By the time we reached Seaford seafront, we were parched.
It was a ridiculously hot day for a long walk but the weather was so gorgeous we set off anyway, stopping at every ice cream van along the coastal path between home and Eastbourne, all 25.1 miles of it. But at £2.50 each for ice lollies it was an expensive way to stay cool.
At home, I decided to experiment with home made ice lollies. When I was little, my favourite was the cider lolly. I don’t think they exist now, they’re probably far too non-PC. We’d buy them from the ice cream van for 5p each then pretend we were drunk. So that was my first experiment. Easy peasy… dollop some sweet cider into an ice lolly mould, freeze it and the end result is ever so nice. Yum.
From then on, I was on a roll. Here are the 10 best DIY ice lolly recipes I’ve dreamed up so far. You can make your own refreshing ice lollies with:
- white wine and a few sprigs of fresh mint
- fresh cream with two teaspoons of sugar and choc chips or slices cut off a chilled chocolate bar (Mars bars are seriously good)
- fresh orange juice plus tinned tangerine segments (or any fruit juice you like)
- fresh cream enriched with loads of powdered hot chocolate
- red wine that’s been heated gently. Add sugar and a few cloves for spice, strain them out before freezing your lollies
- vodka or gin, a slice or two of lemon or lime cut into small pieces plus a couple of teaspoons of sugar
- make any of the above, freeze it, dip it in melted chocolate and re-freeze for a crisp chocolate shell
- yoghurt lollies – epic, even better coated with Hundreds & Thousands
- lager lollies with little bits of fresh lime
- for savoury toothed sweaty people, tinned chopped tomato lollies with dried mixed herbs or oregano. Surprisingly nice, but adding English Mustard just made it go weird, a flavour too far!
The fresh cream goes a bit watery rather than ice creamy but it tastes fabulous anyway. I’m sure there are plenty of ‘proper’ ice lolly recipes out there but I am completely unable to follow recipes – for me it’s much more fun to make things up as I go along.
What about you? Let us know if you invent or discover something particularly delicious or creative in the DIY ice lolly world.
(Thanks to Karen for the fab image of a Fab lolly)