Recipe Redux Greek Yogurt Pavlova Popsicles

Kitchen Klinic — By Emma Stirling on August 21, 2011 at 8:00 pm

We kick off month 3 of the Recipe Redux, the first recipe challenge by registered dietitians, with the theme of frozen desserts. Now I don’t mind one little bit that we are still in the colds of winter, while my colleagues in the USA sweat it out in Summer. You see I love a cold dessert all year round, especially ice-cream. I have fond memories of living in Pittsburgh as a twelve year old and rugging up to go eat ice-cream at Baskin and Robbins, as we drove through the sub zero ice and snow. Even though I’d love to give you the scoop on ice-cream, it would be downright unpatriotic of me not to share the Aussie icon, pavlova. This time with a twist, on a popsicle stick.

Pretty Pavlova

Australia and New Zealand still argue about who first invented the meringue based dessert topped with whipped cream and fresh fruit. But there is consensus that it was created in honour of Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova who visited our shores in the 1920′s. Affectionately dubbed “the pav” it’s become part of our traditional fare and rolled out at every BBQ and Christmas party since, commonly topped with passionfruit and strawberries. Making a meringue is fairly easily. Making a pavlova base where the outside stands crisp and crunchy and the inside is marshmallowy, is an art. My Aunty Val was our family’s pav queen and would adjust her technique according to the weather on the day! Here’s a traditional recipe for Pavlova by Chef Pete Evans courtesy of one of our Scoop Supporters Ocean Spray. To lighten up the fat and kilojoules in whipped cream, I usually switch to a creamy yogurt topping.

Greek Yogurt Pavlova Popsicles

Step 1: Make the meringues

2 egg whites (at room temperature)

120g castor or extra fine sugar

1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla

Preheat oven to 150 degrees C. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form, then add sugar gradually, plus vanilla, beating as you go. Place spoonfuls of mixture on a baking tray lined with paper and bake for around 45minutes. Miss 9 did these steps all by herself. You can get fancy with meringues and flavour and colour, from brewed coffee to orange blossom water as well as use a piping bag to get uniform shapes.

Step 2: Assemble your popsicles

Vanilla or fruit flavoured Greek or quality yogurt*

Fresh or frozen berries

Meringue

Popsicle molds and wooden sticks

To get beautiful striped popsicle layers it’s best to parfreeze each layer as you go, but we just carefully popped in yogurt, then a layer of broken meringue pieces, then berries and finished off with more yogurt. Carefully nestle in your popsicle stick and freeze overnight.

*My favourite Aussie yogurts are Jalna and Five:Am, but in the USA, it’s Chobani Greek all the way. For daily eating I recommend a reduced fat product for the whole family from two years of age, but a full fat yogurt will make a creamier popsicle treat.

Step 3: Make Eton Mess

Leftover ingredients

Mint sprig

If you really can’t stand waiting for the popsicles to freeze, place the leftover broken meringue pieces, fruit and yogurt in a glass dessert bowl or individual glasses. Garnish with fresh mint or add slivered, toasted almonds. Voila, you have the old English favourite Eton Mess.

Step 4: Lick it up

Carefully run the bottom of your mold under warm running water, just enough to dislodge. And the proof is in the posicle. My niece, Miss 4′s face says it all.

Homemade popsicles make a perfect after school snack and help kids clock up their 3 dairy a day.

Popsicles are going upmarket with exotic grown up ingredients too and I loved seeing the dedicated popsicle bars in NYC last year. I’m going to soak berries in Cointreau first and serve an adult only version of this recipe in wine glasses this summer.

Make sure you check out my other Redux recipes: Month 1 – Char siu BBQ Pork and Month 2 – Tangelo-ade. Plus the fabulous sounding roundup of frozen desserts this month. More popsicles and loads of chia again:

Frozen dessert Recipe Redux Roundup:

Cherie Schetselaar – Grain Crazy Blackberry Lemon Almond Torte Emma Cutfield-The Hearty Heart Coconut Ice, Blueberry and Cocoa, Joint Healing Dessert Carlene Helble- Carlene’s Figments Peanut Butter Banana ‘Ice Cream’ Sandwich Janel Funk – Eat Well with Janel Peanut Butter and Jelly Ice Cream Kat Lynch – Eating The Week Coconut Chia-Seed Fruit Pops Dr Barb, Nutrition Budgeteer Simply Fruit Mango-Pineapple Sorbet Rebecca Scritchfield – MeFirst 5-minute Frozen Peach Pie gretchen – kumquat chocolate “ice cream” bars Emily Greenfield – The Nutriscientist Honey and strawberry semifreddo Liz Marr – Liz On Food Peach Lavender Ice Cream Elizabeth Jarrard- Don’t (White) Sugar-Coat It Adult Popsicles: Frozen Boozy Treats Regan – The Professional Palate Frozen Samoa Pie Liz Weiss & Janice Newell Bissex – Meal Makeover Moms’ Kitchen Healthy Blueberry and Mango Snow Cones Jessica Fishman Levinson – Nutritioulicious Watermelon Sorbet Alexandra Caspero- Delicious Knowledge Mango & Coconut Popsicles Karman Meyer- Nutrition Adventures Coconut Ice Cream with Strawberry Puree Yuri – Chef Pandita Acerola Chia Lime Popsicles Kristen Bourque- Swanky Dietitian Peanut Butter Coffee Popsicles EA Stewart-The Spicy RD Luscious Lemonade Pie Danielle Omar – Food Confidence RD Banana Soft Serve Katie Caputo- East Meats West Auntie Rosie’s Ice Cream Pie Alysa Bajenaru – Inspired RD Coffee Granita Kara Lydon – Peace, Love, and Food Peanut Butter Banana “Ice Cream” With Dark Chocolate Serena Ball- Teaspoon of Spice Splendid Key Lime Frozen Yogurt Nicole Ferring Holovach – Whole Health RD Peaches and Rum Ice Cream Pie Lisa @ Healthful Sense Peanut Butter Vanilla Soft Serve Jackie Mills – Delicious Diabetes Cooking Summer Fruit Popsicles Audra Losey – Nutrition Know How Mocha Pops Kristina LaRue – Love and Zest Frozen Berry Yogurt

We have another hot new cookbook to giveaway to celebrate the Recipe Redux. Guy Mirabella’s book Hungry is simply stunning and based on his Scillian heritage and Italian home-style fare. He cooks at home and at his Shop Ate Café and Store on Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula. Guy’s background is in design and this shines through the lavish book with liftout food photography spreads that make ME hungry. To be the lucky winner, drop us a comment below. Perhaps you have a favourite frozen dessert? Do you love ice-cream in winter like me? We’ll be picking a random winner. Entries open to Australian readers only (it’s heavy on the postage sorry) and comments will be taken up until 5:00pm Friday 26th August EST in Oz. Love to hear your comments below.

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Tags: cooking, dietitian, Emma Stirling, giveaway, Greek Yogurt Pavlova Popsicle, Guy Mirabella, Healthy popsicle, Hungry, nutrition, Pavlova recipe healthy, recipe, recipe redux, Scoop Nutrition

34 Comments

Wendy says:

August 21, 2011 at 9:51 pm

The look on your niece’s face has convinced me to try and make this soon!

I love eating icecream in winter. In fact the colder it gets the more I crave icecream (Once I bought icecream when it was -12degrees and walked around outside eating it and got strange looks).

Loving the recipe redux collection and your blog as always.
EA says:

August 22, 2011 at 12:37 am

Love these Popsicle! My dad gave me a recipe for kiwi pavlova (from New Zealand a while ago that I’ve wanted to make. I love your version w/ Greek Yogurt and berries. My kids would especially love these! Happy ReDux!!
Liz Marr, MS, RD says:

August 22, 2011 at 3:40 am

Fun – that sounds so refreshing! Thanks for whipping up a summer dessert in the middle of your winter!
gretchen says:

August 22, 2011 at 4:02 am

emma, this looks easy and delicious! your sweet little niece’s face says it all…
Meal Makeover Mom Ja says:

August 22, 2011 at 8:08 am

I remember eating pavlova while traveling in New Zealand in the early 1990s. So yummy… what a great idea to incorporate into a popsicle! Look forward to making these.
Meal Makeover Mom Janice says:

August 22, 2011 at 8:09 am

oops, it’s Janice, not Ja!
Nerida says:

August 22, 2011 at 9:15 am

Another great Aussie yogurt is Barambah. Especially the Bush Honey flavour. All it contains is Certified Organic Unhomogenised Milk, Certified Organic Non-Fat Milk Solids, Certified Organic Honey, Live Cultures.

It’s delicious!
Nicole @WholeHealthRD says:

August 22, 2011 at 11:25 am

I loved learning about Pavlova and Eton Mess! Looks great Emma!
Alex says:

August 22, 2011 at 11:39 am

Yum! These look awesome. I’ve never had Pavlova before, thanks for the ‘lesson’
serena says:

August 22, 2011 at 11:51 am

Emma, what fun I had remembering the fabulous pavlova I enjoyed the 6 months I spent in your beautiful country. I’m so inspired. We’re having guests tomorrow…Blueberries and peaches are in season here. Is it weird to put that fruit combo on pavlova?
Emily says:

August 22, 2011 at 6:03 pm

pavlova is my favourite dessert and this a great twist on a classic! must buy some popsicle moulds….
Emma Stirling says:

August 22, 2011 at 10:05 pm

So great to hear that our US friends have tried “pav”. Yes, yes Serena most fruit works….I’ll never forget my mums Aussie friend who lived in Canada calling to say the local grocer chucked out all the imported passionfruit because they went purple and crinkly! But that means they are super ripe.

Agree Nerida that is a stunning yogurt too.
GRAINCRAZY says:

August 23, 2011 at 2:30 am

Wow! Looks like a really fancy idea for a popsicle Yum!
Regan says:

August 23, 2011 at 10:24 am

I remember my first Pavlova experience… thinking how simple, but yet complex, sophisticated & delicious. And to put it in a popsicle… well that’s just genius!
Carlene says:

August 23, 2011 at 10:35 am

My Grandma just made a Pavlova with summer berries and it was AMAZING! I love that you put it in popsicle form.
melanie w says:

August 23, 2011 at 12:52 pm

Thos epavlova popsicles sound devine looks like an easy recipe too might have to get the kids in on making them this weekend.Am loving the sound of that cookbook too.
Paige Matthews says:

August 24, 2011 at 6:18 am

I love cold desserts too no matter what season it is! It seems pretty challenging to make one of these Pavlova but it looks fun to make especially with all the fruits! You’re truly gifted — making everything delicious while still keeping in mind the health benefits these food could give. If I have these, I’ll never be guilty!
Britney R. says:

August 25, 2011 at 12:30 am

My Australian boss used to talk about pavlovas with passion fruit that would make my mouth water–but as an American, I’ve never had one! It sounds delicious!
Kara says:

August 25, 2011 at 9:57 am

Yum! I’ve never tried pavlova before but am now intrigued to! That fruit in the popsicle looks awesome too!
kat says:

August 26, 2011 at 3:42 pm

love the popsicle! what a lovely giveaway
The Sauceress says:

August 26, 2011 at 4:08 pm

For a lovely complementary dessert to the Pav, here is an idea which uses the egg yolks.

Make a standard zabaglione with Marsala by beating the egg yolks and wine in a bowl over simmering water, and when it is thick remove it from the heat, allow to cool to tepid and then carefully fold in a cupful of whipped cream, then freeze.

It can be frozen in popsicle form or in a block. The texture is that of a semi-freddo, and you can eat it alongside the Pav. Fantastic!
Sandy says:

August 28, 2011 at 8:35 am

What a great site. Just found it and subscribed. Wonderful to see such a good home-grown site. Well done.
Emma Stirling says:

August 29, 2011 at 2:12 pm

A huge congrats to Kat the lucky random winner of our cookbook giveaway. Happy reading and cooking! Thanks for all the comments. We’ll have another hot new book next month.