Summer Ice Pop Recipes!

Summer! The perfect time for homemade popsicles! All you need is a handy dandy ice pop mold - you can find them at your local dollar store, or you can get this wicked awesome ice pop mold I was coveting on Amazon:

Here are two easy as pie ice pop recipes, as seen above:

1. Whisk one package of vanilla pudding mix into 2 cups of almond milk. Pour into molds. Freeze until set, then pull out and enjoy! Makes 8 pops.

2. Whisk two cups of lemon yogurt, 1 cup of skim milk and 1/4 cup of mashed up raspberries together. Pour into molds. Freeze until set, pull out of molds and ROCK OUT with "I made that!" glee with your frozen Popsicles! Makes ten pops.

Happy summer, everyone! And check out what i've been up to over at Coco Cake Land!

xo Lyndsay

Saturday Sundae

I had an ice cream sundae party for my 36th birthday! Yes, a party theme typically fit for children... maybe I'm in a children-centric mood these days, taking care of my little babe Teddy 24/7! Ahhh I love it though. I lugged Teddy out in the rain, polka dot umbrella and insulated grocery bag in hand. Loaded up on ice creams: coffee, Madagascar bourbon vanilla, coconut, Reese's peanut butter cup! Bought some chocolate fudge sauce and caramel sauce, too. In days of yore I would have made of all of it but with baby strapped to my chest and little sleep, it makes it much harder!

Laid it all out with Pocky sticks, almonds, little cookies, little flags, and people brought more ice cream too!

I've had sundaes for dessert for days now.

-------Pretty, pretty good.

Party pics:

Teddy bugging Henry as he tries to eat his sundae!

Little Henry with his sundae! He thought the make your own sundae bar was the coolest idea possibly ever and asked to have his own ice cream party!

Totally cute. Ice cream rules. 

Milk Tea Ice Cream

Long time no see, ice cream blog!

I've been a little preoccupied with life lately, so I apologize for being a total no-show the last ten months... This past year I've experienced some real downs... but followed by a truly wonderful up : the birth of my baby boy, Teddy! He is just over 6 weeks old now. He's inspired me - between the constant nursing and fussing and chuckling and giggling and non sleeping -  to feel creative and alive again... which is a nice feeling. So here goes nothing.

 Milk tea! Asians, raise your hands! Who loves milk tea! milky tea anything! Milk tea flavoured bubble tea, a milk tea flavoured cookie... or just a cup of milky sweet tea. Okay, not just Asians (like myself) are nutso about this flavour. The British seem to love a perfect cup of cream and sugared tea. And I'm sure many many many others. So comforting and delicious. Yum. I want to brew a cup right now.

You can use any tea for this - I used six Earl Grey tea bags, but good old orange pekoe will do, too.

{Milk Tea Ice Cream}

You will need:

2 cups of heavy cream (33% milk fat)
6-10 black tea bags ( I used Earl Grey)
1 cup milk (I used 2%)
2 egg yolks
1/2 to a full 300 ml can of sweetened condensed milk (depending on your sweetness preference!)
1/4 teaspoon of salt

Make it!

1. In a medium sized saucepan, heat the 2 cups of heavy cream to a low boil. Remove from heat and add tea bags to steep for ten minutes.
2. Squeeze out the tea bags (careful not to tear the bags) and discard. Whisk tea/cream mixture to combine.
3. In a medium sized bowl, whisk the egg yolks and the sweetened condensed milk to combine.
4. Place tea/cream mixture back on stovetop and add yolk mixture. Bring to a low boil and stir constantly with a heatproof spatula or wooden spoon - you want the mixture to thicken. Once it thickens, remove from heat.
5. Slowly whisk in 1 cup of additional milk and add the pinch of salt and transfer the final mix to a medium sized bowl.
6. Power-chill mixture in medium sized bowl covered with plastic wrap for 30-45 minutes (make sure it doesn't freeze). The point is to make the mix nice and cold before it goes into the ice cream maker! Or, chill overnight in the fridge.
7. Pour cold ice cream mix into your ice cream maker and make according to machine's instructions. I churned mine for 22-24 minutes.
8. Serve immediately and chow down like a piglet! Or, transfer to container and enjoy your milky tea ice cream over the next few days.

Chocomint Cookie Peppermint Ice Cream Sandwiches

I made some crazy dark chocolate peppermint cookies with milk chocolate chunks yesterday, and left a few without chunks for the purpose of ICE CREAM SANDWICHING. Wow, I went from Summer to Winter on this here blog - sorry for the lack of ice creamy posts! I guess I've been darn busy with Cake Land and Food Blog Land and Bake O'Clock, among other things!

But wait, here's a recipe for you! Dark chocolate peppermint cookies with pale green peppermint ice cream, all just a real breeze and a half to make, if you have a teensy bit of time and inclination. The cookies are rich, fudgey and minty. The ice cream is cool-in-your-mouth minty and creamy. Together, well, you'll want to eat with a tall glass of frosty milk or peppermint (!) tea! A beautiful holiday treat and your guests will be super surprised if you pulled these fan-favourites out of the freezer after a holiday dinner party.

Go here for the cookie recipe: CHOCOMINT COOKIES! but omit the milk chocolate addition, because the milk chocolate chunk won't freeze well. The cookie recipe will yield 2 dozen cookies, enough for 1 dozen ice cream sandwiches (Yay Math!).

{Peppermint Ice Cream}

You will need:

1 cup of 10% milk
2 cups of heavy cream (33% milk fat)
1 300 ml can of sweetened condensed milk
1/4 teaspoon of salt

Make it!

1. In a medium sized bowl, whisk to combine the 2 types of milks with 1 can of sweetened condensed milk (300 ml)
2. Whisk in 3 teaspoons or pure peppermint extract and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Add a teensy touch of green food colouring if so desired for minty cute greeny colour.
3. Power-chill mixture in the freezer for 30 minutes until mixture is ice cold but not frozen.
4. Pour into ice cream maker and mix according to ice cream maker instructions, I churned mine for about 25 minutes or so until thick and creamy.
5. Transfer finished ice cream to an airtight container and chill in freezer until harder in consistency.
6. Scoop some ice cream onto one chocolate cookie, and sandwich with another. Squish down a bit but not too much.
7. Wrap each individual ice cream sandwich in saran wrap, then place in an airtight container in the freezer to chill for at least an hour to set.
8. Bring out your ice cream sandwiches and party down while you chomp into delicious pepperminty madness!!!

Happy Holidays, everyone!

xo Lyndsay

Coconut Milk Lime Raspberry Pops

Feeling a little bit hot and lazy, anyone? Sunshine summer just makes me want to jump in a cool green lake, dry off, put on my oversized sunglasses and an old hat, read some trashy magazines and eat snacks and drink a cool drink, get hot again then jump right back in. You can be extra lazy but still enjoy a beautiful, icy, rich and tangy homemade popsicle with this super simple recipe. You can also substitute the coconut milk for some rich, plain yogurt. The consistency of this pop is a bit on the ice-milky side. The coconut milk is pretty rich but the acid from the lime and raspberry gives it a tang. You can play around with the amount of sweetened condensed milk too - I prefer not-too-sweet. These popsicles are so darn easy they should really be called Lazy Pops... whisk 'n pour into molds...!

{Coconut Milk Lime Raspberry Pops!}

In a medium sized bowl, whisk to combine 1 can of good quality coconut milk with the juice of 1 lime, 3 tbs raspberry jam, 8 cut-up raspberries, a pinch of salt and 1/4 cup of sweetened condensed milk.

Pour mixture into ice pop molds and freeze until solid. Run under hot water briefly to loosen before pulling out your pops!

Enjoy the rest of your summer, everyone! ^__^

VICTORY FEI FEI ICE CREAM PIE

I'm not exactly sure how this victory fei fei ice cream pie idea got started but I do know the VANCOUVER CANUCKS are the reason behind it!

Not only am I close to my dear sisters in my immediate family, but we are also close with all of our super duper cousins... and my cousins Mike, Ryan and Christopher, known as the Sung boys, are all maniacally crazy hockey fans... especially VANCOUVER CANUCKS hockey fans!

There is something so absolutely endearing and cute and adorable when I see people of all shapes, sizes and colours proudly wearing their Canucks jerseys. I admire those people because I'm too uncool or maybe trying to be too cool to fully admit my reinstated hockey craziness. I have hockey craziness in my blood, obviously ... my mom's been a Canucks fan since 1982, when she went to her first hockey game - the Canucks vs. the New York Islanders! Canucks hockey mania has fully gripped me in its ridiculously exciting power - and with that comes an excruciating wish for our team to carry that giant silver Stanley Cup over their heads, confetti falling like blue and green snow and a blur of white screenprinted terry-towels whipping madly around in an arena full of screaming hockey fans...

Hockey players and fans alike are superstitious. My mom buys the same tortilla chips and guacamole and apparently we win when these exact chips are eaten. My cousin Mike is no different - unwashed jerseys and all - don't want to wash away the luck! After each win during this Canucks playoff madness, my cousin Mike has religiously treated himself to "victory ice cream"... his birthday was in May, mid-playoffs, and his lovely wife Sarah made him an ice cream pie, which he superstitiously only ate one slice of after each Canucks win... so when he and the rest of my cousins flew in to Vancouver this past week to catch the madness of a city emotionally tormented by the hope of the Cup, I of course had to make a VICTORY PIE of my own! So here it is... fei-fei means fat in Chinese... and eating this whole pie will make you exactly that... but who cares... 'cuz the Canucks are in the Stanley Cup!!!!


{Victory Fei-Fei Ice Cream Pie!}

You will need:

- An Oreo or chocolate wafer cookie pie crust
- Peanut butter ice cream
- Dark cocoa chocolate fudge topping

(recipes below!)

to make the crust:

Combine 1 1/4 cups Oreo or dark wafer cookie crumbs with 1/4 cup melted butter. Press into 9 inch pie pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 6-8 minutes until set. Let cool on wire rack.

to make the ice cream:

1. In a food processor, combine 2 2/3 cups heavy cream (33% milk fat), 3/4 cup of smooth peanut butter (I used Kraft brand), 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract, a pinch of salt, and half a can of sweetened condensed milk. Blend together until smooth and incorporated.

2. Power chill the mixture in the freezer for 30 minutes! Careful not to freeze it!

3. Pour into ice cream maker and churn according to ice cream maker's instructions. I found this churned for a much shorter time period than my usual ice creams - check on it after 15 minutes, mine took about 16 to get to a very ice creamy consistency!

4. Pour peanut butter ice cream into the cooled pie shell, spreading with an offset spatula to create an even layer! Place in freezer while you make the...

fudge sauce! to make:

On stovetop in a small pot, combine 1/3 cup of dark or high quality cocoa powder with 2/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup of heavy cream, and 3 tablespoons of butter. Whisk gently to combine. Add 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract, whisk until smooth. Pour into bowl to cool. I power-chilled my fudge sauce in the freezer for 20 minutes!

Once fudge sauce is cooled, pour on top of peanut butter ice cream layer. Again, it's important to cool the fudge sauce first, otherwise it will melt all up into your P&B ice cream layer.

Place back in freezer and chill for 1 hour uncovered until fudge sauce is set. Then wrap with plastic wrap and chill until completely set - 4 hours or overnight!

This pie is pretty rock solid when you bring it out for serving - so leave it at room temperature for 5-10 minutes to soften it up before slicing in!!!

Note: the P&B ice cream is crazy delicious on its own, so feel free to just make the ice cream when you're having a P&B hankering!

My fingers are crossed so hard for our Vancouver Canucks... and I can't wait to make THE ULTIMATE VICTORY pie... ^__^

Go Canucks!

xo Lyndsay

Matcha Green Tea Cream Pops

Another fantastically easy/lazy-times recipe to follow:

Matcha green tea frozen cream bars! Last summer I spent a long time googling the heck out of ice cream bar molds. There are crazy expensive ones out there, and at the same time there are excellent D.I.Y. ways to make em: how about pouring your treat recipe into shot glasses, freezing them for 15 minutes then jamming a wooden stick in there, then letting them set til ready? Orangette has a lovely tutorial on it.

Or, do what I did ... on a trip to DAISO, which is one of Richmond's excellent dollar-store-esque emporiums,I found the cutest little 4-pop popsicle molds for $2/each. Problem solved! Now, what to put in them??

I combined 3 cups of cream (33%), 1/2 cup of sweetened condensed milk (my favourite ice cream "creamifier" and sweetener), a pinch of salt, and 2 heaping teaspoons of matcha green tea powder in a medium sized pot on the stovetop, whisking over medium high heat until everything blended together. I then poured the mixture through a fine mesh strainer to strain out any gunk, cooled it for 20 minutes in the freezer, then poured directly into my ice pop molds.

You will want these to freeze overnight for maximum popsicle-ness! I was trying to make these less-sweet than usual, but you can feel free to play around with the condensed milk amount.

Enjoy being lazy in putting together this simple but deliciously creamy and green tea-ey cream pop! Ahhh, the magic of frozen stuff!

Next up for ice cream pops: fresh raspberry frozen yogurt pops! Stay tuned! ^__^