Watermelon and Strawberry Popsicles (Ice Candies)

Dom over at Belleau Kitchen announced that this month's Random Recipe Challenge would be 'Just Desserts'. Yesss! I do desserts. In fact, I actively seek them out and do them. Kay, not so much, as he's watching his diet, but me and Aditi, we indulge. Luckily we are home most days so all signs of our dessertly activity can be hidden well before poor Kay gets back home.

I got lucky with this month's random cookbook. I 'only' have about five books that are purely desserts, so I spread them out and got Aditi to pick one out. Guess which one she picked out? Of course, the one with the ice cream cone on its cover. This one to be precise.

Looks like we both share the same food heroes there :-)

The recipe I opened up to was the Watermelon Sorbetto. Again, we were very lucky, because we had half a watermelon in the fridge. I ended up adapting the recipe a bit because when I whizzed up the watermelon, I only got 2 cups of juice. So, I blitzed up about 6 - 7 strawberries, and made this into Watermelon-Strawberry popsicles. Plus, it was way too hot to cook, so I didn't cook the watermelon juice and sugar, as in the recipe. I just whizzed the ingredients in my very powerful blender instead.

Its David's suggestion in the recipe that this sorbetto makes excellent popsicles, and I agree wholeheartedly. The little chocolate chips look just so cute in them, just like real watermelon seeds. I can just see this recipe becoming a firm family favourite.

I just remembered that in India we used to call popsicles 'ice candy'... I think I like that term better :-) These went down very easily indeed, and as we are having a beautifully warm spring (phew, after all that cold!) were a real treat after a hard morning's housework [this old figure doesn't stay slim by just sitting around eating ice creams you know (just ignore the part around the tummy though, it's never again going to have any more rock hard abs) :-)]

Recipe:
(Printable Recipe)

2 cups watermelon puree
1 cup strawberry puree
1/4 - 1/3 cup sugar (depending on how sweet your watermelon is, mine was supersweet, so only used a third)
Pinch of salt
2 tbsp chocolate chips (I only had milk, so used them instead of semi-sweet) (optional)

Method:

Blitz together all the ingredients, except for the chocolate chips.

Once well mixed, add the chocolate chips, if using, and stir.

Pour gently into popsicle moulds, and freeze till hard.

You can also make a sorbet instead of popsicles by churning the mixture in an icecream maker instead.

This post is heading over to Dom at Belleau Kitchen's, Random Recipe Challenge - Just Desserts