popsicle mold, you know, for making popsicles with," I maturely demonstrated by grasping my plastic bunny by the ears and popping it's head off from the cup tray, sticker eyes staring oddly back at my housemate who is also a doctor.
"But those are for little kids," he laughed out at me.
"Well, they were the only ones at the store that I could have got! The other ones were rocket shaped, which I would have preferred, but the cups were too small!" my voice squeaked out like an 8 year old trying to get out of climbing that horrible rope in gym class.
He laughed more at this and then gave a fabulous compliment, "You guys are just a bunch of kids at heart!"
"I can't argue there, and none of my friends or family would either!" I now beamed, pride totally restored.
If my bunnysicle had a mouth, it probably would have smiled too...but it only has eyes.
Oh look! Our first awkward family photo! (this actually got us laughing which brings us to the next photo)
I'm cracking up and so is Brandon so he's can't hold the camera right which cuts my face off!
I get him back by licking his bunnysicle! Haha!
So, as you can tell, we made popsicles and they are fantastic! They are blueberry fudge and are so decadent! Here's how I did it:
Ingredients:
1 can of coconut milk
1 pot of blueberry yogurt (I used Greek yogurt)
2 teaspoons of unsweetened coco powder (we did heaping but you can do it to suit your chocolate needs)
4 teaspoons of sugar (but you can adjust this to your taste, or put in honey, or an artificial sweetener if you prefer)
1 big spoonful of blueberry jam (optional. We had some that Branden brought home from work and it's not sweet since it's organic and has only apple juice concentrate used to sweeten it, but it did add some extra blueberry flavor)
Directions:
Dump the coconut milk into a pot, turn your heat on fairly low since you don't want to boil it really, and stir out all the lumps. Add the yogurt (and jam if you are using that option), slowly add the coco powder, and then add the sugar one teaspoon at a time, tasting to make sure it's the way you want it and not too much. Let the sugar totally dissolve, and I noticed the liquid started to thicken a bit but not much. Pour into your molds and them pop them in the freezer!
If you are wanting to make ice cream, just put the liquid in a tupperwear tub and make sure to take it out and stir your mixture with a fork about every 30 mins until it's the consistency that you want it. Also, you don't technically have to heat this up. I just did because it's easier to dissolve the sugar but if you use honey (like I normally do) then you don't need to heat it at all. Just stir everything together in a bowl and freeze! It's as easy as catching a cold and much more pleasant!
There will be ice crystals in the 'ice cream' since it's coconut milk and not done in a machine, but with the fabulous taste you get, who cares!?! I've done lost of variations including a Thin Mint coconut ice cream that was amazing, a chocolate Tia Maria version, and even just a basic vanilla. You can throw candy pieces in, flavor however you want, or even throw in some cream and make it more rich. Just have fun and make it how you like it!
...preferably in a bunnysicle mold ;)
