Frozen Mocha Pops

Missing my afternoon coffee run- a jaunt to my freezer will more than suffice now that I'm stocked with Frozen Mocha Pops!

Back when I was a fancy corporate employee, I rallied a group of over a dozen coworkers to buy Bruegger's Bottomless Mug cards, so that we could make morning and afternoon coffee runs.  That card was worth slightly more than its weight in gold to me (the card weighed about 1/8 of an ounce, in case you were wondering).  

I cannot tell you how much caffeine I pumped through my body in the two years that I had that card, but it is safe to say that it exceeded the healthy levels recommended by the FDA.  More than the caffeine, I loved the camaraderie of taking a coding break, walking to the bagel shop, and sipping coffee together on the way back to our cubes.

Now that I work remotely, the biggest thing that I miss is those coffee breaks.  I am wildly more productive, but I can't help but yearn for that steaming cup of coffee and an opportunity to vent or chat and let loose for a little while.

However, working remotely does have its benefits and I'm going to count Frozen Mocha Pops among them.

These frozen mocha pops were inspired by The Pioneer Woman's love for all things cold coffee, and the fact that living in a warmer climate has made me love cold brew coffee too!  Typically, I like my coffee hot and black, but when it comes to cold brew, sweet and creamy is my preference.  I started thinking that I should start making homemade frappucinos when I realized that frappucinos are just melted popsicles in a cup, thus was born the frozen mocha pop.

Frozen mocha pops are sweet, with a strong but smooth coffee flavor, and just a hint of chocolaty goodness.  The ice crystals are tiny which gives these pops a silky texture as opposed to the icy texture of other popsicles.  When the robust, sweet, creamy flavors melted in my mouth the world slowed down for a second.  I forgot about the dozens of emails piling up in my inbox and the coding issues that were not resolving themselves, and I got caught up in the world of yum.

Do yourself a favor and whip up a batch of these, and enjoy it instead of your afternoon coffee, you'll be glad you did.

What's your favorite tradition for an afternoon work break? Coffee, a walk, sweets, something else? Let me know in the comments.

As I'm wrapping up a week of Popsicle recipes, here are a few tips:
1. As far as I'm concerned the NoPro IcePop Mold is the way to go.
2. Fill your molds about 7/8 full, because popsicles expand.
3. Pay attention to how straight your stick is.  The top of the NoPro has convenient stick sized openings, but they do no good if you don't stick those popsicle sticks in straight.
4. I find the easiest way to remove popsicles is to run the mold under warm water for 10-15 seconds.  When you are pulling the ice pop out, you should feel some resistance.
5. If you break the ice pop on removal, its because the pop got too warm.  Just refreeze it, and it will be fine (or eat it, no judgement here).
6. I prefer to store my popsicles in the mold, but you can also wrap the ice pops in wax paper and they stay good for over a week in the freezer.
7. Experiment with your favorite flavors, and find something you love.

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Frozen Mocha Pops

by Hannah Rounds May-15-2014

A sweet, creamy mocha frozen into an ice pop treat!

Ingredients

• 3/4 Cup Cold Press Coffee
• 1/3 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream
• 1/3 Cup Powdered Sugar
• Approx 1/2 ounce Chocolate Shavings

Instructions

1. To Cold brew your coffee (if you don't own a french press) fill a glass container with 1/2 cup of ground coffee and 1.5 cups of water, this will yield at least one full cup of coffee after filtering. Let the jar rest for 6-24 hours. Then use a traditional coffee filter and a funnel and pour the liquid into a new glass. Once the filter is wet, it shouldn't slip around much, but don't just plop all the grounds in there because the filter will break.2. Whip cream and powdered sugar together until cream forms stiff peaks (for creamy pops, alternatively, you can just gently mix without forming peaks and you will get a bit of separation in the pops with slightly larger ice crystals).3. Mix whipped (or unwhipped) cream mixture and coffee, then fold in chocolate shavings.4. Freeze for at least three hours before eating.5. These popsicles can be removed from the mold using either the ice bath or the warm running water method.

Details

Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 3 hour Total time: 3 hour 10 mins Yield: 6 Pops

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Tropical Popsicle

Tropical Popsicle. Breezy Freezy. Fruits Cahoots. These fruit pops required a rhyming name.

For the past week and a half, the Mad Scientist has been taking an inter-semester break, so he and Littlest have been hanging around the house quite a lot.  I love having my boys home. Usually, I am locked up in my office all day with exactly zero face to face interaction, but with Littlest and Mad Scientist around I get all kinds of attention.

For example, Littlest will crawl into the office, pull all the books off the shelf, and begin shrieking (pteradactyl style) at the precise moment that a client is calling to understand the details behind an analysis that I've put together for them.  Or the Mad Scientist will ask me to watch Littlest for a few minutes while he runs to Lowe's, and I will find my child laughing uncontrollably with his onsie drenched in (sweat? water? other?) and his face full of mud.

Maybe these aren't among the highest order of social interactions, but I love them nonetheless, because I love being with my family. I even love when the Mad Scientist comes inside complaining about the heat as if it is the weather's fault that he is all sweaty when he is the one who is outside working ridiculously hard to solve our drainage problem.

Do you want to know what else I love? I love that at the end of a long work day (for me), and a long day of home improvements (for the Mad Scientist), and a long day of ? (for Littlest), we all sat together (Norman Rockwell style but in dry fits) and enjoyed these Tropical Popsicles.

Tropical popsicles are the quintessential fruit pop.  The only ingredient in these bad boys is fruit (and water).  I can't quite nail down why, but there is something so purifying, so cleansing about eating a sweet (and the tiniest bit tart)  treat and knowing that you don't even have to trick yourself into thinking its healthy.  It's just pure, frozen refreshment on a stick.

The ingredients are as simple as can be. Tropical Fruit (for this batch I used mango and pineapples, but bananas, papaya and coconut are amazing too), and non tropical fruit (I used strawberries, but any berry or a sweet citrus would work well too). Cut, blend, freeze, enjoy.

Eating these felt indulgent and luxurious and detoxifying and cleansing all at once.  These pops made it easy for me to ignore the fact that Littlest ate more dirt than fruit, and to ignore the fact that we had no patio furniture (we sat on overturned 5 gallon buckets).  We were just a little family eating a little treat, and cooling off from the heat of the day.

I like memories like that.  I hope to have more of them, and I hope these Tropical popsicles help you to make memories too.

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Tropical Popsicle

by Hannah Rounds May-14-2014

Its frozen tropical fruits. Simple and refreshing.

Ingredients

• 1/4 Pineapple Pineapple- Diced
• 2 Mangos- Diced
• 1/4 Pound Strawberries- Diced
• 1/3 Cup Water

Instructions

1. Blend half of strawberry chunks, half of mango chunks, half of pineapple chunks, and water until smooth2. Fill molds 2/3 full with blended fruit3. Add small chunks of fruit to the mold until the mold is full4. Insert sticks, then freeze at least 5 hours5. Thaw using either the warm running water or the warm bath method. Either one takes 20-30 seconds and both work equally well for this type of ice pop.

Details

Prep time: 30 mins Cook time: 5 hour Total time: 5 hour 30 mins Yield: 6 Popsicles

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Berry Creamsicles

Berries and Cream, Berries and Cream! I'm a little lass who loves Berries and Cream!

Are you easily influenced by Mass Marketing? I don't know if I am easily influenced, but I definitely remember an awful lot of commercials.  Not only that, when the tagline or slogan fits my current situation, I feel compelled (as if by the ghost of Don Draper himself) to repeat the slogan.  

Nearly always, this habit confuses other parties, but I have met a few kindred spirits. Maybe new acquaintances, maybe lifelong friends, but in either case we share a connection.  We remember that we were mass marketed to in the same way.  We remember the way that commercials and products and high fructose corn syrup shaped our childhoods. "Feed the Rush, Do the Dew, Weird, but Good., Give me a break, Two for me, None for you."

These were the phrases of my childhood.

Now, I am going to remind you of another phrase.  A short lived phrase, and one that I think came out late in my high school years. "Berries and Cream, Berries and Cream, I'm a little lad who loves Berries and Creeeeeeam!" Does anybody remember that tagline? What about that product? 

Anybody, Bueller? Bueller?

Well, it was Starburst.  Berries and Cream Starburst to be exact. Here's the full commercial for your viewing pleasure. And a visual reminder for those that won't click the link.

Creepy Starburst guy.  You are welcome.

Why am I reminding you of the ridiculous marketing that shaped my adolescence? Only because every time I eat berries and cream (or any variation thereof), I do the dance.  The whole dance, and the slogan.

So you can imagine that while I was whipping these Berry Creamsicles up, I was dancing in the kitchen like a ridiculous court jester the whole time.

Really, these Berry Creamsicles deserve a little jig all their own.  The sweet frozen berries combined with light, fluffy frozen cream in one dessert? What's not to love?  It's my favorite parts of strawberry shortcake, or angel food cake, or fruit pie frozen into one lovely desert, a berry creamsicle.  The perfect fusion between popsicle and ice cream.

It really is ridiculously easy to make, and even easier to eat.  Make them today, and you will not be disappointed.

Also, if you are a kindred spirit let me know in the comment section, and give me that slogan that's always running through your head.

If you aren't a kindred spirit, I still want to hear from you, but don't feel the obligation to make up a slogan just to be like the cool kids.  We really aren't the cool kids at all, just the kids who watched a little too much TV, or paid too much attention to the commercials.

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Berry Creamsicles

by Hannah Rounds May-13-2014

This delicious popsicle is a frozen riff on the classic desert, berries and cream

Ingredients

• 1/4 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream
• 1 Tablespoon Sugar
• 1/2 Pound Strawberries- Diced
• 3/4 Cup Water
• 3/4 Cup Sugar
• 1/2 Pint Blackberries

Instructions

1. Whip cream and 1 Tablespoon sugar until it has formed stiff peaks. Store in fridge.2. Combine berries, sugar and water in a small sauce pan. Cook on low heat until you have a heavy syrup (approximately 10 minutes)3. Allow berry syrup (with fresh berry chunks) to cool in freezer for ten minutes or in fridge for up to a day.4. Fill popsicle molds about 1/3 full with berries and berry syrup only.5. Fold remaining berries and syrup into whipped cream.6. Fill the rest of the mold with the cream mixture, insert sticks and freeze at least 8 hours7. To remove creamsicles, run mold under hot water (this is more effective for these than the hot water bath method).8. You can refreeze these wrapped in wax paper or re-inserted to mold as desired.

Details

Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 8 hour Total time: 8 hour 15 mins Yield: 6 Pops

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Banana Sundae Popsicles

Banana Sundae Popsicle- It's a summertime classic on a stick! I should enter it into the Minnesota State Fair!

I don't consider myself to be an extraordinary healthy eater, but I am neither a teenage  boy nor a freshman in college, so my eating habits are certainly more virtuous than some people's. Additionally, I had an entire week devoted to salads, only one of which was not really a salad but a large bowl of pasta, so I am capable of eating vegetables.

That being said, there is one frozen concoction that will lead me straight into a desert black hole.  No, its not a Margarita.  Folks, its a Popsicle!

I love popsicles, and as a sign of the Mad Scientist's undying love and affection (and his ability to follow instructions regarding birthday gifts), I received a popsicle mold for my birthday.  I love this thing so much, that I am considering buying stock in a popsicle stick manufacturing company.  Since my birthday, I have been experimenting with flavors and textures and toppings, and you, dear reader, are about to be the recipient of some dang tasty popsicle "recipes".

Welcome to Popsicle Week 2014!

Like I mentioned earlier, popsicles have the power to deter me from almost any reasonable eating habits, and tonight was no exception.  I made homemade ramen noodle soup for dinner, but about three bites into dinner, the Littlest decided it would be a good opportunity to have a dramatic meltdown.  This is pretty unlike him, but he had been out in the sun all day and had not taken very good naps, so I suppose he was due for a mental breakdown.

I have a hard time eating when my son is dangerously thrashing about in his high chair, so I decided to cut dinner short and give Littlest a quick bath and get him ready for bed. Despite my speed, it was another 30 minutes before I was back downstairs getting ready to eat, and surprisingly the now cold and somewhat congealed soup lost a bit of its appeal.

Any reasonable adult would have nuked the soup for 30 seconds and forged ahead with her dinner plans, but I am no reasonable adult.  I had banana sundae popsicles in the freezer, and a mandate to eat at least one since I wanted the taste to be fresh in my mind to write this post, so I ate one, and then I ate another for good measure.

Banana sundae popsicles are a seriously delicious frozen treat that have the texture of pudding pops, but the flavor of a banana split (minus the cherries as maraschino cherries tasted weird in this).  The sweet and creamy base is the result of overripe bananas combined with creamy dreamy Greek yogurt and sugar, but the add ins are what make this Popsicle sing!  I started by adding some chopped milk chocolate, dark chocolate would be delicious too, but I intentionally chose the sweeter chocolate, because Greek Yogurt does have a bit of a sour bite that I was working to balance.

I also added homemade salted caramel to the mixture, which is a magical sweet and salty sauce that is so deliciously easy to make that I get in a bad habit of mixing up a batch almost every time that I have an unclaimed stick of butter in the house.

Finally, I topped the whole thing in sweet, buttery graham cracker and pecan crumbles, which I was surprised to find held up to the crunchy promise (unlike similar store bought versions that get pretty mushy after a few days in the deep freeze).

I think the banana and yogurt base is a winner, and I hope to use it for some future tropical popsicles, but for now I hope you enjoy this reconstructed banana split popsicle! Just say yum!

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Banana Sundae Popsicles

by Hannah Rounds May-12-2014

All the best flavors of a banana split, on a stick!

Ingredients

• 2 Overripe Bananas
• 1/2 Cup Greek Yogurt
• 2 Teaspoons Split Vanilla
• 3 Tablespoons Milk Chocolate Chunks
• 6 Tablespoons Split Butter
• 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
• 2 Full Sheets Graham Crackers
• 8 Pecans

Instructions

1. Blend Yogurt, Bananas, 1 Teaspoon of vanilla until smooth. Set aside.2. In a small saucepan, melt 4 Tablespoons of butter, and add brown sugar, remaining vanilla and salt.3. Continuously stir while sauce bubbles rapidly. Once it begins to take on a foamy look, take it aside and let it cool.4. Fold in Chocolate Chunks and slowly fold in the caramel sauce. If the sauce is cool enough it will fold nicely, otherwise you will get little chunks of caramel. Either way is delicious.5. Pour mixture into popsicle molds and freeze at least six hours.5. Pulse Graham Crackers and pecans in a food processor6. Melt remaining butter in a pan, and add graham cracker mixture. Stir until the graham crackers form little crumbles. Spread crumbles on parchment paper.7. Remove popsicle mold from the freezer, set it in a warm, not hot water bath for 20 seconds then remove popsicles.8. Dip both sides of popsicles in the crumb mixture and immediately refreeze on parchment paper in an air tight container.9. Keep frozen at least 30 minutes before enjoying.

Details

Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 7 hour Total time: 7 hour 15 mins Yield: 6 Popsicles

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