Strawberry Ice Pops

It’s strawberry season again in Southern Ontario, and this past Sunday, big G and I dropped by the Leslieville Farmer’s Market to pick up a flat from the Bizjak Farms stall. That evening, my son requested a crumble made with rhubarb and berries, but I had more ideas for what to do with all that fruit.

Scouring my various cookbooks and favourite sites (e.g. Serious Eats, Saveur), I settled on three different strawberry ice pop recipes made over three consecutive nights:

Strawberry-Passion Fruit Popsicles

The recipe comes from Emily Luchetti’s A Passion for Ice Cream. I already had a partially open package of passion fruit purée in the freezer. Instead of juicing and straining pulp from fresh fruit, these frozen packs are far more economical and convenient, and are always available from Latino groceries in Kensington Market. The balance is perfect: just enough tropical aroma and pucker to enliven the familiar taste of berries.

Strawberries and Cream

Saveur’s recipe is likely similar to many others out there, incorporating a bit of cream into a standard ice pop base. I liked this one the least: there wasn’t enough cream to make it stand out from a straight strawberry recipe.

Strawberry and Bitters

This recipe is from the People’s Pops book. They suggest using 1 to 2 tablespoons of bitters per batch of 8 ice pops. I made a half batch, and used the full (scaled) amount of Angostura bitters to ensure the flavour would be detectable. Straight out of the freezer, I don’t think I could identify the mystery ingredient: it tastes more like cardamom to me. But it’s an out of the ordinary combination.