Blackberry Ice Lollies

We love making popsicles /ice lollies. The kids get involved and it's a great way to get certain fruits into them that they might otherwise not try.

For a truly budget popsicle, try using the juice left over from tinned fruit. Or incorporating that in the mix! But if you are a good foragers, there's no reason to stop there. We get tons of brambles in the autumn and often have a few old bananas lying around that want using up!

Ingredients:

200g blackberries
banana
1 freshly pealed and chopped apple (or an orange, melon, whatever you have)

Method:

Place the food processor or a blender with a metal blade.

 Whizz.

Pour into molds and freeze overnight.

Layered Ice Lollies

We sometimes do it in 2 steps to get a layered effect!

Hot pink layer - was cranberry juice whizzed with raspberries and gooseberries
White layer - double cream beaten with mascarpone cheese and 100g icing sugar. Clearly not a budget choice but we had leftovers from Burns Night cranachan which needed using up! Any ice cream could be substituted.
Purple layer - see the above recipe with brambles

Three layers' origins

Heroic Brew

This is my husband's and sons' favorite foraging recipe. It is easy, cheap and delicious, as well as being extremely good use of the foraged items - the cooking of them ensures they are extra safe to eat.

Ingredients

• 300g of blackberries, apples, or any foraged fruits which are sweet not bitter and gamey (like certain rowan, red currants, etc. A few will add to the flavor, but don't go wild on these. Also do not do citrus fruits unless you like bitter. A few people will float slices of orange at the last min for flavor and cuz it's pinteresty.)
• 150g sugar, any kind
• a cinnamon stick or a star anise, or whatever you fancy - you'll be sieving the ingredients so you can go wild with bay leaves and cloves and whatever else, just remember it'll taste more like the spices than the fruit if you go too crazy

Directions

• Place ingredients in a pot and cover with an inch or two of water.
• Stew at a low simmer for at least 45 min, stirring occasionally till the sugar absorbs. Add more water as needed.
• The house fills with the perfume of it. Any children threatening to get croup gets clouds of medicinal steam up their noses. Sometimes we leave it bubbling for a whole afternoon, topped up with water of course.
• Sieve. Pour into cups. We put ice in our sons' because they enjoy it lukewarm and also to see the icecubes melt is fun.
• Then drink up!

It keeps for three days in the refrigerator. I warm it up for the husband's breakfast sometimes or use it as a base for a smoothie on other days.