Mixed Berries Coconut Popsicles

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Mixed berries coconut popsicles made from frozen berries blended with a bit of honey, and then layered with creamy homemade coconut milk

Mixed Berry Coconut Popsicles

Recipes that are quick and easy to make are always welcome in my kitchen, especially in summers. When such recipes are dessert recipes, I never let go of them. Enter mixed berry coconut popsicles.

Popsicles as a dessert option are whimsical enough to impress your guests, and easy enough for you to whip them up without breaking a sweat. They are loved by kids and adults both and when made with healthy ingredients they can be perfect for breakfast too ;). These mixed berries coconut popsicles are just that- you can enjoy them as a dessert or eat them for breakfast too.

I love coconut milk. I love coconut in my savory dishes- like the pumpkin soup, khao suey from the blog but also use coconut milk generously in my desserts. Coconut milk has a hint of natural sweetness, it’s super creamy, and it goes well with most fruits, making it perfect for desserts. The chia seed pudding is a delectable dessert/breakfast made even better when using coconut milk. Today’s recipe is also a coconut milk recipe.

MAKING COCONUT MILK AT HOME VS STORE BOUGHT

Up until recently, I have mostly been using coconut milk from a can. Read: store bought coconut milk. Only because I thought it was more convenient than making it at home. But did you know you can easily make your own coconut milk at home with only two ingredients. Plus, when you make it at home, you end up with pure coconut milk without any preservatives, weird ingredients or any additional added flavors.

While quite a lot of recipes online use shredded coconut, I recommend using a fresh coconut as the flavor is more coconuty and creamy. If you have a good powerful blender, you can get creamy coconut milk by using very little water and fresh coconut. I use the Hamilton Beach JMG– and although expensive it has been worth it (disclaimer: this post is not sponsored, but if you click on the link to buy, I might make some affiliate money- its not much just enough to pay for an ingredient or two 🙂 )

HOW TO MAKE COCONUT MILK AT HOME

For me, the hardest step when making coconut milk at home is breaking the coconut. I am not a pro, and always ask Anubhav to do it. Once you have carefully broken the coconut (reserving the liquid), take a butter knife or spatula and remove the coconut meat from  the outer shell.

You can use a peeler to peel the thin brown skin from the coconut pieces but since it doesnt affect the taste or consistency of the coconut milk, I let the skin be.

Cut your coconut meat into 1-2 inch pieces and add it to your blender. Again, I recommend a good high speed blender that can easily cut through the coconut pieces. Add hot water to the blender and blend for 1-3 minutes until you end up with a smooth consistency paste. You could also use the coconut water that you extracted to make the milk.

Remove the paste from the blender and pour into a cheescloth/kitchen towel, or strainer and squeeze out the coconut milk. And there you have it creamy coconut milk.

TIPS AND TRICKS

While easy to make, there are certain things I like to keep in mind when making coconut milk at home.

I do not like adding too much water to the coconut milk, especially if using for desserts as the result is more rich and creamy. You can always dilute the milk later if required.

In case you are making coconut milk specifically for this recipe, you could add in a date or two to sweeten your milk while blending the coconut meat. Minimalist baker does that.

When making these popsicles, I prefer to let the milk sit for a few hours in the refrigerator, so that the coconut cream can separate from the rest of the milk- resulting an even more rich and creamy popsicle. You could avoid this step, but I get better results when I do so.

You can check the video I made in collaboration with Hamilton Beach for these popsicles on my instagram:

 

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Lauki/Ghiya Chocolate Ice cream

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Chocolate ghiya ice cream

I know, I know this sounds weird. But believe me when I say you will never be able to guess the secret ingredient in this chocolate ice cream if I were to make you taste it.

This ghiya/lauki chocolate ice cream is my grandmother’s recipe. She used to make it for us when we were kids. And as kids we never knew she put a vegetable we all would not touch with a ten feet pole. My grandmother was really good with making us eat veggies by disguising them in. For a long time we were unaware that Mummy’s Chocolate Ice cream had ghiya/lauki/bottle gourd in it. I guess one day it slipped from one of the adults and thats when we realized all these years we had been tricked.

Ghiya or lauki or bottle gourd is one of the key components in my grandmom’s chocolate ice cream. I am not sure where she learnt the recipe. Or whether it was something she made up herself. Either case, I loved her chocolate ice cream and summer vacations at my grandparents meant that this chocolate ice cream would be on the menu.

While I have seen my grandmother making this ice cream as an adult, I never got the opportunity to learn the exact measurements. When I first made this recipe, I asked my grand mom for the measurements but she also gave me approximate measurements since that’s how our elders always cooked- with intuition and the need to use up things that are getting bad in the pantry. With a good idea of the recipe, I set about making it. Since the recipe is fairly easy and adjustable to one’s taste, I got pretty good results. My grandmother would use Bournvita and while as a kid I enjoyed the taste, as an adult I thought using cocoa powder gives a better chocolate flavor, and thats what I have shared in the recipe.

You can add roasted almonds, like I did for the Disney video here. You could also pulse some raw cacao nibs, and replace some of the cocoa with it. Since sweetness is a very subjective thing, and what I might find sweet, you might not – adjust cocoa and condensed milk amount accordingly.

Ghiya Chocolate Ice cream

VEGAN ALTERNATIVE

Its a simple easy recipe and with ingredients that should be in your pantry and/or easily available in the market. This recipe is eggless- which is great for people who prefer eggless recipes. I have never tried this with dairy free milk, but it could work. The problem would arise when you have to replace the condensed milk. Since condensed milk is basically milk reduced with sugar- if you increase the amount of milk called for in the recipe and reduce the bottle gourd with sugar and dairy free milk in the first step, the recipe might work and be made vegan. You would also of course have to sub the cream with a dairy free alternative as well.

MAKE THIS ICE CREAM WITHOUT AN ICE CREAM MAKER

Even though I have an ice cream maker, I don’t generally use it for this recipe. Still I get a creamy ice cream texture. The trick is to remove the ice cream every 2-3 hours, or as the edges start freezing and beat it for a minute. I do this 3-4 times before letting it freeze overnight. This helps in avoiding crystallization and yields a creamy texture. Also, the base after cooking and being churned should preferably be refrigerated before freezing. That too helps in the mixture freezing quicker, which gives a creamier and smooth ice cream texture.

HOW TO MAKE SMOOTH, CREAMY HOMEMADE ICE CREAM

Fat is the one of the main factors that provides smoothness to ice cream. Using whole milk instead of lower fat percentage milk will lead to a richer and creamier texture.

The more air bubbles there are and the smaller they are, the smoother the ice cream will be. Also smaller ice crystals in the ice cream give a smooth texture. Constant churning while the ice cream is slowly freezing, helps keep the ice crystals moving as they chill. An ice cream maker helps in this process, but using the technique given above you can make smooth, creamy ice cream without an ice cream maker too.

Another thing I have learnt is how you store the ice cream. Make sure you store your ice cream in an airtight container. Covering the top with parchment paper prevents ice crystals from forming. I used to cover with cling film earlier, but sometimes that freezes into the ice cream, making it difficult to remove. By using parchment paper, you avoid that. In case your ice cream crystalizes too much after first serving it, you can always churn it again in your ice cream maker, or thaw it a little and beat it the same way as suggested above, before refreezing it again.

If the ice cream does freeze too hard for scooping, allow it to sit out on the counter for 10 minutes before trying to serve it.

Ghiya Chocolate Ice cream

Lauki/Ghiya Chocolate Ice cream
 
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This creamy chocolate ice cream is made with Lauki or bottle gourd. Enjoy this smooth textured creamy chocolate ice cream recipe that has the goodness of bottle gourd in it. Nobody will be able to guess it has a vegetable in it and your kids will love it.
Author:
Recipe type: Dessert, ice cream
Serves: serves 4-6
Ingredients
  • 1 large bottle gourd/ghiya, grated (about 2 tightly packed cups of grated ghiya or 3 loosely packed cups)
  • 750 ml milk, preferably full fat
  • 200 ml cream
  • 1 tin (400gms) condensed milk
  • ½-3/4 cup cocoa powder (for a more intense chocolate flavor, add ¾ cup cocoa powder)
  • ¼ cup roasted almonds (optional)
Instructions
  1. Wash, peel the lauki/bottle gourd and grate/shred it. Keep aside.
  2. Heat a thick bottomed pan/kadhai, and add the milk and lauki. Keep stirring and let the milk come to a boil. Reduce heat and continue to cook on medium low. Keep stirring until the most of the milk has evaporated. Scrape the sides too from time to time to get the milk solids back into the milk. It will take about 30-40 minutes.
  3. Add the condensed milk. Cook for another 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
  4. Add the mixture to a blender. Pour in the cream and cocoa powder. For a more intense chocolate flavor use ¾ cup cocoa powder. Note: I have also successfully subbed ½ cup ground raw cacao nibs for the cocoa powder, plus ¼ cup cocoa in this ice cream.
  5. Blend the mixture till you get a smooth consistency.
  6. Transfer to a freezer safe air tight container, and refrigerate the mixture covered for 2 hours. You could freeze it at this point too, but since the mixture is warm, for a creamier texture it is advisable to cool it down slightly before freezing it.
  7. Once cool, place the container in the freezer and allow the mixture to freeze for 2 hours or once you start seeing the edges freezing slightly.
  8. Remove from freezer and beat with a hand mixer to break up ice crystals that are beginning to form.
  9. Cover and place back in the freezer.
  10. Freeze for 2 more hours and then remove from the freezer and beat again with the hand mixer. Repeat this step one more time, before leaving it for an overnight chill. The final beating step is when you can add your add ins like roasted almond. After the final beating, cover the top with parchment paper, and then the air tight lid. Freeze overnight, or until ice cream is firm. Scoop and enjoy!
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Roasted Strawberries

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A super easy recipe for oven roasted strawberries, that are great as toppings for ice cream, panna cotta, yogurt, pancakes, waffles, cakes and more.

Roasted Strawberries

Growing up I was always fascinated with strawberries. It was not something that was easily available fresh, and mostly available either in jam or ice cream form, that too the synthetic kind. Its not that India wasn’t producing strawberries, but the Indian palate had not taken to the sour taste of this bright red colored fruit, hence the fresh kinds were limited to supply to a few regions. Luckily now, fresh strawberries are easily available good part of the year, and without breaking your bank.

This year I plan to grow some strawberries, my unfortunate brown thumb permitting of course. I also do plan a herb garden, but let us see how all of it goes!

Coming to today’s recipe of roasted strawberries, its a super easy and delicious way to use strawberries, besides straight up eating them. I stumbled upon the recipe on Deeba’s site years ago and since then have used these roasted strawberries in tonnes of my dessert recipes. Roasted strawberries have made way as a topping on my panna cotta recipe here, in strawberry ice cream here and even in cakes. In each dessert they have been a hit, and so thought it is only fair that they get a post of their own.

The last time I made these roasted strawberries, I added a bit of orange blossom water too and love the combination. You can choose to omit it if you don’t have any on hand, or try a squeeze of orange juice instead. Adjust the sugar in the recipe according to how sweet or tart your strawberries are. Hope you get to try the recipe and in case you do, let me know how you used them. Comment here or tag me on your creations on instagram or facebook.

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