Pops!

Wow...where did July go? Too little sleep to post, I suppose. With all the delicious fruit of summer I've been making lots of popsicles and ice cream. Here's a taste:

  

Pictured above is a blueberry kefir coconut pop. I based it on a recipe in Martha's Everyday Food magazine (special issue 2011) ... it didn't swirl like I wanted...but it tasted delicious. Finn was all about these.  Here is an approximate recipe (for 8 pops):

• 1-2 cups of blueberries
• 1/4 -1/2 cup raw honey (the recipe calls for 3/4 cup of sugar...but I thought they were sweet enough)
• 1 cup kefir (or greek yogurt)
• 1 cup coconut milk (original uses cream here)

Make a quick syrup with the blueberries and about a third of the honey (or sugar)...(3 minutes on stovetop).  Let cool in the fridge for about 30 min.

Whisk or blend together the rest of the honey, kefir and coconut milk until the honey mixes in (or the sugar dissolves). Pour the mixtures (alternating into pop molds and then with a skewer (or something similar) swirl the blueberry. (I think the swirling action would work better with a thick greek yogurt. My blueberries sunk because the kefir/coconut milk mixture was more liquid-y). Freeze until solid.

The next recipe (above) was also based on another from the same magazine. It has layers of blueberry and raspberry with kefir blended in to give it a nice texture. (Martha uses cream, I think...or maybe it was yogurt). These were Jason's fave.

Here is the approximate recipe (makes 8-10...I ended up filling ice cube trays too!):

• 1 lb each of raspberries and blueberries or blackberries

•  1/4-1/2 cup of raw honey (I can't remember how much I used. The original calls for 1 cup of sugar-- but raw honey is way too precious for that much and again, they were plenty sweet)
• 1 cup kefir (original calls for heavy cream)

In a blender, combine one color berry and half of the honey and kefir. Blend until smooth. Pour through a fine strainer, pressing on solids (should have about 2 cups). Then do the same with the other type of berry. (Discard solids).

Fill molds 1/3 full with one color mixture and the other four with the other color. Freeze for about 1 hour. Then pour a middle layer (alternating colors). Insert ice-pop sticks. Freeze for about 45 minutes.  Then top with final layer and freeze until frozen solid. (I don't think I waited long enough so my layers weren't perfect!).