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.
PinterestGreek 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.
