It’s August and here in Sydney that means it’s the middle of winter. Wait, what? The middle of winter? Then why have we been walking around in skirts and shorts and short-sleeved shirts? We’re well on our way to a high of 25C (77F) today; the sun is bright, the sky is clear blue and wow, is it ever warm! This is not the middle of winter. Surely it’s not.
With these warmer days (in the middle of winter), we’ve found that we need a way to cool down after our walk back from school. What better way to do that than to take the Zoku Quick Pop Maker out of the freezer and make popsicles!
The latest recipe on the Zoku blog is for cherry popsicles with a homemade magic shell drizzle. This is the one I set out to make. I love cherries and while I’ve never been keen on Magic Shell, the idea of making it home intrigued me more than I can even express in words.
The recipe is called “cherries and cream”. This is a Greek yoghurt-based popsicle so by all means you could probably consider this a healthy popsicle. The yoghurt gives the popsicle an instant tang to your tastebuds and next time I’d probably use a little more sugar than the recipe calls for to try to tame down that tang. I think I accidentally used plain Greek yoghurt though, instead of the vanilla-flavored! The popsicles on their own (without the quick shell) are definitely delicious.
Add the homemade quick shell though and they are brilliant! Can you believe that you can make “Magic Shell” at home with only two ingredients? Chocolate and refined coconut oil. That’s all. Use any flavor of chocolate you like, melt it with the coconut oil, cool it to room temperature, then pour it on your ice cream or popsicles and right before eyes it freezes solid.
I used Green & Black’s milk chocolate for my homemade “Magic Shell” (which is why it’s so light in color), but you could choose to use a darker chocolate.
In the future, I plan to make enough quick shell to entirely dip the popsicle in to give it a wonderful crunchy outer layer of chocolate. How awesome would that be!
If you can’t tell already, I am totally hooked on this quick shell! I highly recommend making it for yourself, rather than buying the commercially prepared version, which is packed full of nasties that you probably shouldn’t be eating anyway. And the homemade version tastes so much better. I guarantee you’ll be blown away as much as I am! :)
Adapted from Zoku
Makes 6 popsicles
Ingredients
For the cherry popsicles:
6 ounces fresh pitted cherries*
1/2 cup Greek vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup whole milk
1 tablespoon granulated white sugar
For the quick shell:
2/3 cup (4 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup (2 1/2 oz) refined coconut oil
For the quick shell:
In a double boiler over barely simmering water, whisk together the chocolate and coconut oil until the chocolate has completely melted. Remove from heat and let cool completely before applying to pops. Yields 3/4 cup of Quick Shell.
For the cherry popsicles:
In a blender, combine cherries, yogurt, milk, and sugar. Blend until throughly combined and smooth.
Pour into the Zoku base as per instructions, or if using a traditional popsicle mold, pour in and allow to freeze overnight.
Adding the quick shell:
Hold a popsicle, flat side facing up, and use a small spoon to drizzle the quick shell onto the pops. Wait a few seconds for the shell to harden and do the same to the other side.
*I used frozen cherries that had been defrosted slightly.
The popsicles look great.
These were delicious, and the magic shell was so simple!