With the weather hotting up, there’s no better time to try making your own lollies
Lollies have grown up. Boozy “pops” are appearing at smart parties and even Aldi has got on board with its own cut-price range. But ready-made versions can be sugar heavy and weird tasting, not to mention expensive — so you’re far better off making your own.
In principle, you can adapt any of your favourite cocktails to a lolly, as long as you bear in mind the ice science (adding alcohol lowers the temperature that the lollies freeze at).
Of course, like that bottle of white wine I stuck next to the ice cream and forgot about, even an alcohol content of 14 per cent will go solid in a domestic freezer — eventually.
It probably won’t, however, freeze hard — and while a friable texture is on the whole a good thing (unless you want to suck on an ice cube) you still need the lolly to be fairly solid to stay on the stick.
Then you’ll probably want to add a bit of sugar — it gives a nice sticky lickable quality, and improves what the professionals call the “length” of the flavour. But, alas, it also gets in the way of ice crystals forming. Combining too much sugar with a load of alcohol, and you have a recipe for a slush puppy, not a Solero.
The upshot is, save the fullstrength cocktails for your glass, and settle for something considerably lighter for your lollies. You can always have two.
Sugar syrup
Makeasmallbatchofsugarsyrupfor sweeteningyourlolliesandyou’llspeed uptheprocess.Thiswillkeepinthe fridgeinajarformonths.
100g caster sugar 100ml boiling water Metho d Put the sugar in a bowl and pour over the boiling water. Stir and leave to stand until the sugar has dissolved and the liquid has cooled. 1 large orange 150ml of sugar syrup, as above 100ml pomegranate juice (from a carton is fine) 2 tsp Campari 1tsp gin 2tsp red vermouth Method Take the zest off the orange with a vegetable peeler. Juice the orange. Mix the orange juice, sugar syrup, pomegranate juice, Campari, gin and vermouth, then pour in to lolly moulds. Cut the orange zest into long strips and wrap around the lolly sticks, and pop them in. Freeze.
Makes 150 ml of syrup Ingredients
ThisisatakeontheclassicNegroni mixofgin,Campariandredvermouth —butwithsomepomegranateand orangejuiceadded.Ithinktheseare bestmadeinsmallmoulds—Iuse 60mlshotglasses.
Makes about 6 60ml lollies Ingredients
Ginandtonicmakesagoodicelolly, especiallyifyouaddagoodsqueezeof lime.Butastheelderflowerisinfull bloomrightnow,here’samoreseasonalcocktail.
Makes about 4 100ml lollies Ingredients 200ml Coca cola 4 tbsp Rum 1tbsp sugar syrup as above ½ tub vanilla ice cream (not soft scoop) Method Mix the rum, coke and sugar syrup. Pour about half into the bottom of six moulds — it should be about a third full. Freeze until set. Mix the rest of the rum and coke with 4tbsp of ice cream. Pour into the moulds until they are about two thirds full. Freeze until set. Top with ice cream until the moulds are just about full. Push in sticks and freeze.
Makes about 4 100ml lollies Ingredients
MezcalisasmokyMexicanspirit,made fromtheagaveplant,whichgivesafantasticallyexoticflavourtococktails.
Makes about 3 100ml lollies Ingredients
Evenifyouaren’tusuallyafanof sweet,richIrishcreamliqueurs,this isworthtryingforthegentlycaramellycreamitmakes.Onastickwith adribbleofchocolate,it’sareally goodthing.Ifyouwanttomakearegularsoftscoopicecream,thenwhisk thecreamtosoftpeaks,thenaddthe wellchilledevaporatedmilkandsugar andwhiskagainuntilsoftlybillowing. Pourintoaplastictubandfreeze— there’snoneedtostiritasitfreezes.
150ml elderflower cordial squeeze lemon 50ml gin 130ml water fresh elderflowers, to garnish Method Mix the cordial, lemon, gin and water. Pour into moulds and top with lots of elderflowers. Freeze. 1 medium cucumber 4 tbsp Mezcal 1 lime juiced 2tbsp triple sec 4tbsp sugar syrup as above Chopped chilli, or chilli sauce (optional) Sea salt flakes and smoked paprika (optional) Method Cut the cucumber into chunks and whizz to a puree. Rub through a sieve so you have a deep green cucumber juice. Mix the juice with the Mezcal, lime, triple sec and sugar syrup, plus a little chopped chilli or chilli sauce if you like. Pour into moulds. Push in a few slices of cucumber. Freeze. Serve scattered with a few flakes of sea salt and some smoked paprika, if you like. 200ml evaporated milk 200ml double cream 50g icing sugar 50ml Baileys 100g plain chocolate, melted Method Mix the evaporated milk, cream, icing sugar and Baileys. Pour into moulds and freeze. Once frozen, unmould and drizzle with melted chocolate. Return to the freezer briefly to set the chocolate.
Makes 4 100ml lollies Ingredients
Afterahotsummernightofpartying, thesearetheperfectpickmeup. There’snosugarinthese,sotheyare icilyrefreshingratherthanstrictly lickable,butadashofsoysauce booststhetomato’ssavouryflavour.
Makes about 3 100ml lollies Ingredients
250ml tomato juice A shake of Worcestershire sauce A dash of chilli sauce 2tbsp vodka A dash of soy sauce Celery stick Thinly sliced lemon Method Mix the tomato juice, Worcestershire sauce, chilli sauce, vodka, soy sauce and lemon. Adjust the flavours to suit you and pour into moulds. Tuck in a slice of lemon and a stick of celery along with the stick. Freeze.