Pineapple Raspberry Rockets

July 25, 2011 Ceri

Is it me or has everyone gone crazy for gourmet popsicles this year? Every magazine I buy seems to be giving major page counts to lavishly art directed spreads on cardamom-infused peach swirls or blueberry cheesecake popsicles. They all sound and look great but unless I was doing some competitive entertaining (What’s that Gwyneth? Apple wants another strawberry basil pop? Of course! We grew all the plants ourselves so I can promise you they’re organic. So important.) I prefer to keep things simple. I mean, we’re talking about popsicles here! But I do like making them at home to avoid the food dye, synthetic flavour and sugar mash-up that are store-bought freezies.

These pineapple raspberry pops are about as fancy as I get. I made them a couple of different ways but the most popular with Esme and Julian were the ones I made to look like old fashioned Rockets. And making those stripes was really not that hard. That last one sitting in the freezer? We’re saving it for Apple.

Pineapple Raspberry Rockets!

Ingredients

3/4 cup sugar
1 cup water
4 cups fresh pineapple
2 pints raspberries
1 Tbsp lime juice

Method

Start by making a simple syrup.

In a small pot, boil water and sugar together until the sugar completely dissolves.

Remove from heat and transfer into a bowl or pyrex measuring cup.

Pop it in the fridge (or freezer, just don't forget it!) until it's cold.

You'll have about a cup of syrup, which is more than you'll need for these pops but you can keep it in the fridge for the next couple of batches

If you've got really sweet fruit on your hands then I'd just skip the syrup altogether.

Get your molds and sticks ready!

Spoon 1 Tablespoon of the raspberry puree into the bottom of the mold and pop them in the freezer for about 40 minutes or more.

Pull it out and gently nudge it with a popsicle stick to check if it's firm.

Finely dice your pineapple, avoiding the hard inner core bits.

Get out your blender

Puree 2 cups of pineapple and 1/4 cup of syrup until you've got a nice, smooth consistency.

Empty the puree out into a bowl. Stir in the lime juice and the other 2 cups of pineapple.

Rinse out the blender.

Puree the raspberries and a 1/4 cup of syrup until they become liquid.

Pour the puree through a sieve. I

f you run a spatula or wooden spoon along the underside of your sieve every once in awhile, more will pour through

Now spoon in enough of the pineapple puree to come 3/4 of the way up the mold.

At this point you want to insert your sticks.

Either place the mold's lid on top to keep them in place or if you don't have that kind of mold, first wrap some kitchen cling film tightly over the top and push the sticks through the film to keep them upright.

Place the mold back in the freezer for another 40 minutes or so. Again, check that they've firmed up quite a bit.

Now spoon another bit of raspberry puree on top - always allow a bit of space at the top. T

hey will expand slightly as they freeze

Place back in the freezer and allow to become really, solidly frozen, about an hour.

Hold the bottom of the mold under hot, running water for a second to make slipping them out easier

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