Popsicles

Last week, when I went to pick up my son from all-day pre-school, he was crying his eyes out, leaning back on the head teacher, and she was holding his face with a piece of gauze. "I was just going to call you," she said. He had fallen (as he has a tendency to do) and hit his upper lip on the wooden part of a couch. His front tooth punctured his cheek, and I had to take him to get a stitch that night.

Poor little guy! He couldn't eat much for a couple of days, so I thought about what might be good to give him. He didn't like ice put on the wound, so I thought: we used to make homemade juice popsicles when I was a kid. So I found some Dixie cups in the cupboard and filled them with some bottled strawberry lemonade and froze them with some popsicle sticks and plastic spoons poking out.

They were fun for him to eat, they got some cold on the wound and got some little bit of nutrition into him for a short time. I liked having a few myself. They're good for this time of year anyway.

Here's the Lime-Cream Pops recipe ("Fit to Eat") from The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook (Clarkson Potter, 2000).


Lime Cream Pops
Makes 16 pops or 1 quart of sorbet

These are half sorbet, half frozen yogurt; for sorbet alone, follow steps 1 and 2 only. Freeze the pops in popsicle molds, available at grocery and housewares stores, or paper cups; use a stick or spoon in the center for a handle.

2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon grated lime zest
Lime Frozen Yogurt (recipe follows)

1 Combine the sugar and 2 cups water in a medium saucepan, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; simmer until the sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes.
2 Prepare an ice-water bath; set aside. Pour the sugar syrup into a bowl set in the ice bath; set aside until chilled. Remove the bowl from the ice bath, and stir in the lime juice and zest. Transfer to an ice-cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.
3 Spoon 1/4 cup frozen lime sorbet into each of 16 4-ounce (1/2-cup) popsicle molds or paper cups. Place molds in the freezer to set for about 1/2 hour.
4 Remove the molds from the freezer. Spoon 1/4 cup frozen yogurt on top of the sorbet. (If the frozen yogurt has hardened in the freezer, allow it to soften until it is spoonable.) Insert wooden sticks three-quarters of the way into the molds, and place in the freezer until the entire pop is fully set, at least 4 hours. Freeze the remaining frozen yogurt in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

Lime Frozen Yogurt
Makes about 1 1/2 quarts

1 quart plain low-fat yogurt
3/4 cup fresh lime juice (about 5 large limes)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon grated lime zest
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 Place yogurt in a fine sieve or cheesecloth-lined strainer set over a medium bowl; chill for about 1 hour, until about 1 to 1 1/3 cups liquid has drained from the yogurt. Discard liquid; set yogurt aside.
2 In a bowl, combine lime juice, sugar, corn syrup, lime zest, and vanilla; whisk until sugar dissolves; about 2 minutes. Add strained yogurt; whisk to combine. Transfer to an ice-cream maker; freeze according to manufacturer's instructions. If necessary, work in 2 batches, keeping remainder refrigerated while freezing the first batch. Store in a plastic container in the freezer for up to 1 week.