Peach Crisp Smoothie or Popsicles

I made a double batch of this smoothie one night for dessert and we froze what we couldn't drink in popsicle molds.  This smoothie tastes just like it sounds - like a peach crisp! 

Peach Crisp Smoothie adapted from My Happy Place

1/2 banana- frozen

1 frozen peach - I used frozen peaches

small handful of raw walnuts

1 t vanilla

1 t pure maple syrup or pancake syrup

2 T  quick cooking oats

1/2t cinnamon

2 T unsweetened vanilla almond milk

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend on high until smooth. Add ice or milk as needed. Pour into a glass and serve immediately. Makes one large smoothie.

Peanut Butter Pudding Pops

Who doesn't love a good pudding pop?  Why buy them when they are so easy to make!  Besides these pudding pops are peanut butter and chocolate, plus they were made with almond milk instead of moo juice.  Try finding that in the store!

This recipe for Peanut Butter Pudding pops from Craft, Bake, Sew, Create yielded 6 star pops with about half a cup  leftover.  I just froze that in a small container and ate it like ice cream.

What I like about pudding pops versus popcicles (or even most homemade non dairy, egg free ice creams) is how they stay relatively soft after being frozen.  Sometimes homemade popcicles and ice cream get rock hard after 24 hrs in the freezer. 

This is not the case with the peanut butter pudding pops.  They are chompable straight out of the mold.  This is particularly awesome because it takes Blockette FOREVER to eat frozen confections on a stick.  She is willing to chomp on these pudding pops unlike even a store bought Popsicle. 

As with all things using cocoa powder, I suggest you use a high quality cocoa powder.  The better the cocoa, the better your pudding pops are going to taste.  I do NOT like Hershey Cocoa powder.  That's because I'm spoiled.  Once you use a high quality cocoa powder you won't be able to go back to using the cheap stuff.  It will taste like dirt.  Consider yourself warned.  Personally, I LOVE chocolate, so it's one of the few things I'm willing to splurge on.

For those of you with a peanut allergy, I'm sure these pops could be made with other "butters" other than peanut.  Nutella and Biscoff come to mind as tasty alternatives!

Chocolate & Peanut Butter Fudgsicles from Craft, Bake, Sew, Create
2/3 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder (use the good stuff, I love Penzeys)
1/4 tsp. salt
3 T. cornstarch
2 1/4 cups milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)
1 tsp. vanilla
2 T. butter or margarine
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

In med pan, whisk sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, and salt. Gradually whisk in milk. Cook over med heat, stirring constantly, until mixture starts to boil. Boil for 1 min. Remove from  stove and stir in butter, vanilla and peanut butter. Pour into popsicle molds. Freeze overnight. (While you're waiting for the pops to freeze, go ahead and lick the pan you cooked the pudding in.  I won't tell!)

Orange Peach Mango Dreamsicles

I guess this is Blockette's dreamy face. Or maybe just her everyday weirdo face. What a goofball.

It's been so insanely hot for the past week or so, that I just wanted something cold. I delved into my recipe binder and came across this recipe for Orange Creamsicles.

This recipe is so old it is back from the days before I blogged, and kept notes about the websites I found a recipe on.  I don't have a clue who to credit this recipe for. For some reason I kept this recipe for years, even though it seemed like I had no intention to make it. Usually, if several years go by and I haven't attempted to make a recipe, I chuck it.  I must have known that this recipe would have come in handy on a day when it was too hot to even go to the store to buy popsicles.

Last week I wrote about the Fudgesicles and how sad I was that they only made 4 pops.  This recipe makes 8!  I only have 6 popsicle molds so I saved the extra "juice" in the fridge until we had eaten 2 of the pops.  The extra juice mix kept just fine in the fridge for a day. Just make sure to shake up your leftovers really well before pouring them into the molds.

The original recipe says to use a small can of orange juice concentrate.  I only had a large can of Orange Peach Mango juice.  I eyeballed half of the can and dumped that into the blender with the rest of the ingredients.  I think these pops would taste great with any sort of orange blend concentrate.


Dreamy, Creamy Orange Pops (source unknown)
1 small can of orange juice concentrate (Or half a large one)
1 c milk (I used skim)
1/4 c sugar or your favorite sugar substitute*
1/2 t vanilla
5-7 ice cubes

Dump all the ingredients into a blender and combine until smooth.  Pour into molds and freeze for at least 6 hours until they are solid.  This would also make a tasty smoothie, but I'd add more ice cubes to make it thicker.

*I thought these were on the sweet side, but Blockette disagreed.  Next time I will try it with slightly less sugar and see if she notices the difference.  Sweeten the pops to your own preference, but remember that things taste less sweet once they are frozen.

Cornelius Fudge-sicles

YAY! We finally saw the Harry Potter movie! I was pretty jazzed and would love to see it 12 more times. Although, I will have to wait until Christmas when it comes out on DVD to watch it a second time.  So, instead of seeing the movie again, let's make Cornelius Fudge-sicles!

Who in the blazes is Cornelius Fudge you ask? He was the Minister for Magic, a sort of Prime Minister for the Magical Folk, for most of the series.

That's his picture up there. What a looker, eh?  Well he was about as good a Minister for Magic as he was handsome.  His failure to see what was right in front of his face caused a lot of undue damage.  Funny how the little things can bring about our down fall.  Sort of like these Fudgesicles.

Oh, they sure don't seem like much, what with only a 1/2 Tablespoon of chocolate chips and 5/8 Tablespoon of cocoa powder per popsicle. How could they possibly taste rich and fudgy?  And I made them with plain old ordinary skim milk too.  Merlin's beard, they are rich and chocolate-y as all get out.

One thing that surprised me about these pops was that they were not rock hard after spending a day or two in the freezer.  Most of the time the frozen treats I make in ice pop form are strictly lick only, unless you want to crack your jaw off, or sit in the hot sun for a while.  (I don't know about you, but I prefer to eat my frozen concoctions in the serenity of my nice air conditioned home.)

See?  Even Blockette can bit the popsicle with her slightly wobbly/loose front tooth.  She doesn't even like to take bites from her ice cream cones, so I was surprised that she chomped away at this frozen confection.

Pop on over to smitten kitchen for the recipe for fudge popsicles and make them right away. Do it! Do it Lupin!  Do it for Fred!  Do it for Dumbledore, for pity's sake!  You know they'd want you to.

(The recipe makes 4 popsicles in the Tovolo star pop molds.)

Fudge Popsicles from Smitten Kitchen
2 tablespoons  semisweet chocolate chips or chopped semisweet chocolate
1/3 cup  sugar
1 tablespoon  cornstarch
1 1/2 tablespoons  unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/4 cups whole milk
Pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 tablespoon  unsalted butter

In the bottom of a medium saucepan over very low heat, gently melt the chocolate chips, stirring constantly until smooth. Stir in sugar, cornstarch, cocoa powder, milk and salt and raise heat to medium. Cook mixture, stirring frequently until it thickens, anywhere between 5 minutes (for me) and 10 (suggested in the book). Remove from heat, add vanilla and butter and stir until combined. Set aside to cool slightly then pour into popsicle molds. Freeze 30 minutes, then insert popsicle sticks. Freeze the rest of the way before serving.

German Chocolate Pops

My favorite homemade Popsicles are made from the below recipe. The recipe comes courtesy of the Mott's applesauce jar.

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Motts Apple Banana Breakfast Shake
2 c applesauce
1 c skim milk
1 large banana
1/2 c creamy peanut butter
1 c crushed ice

Whirl all ingredients together in a blender until smooth.

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Normally, when I use this recipe I fill the Popsicle molds 3/4 full, then carefully add in mini M&M's to the top. I poke them down with a long handled spoon, or chopstick. If you mix the candy in before you put the shake mix into the molds, the color from the candy coating will come completely off. The Popsicle then turns a nasty puke-y gray. Not tasty looking at all. Adding the M&M's at the end eliminates a lot of the bleeding. If the color from the candy coating comes off, it is in streaks, which is much more fun.

The breakfast shake recipe makes a lot more than my 6 tiny Popsicle molds can handle. I freeze the leftovers and thaw it on the counter or microwave when I want to make more. This time I had the idea to make German Chocolate Popsicles. I added a bit of coconut to the defrosted shake. I eyeballed everything so I'm not sure how much I used. I added just enough coconut to make the mix look wispy and scraggly like a teenage boy's beard. I spooned in 1-2 teaspoons of shake into the mold. Next, I added 1-2 salted roasted pecans that I broke up by hand, and a small bit of mini chocolate chips, just enough to cover the pecans. I continued alternating layers of shake and pecan/chips, ending with shake.
You can see I didn't try very hard to make the layers nice and even. Some of the chips sank. I assure you my taste buds didn't mind one bit. The only thing that would make this better was if I made the shake with chocolate milk, or chocolate syrup, or added a layer of fudge after the pecan/chip layer.