Ice cream and popsicles, oh my!

My younger daughter got a fresh, homemade popsicle at the farmers' market last weekend. Mmmm...

Now that June’s heat is upon us, my thoughts have turned toward cold frozen treats.  I went to the grocery store recently and made the unpleasant discovery that a lot of the ice cream and popsicles available are loaded with high fructose corn syrup and other undesirable ingredients.

Luckily, I have an ice cream maker and I know how to use it.  Last weekend, we dusted it off and got busy.  Actually, one of my daughters and her friend made the ice cream while I supervised.  (Too bad they didn’t also clean up afterward…)  The ingredients for chocolate ice cream were wonderfully simple — cream, sugar, unsweetened chocolate, and a splash of vanilla.  No HFCS or other unpronounceable chemical concoctions.  Making ice cream is incredibly easy — mix up the ingredients, put them in the ice cream maker, and turn it on.

All ice cream makers come with recipes, but over the years we’ve learned that the best source for ice cream perfection is Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream and Dessert Book.

Another thing my family likes to make is ice cream sandwiches.  We layer homemade cookies or graham crackers with ice cream and create absolutely divine desserts.  Some of our favorites are chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream on chocolate chip cookies, cookies and cream ice cream on chocolate graham crackers, and coffee ice cream on ginger snaps.  (It sounds odd, but you have to try it.)  My husband normally doesn’t eat sweets, but even he will dive into our homemade ice cream sandwiches.

As for popsicles, you can use store-bought molds or you can simply use small cups as your molds.  This is a simple food project that doesn’t require a lot of fancy equipment.  You can simply freeze juice and fruit in the cups or get more elaborate and try some of these yummy recipes.  The important thing is that YOU can control the ingredients and don’t have to worry about the aforementioned chemical cocktails.  My younger daughter had a homemade strawberry popsicle at the farmer’s market last weekend and one thing that made it really stand out (besides the incredibly fresh ingredients) was chocolate shavings in the popsicle.  Yum.  We’ll definitely try that at home this summer.

So this summer, don’t automatically buy ice cream and popsicles when you’re at the store — try doing it yourself at home.  It’s easy and the results are worth the little bit of extra effort.