Summer of YUM Ice Pop

Photographer: guest
Serves 4

Today is the day! The start of a delicious and sun filled weekend at Taste of Auckland #TasteOfAuckland.  Sara and I are fizzing with excitement about our ice pop demos in collaboration with Dr Feelgood at the Fisher & Paykel Social Kitchen™ Theatre. The plane has touched down and our ‘grill boys’ (Guillaume, Rich, Jordan and Andrew) are going to be dishing out the laughs while sharing our secrets to the art of grilling and boy are you in for a taste sensation if you manage to get yourself one of the beanbags at the demo. The idea for a summer of YUM pop began with the kindling of  what seems like an old friendship now.  Craig (Dr Feelgood), Sara and I had a good old chit chat over a 5 course degustation lunch trying one after the other of Dr Feelgood’s super delicious pops.  The following weeks we brainstormed, mixed and tasted (it was tough I tell ya) until we came up with this beauty which screams summer.  Ice pops are art, they are fun to make and eat and transcend generations.  At Our Kitchen we have gone totally crazy for these frozen treats now we will be posting more delicious ice pop recipes and will be giving away our limited ice pop moulds before Christmas. Does anyone have any superb ideas for flavour combos? We would love to hear them!

INGREDIENTS

Red Layer
300 gm Frozen Strawberries (defrosted)
200ml Apple Juice
3/4 Tbsp Honey
1/2 tsp Fresh Ginger, peeled & finely chopped
2 tsp Chia Seeds
6 Mint Leaves, Finely Chopped

White Layer
4 Tbsp Coconut Cream
2 Tbsp Coconut Water
1/4 Tbsp Honey

Green Layer
60ml Water
60ml apple juice
.25 Tbsp Honey
Couple of drops of Natural Green Food Colour

METHOD

Red Layer
1. Blend the strawberries, ginger, apple juice and honey in a food processor (or in a tall jug with a stick blender).
2. Pour through a sieve into another container then add the mint and chia seeds.

White layer
1. Warm the three ingredients slightly (in the microwave or very carefully on the stove top ( or a few seconds in the microwave) just until the honey softens enough to mix through the coconut cream and water.
2. Chill until needed.

Green Layer
1. Warm the honey with the water until dissolved. Leave to cool then add apple juice and food colour.

Freezing the pops
1. Fill four pop moulds ¾ of the way up with the strawberry mix and place in the freezer for 1.5 hours or until almost solid then slide a wooden pop stick most of the way into the center of the pop.
2. Once the red layer is solid and the pop-stick is in place, gently pour a thin layer of the white coconut mix onto the red layer.
3. Leave to freeze for another hour and a half, then finish with the green layer.
Freeze the last layer for four hours or overnight.
Quickly run the pop moulds under warm water, slide out the pops and Voila!