Strawberry Balsamic Basil Pops

A mouthful in word and flavor!

This time of year we’re all blessed with the bounty of glorious juicy naturally sweet seasonal fruits exploding from the gardens. Blessed with a basket of fragrant strawberries…plenty enough to make my ‘current’ favorite jam, Strawberry Rosemary. I still had plenty left.

What to do with the rest?

Make a strawberry pie, muffins, my new ‘current’ favorite Strawberry Cake, my grandmother’s strawberry shortcake, more of my new favorite jam (cause I never have enough)…..hmm, what shall I do?

Then I remembered my new pop sickle molds! I googled strawberry pops! I had no idea the number of results that would come up. Apparently strawberry pairs with a lot , even black pepper which I’ll try next time around.

Sooooo many combinations. Adding ice cream or yogurt, sugar, no sugar or sugar substitute, no dairy, straight fruit, water, lemon or lime juice…they’re all good.

A food processor, blender, or hand blender…strawberries (or any fruit really) some liquid (you choose what and amount…regardless they’ll freeze) ice cream or yogurt if you choose and herbs, if you choose.

Blend

Pour in molds

Freeze

Yum

Most of all I want to impress upon you….these are sooooo easy and I think a yummy refreshing treat to have around! The molds are inexpensive. And if you prefer really healthy they are so adaptable…again, everything freezes!

Start with about a pint of Strawberries. Remove stems. Throw in the blender or food processor. Add sugar, 1 Tablespoon to 1/3 Cup depending on your desired sweetness. Add about 2 cups of liquid or dairy or combination of. Blend. If you don’t want texture in your pops, blend alot…if you do want texture…don’t. If your adding herbs I like to wait until everything else is the consistency I want and then add the herb, blend just enough to have tiny bits throughout

If you’d rather specific directions to refer to…My favorite so far is Strawberry Balsamic and Basil…I just added about 1- 2 Tablespoons of Balsamic vinegar about 3/4 cup water and 4 Tablespoons fresh lime juice to the strawberries and sugar and threw in freshly torn basil leaves at the end. Each brand of pop sickle molds hold different amounts of liquid so you might have too much liquid. I adjusted my water and lime juice. More then once I’ve had extra liquid. The pops go fast so I cover and save the liquid in the fridge and when one pop disappears I refill and freeze!

Easy Peasy