Sunny summer days and strawberry picking go hand in hand. Last weekend was a perfect day out with the little man, picking these luscious red berries. All you could see and smell were perfectly ripe strawberries begging to be eaten.

Our two year old pitched in happily and gathered a whole basket by himself. Consequently, we left slightly redder and stickier than we had arrived, but that I suppose is part of the deal.

The best bit, however, was coming up with options for what to do with them, other than just eating them straight out of the trug.

And so this is what we did to celebrate the arrival of summer – Strawberry summer pops!

Ingredients:

1500 grams of strawberries, washed and hulled

3/4 cup sugar (depending on how sweet or tart the berries are)

Equipment:

a large saucepan

popsicle cases

Method:

1. In a clean pan, on high heat, tip in the sugar.

2. When the sugar starts to caramelise a bit add the strawberries and cook for 10-12 minutes. The juices that run out will help soften the berries and make their flavour more intense. No water or liquid of any sort is required.

3. Once the berries have turned dark and syrupy, take them off the heat and cool.

4. Once cool, fill the popsicle cases generously with berries and the syrup. Freeze.

5. Unmould and enjoy!

Notes:

1. I enjoyed the texture of these pops. I don’t really like the crunchy ice versions. These had no water in them other than the juice of the berries so they were firm but not hard.

2. I used the leftovers to fill some ice trays. I’m sure they will come in handy to add to lemonade or simply to enjoy as mini pops.

Filed under: Desserts Tagged: epicurious, strawberry picking, strawberry pops, strawberry popsicles, summer desserts