Mini Chocolate Ice Pops + Caramalised Chocolota

Easy to make mini chocolate ice pops. The combination of rich and slightly bitter chocolate contrasts most beautifully with the sweet velvety ice cream filling. Perfect for posh snacks or after dinner treats. Plus a bonus recipe for caramelised chocolota.

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When Kavey suggested teaming up We Should Cocoa this month with her Bloggers Scream for Ice Cream challenge, I knew immediately what I wanted to make.

For my birthday last year, CT gave me the most luscious chocolate book by Rick and Michael Mast. I spend a considerable amount of time salivating over the pictures in Mast Brothers chocolate: a family cookbook and planning what I’m going to make from it. Strangely not very much so far.

One of the pictures I find particularly striking is the one for Frozen Chocolate Pops. And now I have no more excuses not to make them.

Mini Chocolate Ice Pops

Of course, I ended up adapting the recipe. The first thing I had to do was convert it from cups into metric. But as it’s the middle of winter and our appetite for iced treats is limited, I scaled the recipe down considerably. And so it was that I decided to make mini chocolate ice pops. This way you get far more chocolate in comparison to ice cream, so it’s a win win all round.

I used cardamom sugar to give a hint of spice and a pack of Willie’s 72% Venezuelan Gold for added flavour and luxury.

Enrobing the ice pops with chocolate can end up getting rather messy. I was unable to get a smooth finish as the chocolate froze on impact and I managed to get chocolate over pretty much everything.

What can I say? They may have looked a little strange, not to say messy and a couple of them fell off because I was too impatient to wait for them to freeze properly, but they were delicious. When it came down to it, we would both have been happy to have a freezer full of them.

The ice lolly part itself was better than anything I’ve ever bought and the iced chocolate enrobing it was wonderful. The combination of rich and slightly bitter chocolate contrasted well with the sweet icy but velvety contents.

GenWare Microtorch Review

Crème Brûlée is one of my many weaknesses and if ever I’m lucky enough to go out for a meal and find it on the menu, that is what I will order. However, I’ve never made one myself as I’m always afraid of placing ramekins, or any other dish for that matter, under a hot grill.

Call me timid, but cracked pots and napalm style explosions are not high on my list of kitchen events. So I was absolutely delighted when Buy Catering recently sent me a chef’s blow torch to try out.

Almost as soon as the GenWare Microtorch arrived, I put it to good use, not to make a crème brûlée, but a concoction I made up myself. The torch is light in weight and quite small. It fits easily and comfortably in the hand.

Never having used a chef’s torch before, I was a little apprehensive. I needn’t have been. Once the gas had been inserted, it was a cinch to use and I had no problems at all. You need to buy the butane gas cartridge separately from the torch, but it’s big enough to give several refills.

The flame is easily controlled and a perfect size to cope with little ramekin dishes as well as much larger ones. Comfortingly, a safety catch is part of the deal and you must release this before the flame ignites.

It comes with its own neat stand, so can easily be stored in some little corner. In addition to caramelising sugar, it will be so useful for browning the tops of gratins and other cheese dishes. It’s also meant to be good for blistering the skins off peppers, which is something I always find tricky with the grill. I’m really quite excited by it.

Bruléed and Frozen Chocolotas

These chocolotas, so named by CT in deference to their high cocoa content, came about as a result of the mixture left over from making chocolate ice pops. I don’t have a recipe as such, because I foolishly failed to write it down at the time and can no longer remember quantities. However, this is more or less how I made them:

• Warmed the leftover ice-pop mixture with some more dark chocolate until it had melted.
• Gave a good stir and left to cool.
• Added some chilli vodka.
• Whipped up some double cream and stirred in a little yoghurt.
• Folded this into the cold chocolate mixture.
• Divided into three ramekins.
• Placed two in the freezer to be eaten later.
• Sprinkled a good spoonful of caster sugar over the remaining ramekin and caramelised with the chef’s blow torch.

The result was delicious and very satisfying. The top set hard and cracked most sonorously when tapped with a spoon. The contrast in textures between the smooth mousse and brittle caramel was delightful. The flavour was both rich and creamy and the hint of chilli just caught the back of the throat in a gentle warming way.

Have blow torch. Can crème brûlée be far away?

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For more icy treats to inspire you, take a look at my other ice cream recipes. Follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious, of course. You might also like my reviews page.

Choclette x

Mini Chocolate Ice Pops. PIN IT.

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5 from 1 vote

Mini Chocolate Ice Pops

Simple, but messy to make. The combination of rich and slightly bitter chocolate contrasts most beautifully with the icy sweet velvety contents. Perfect for posh snacks or after dinner treats.

Cook ModeToggle to keep screen awake

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time0 minutes mins

Freezing Time2 hours hrs

Total Time2 hours hrs 15 minutes mins

Course: After Dinner, Snack

Cuisine: American

Keyword: chocolate, ice cream

Servings: 6 mini ice pops

Calories: 112kcal

Author: Choclette @ Tin and Thyme

Ingredients

• 125 ml milk
• 30 g golden icing sugar (I used cardamom sugar)
• 1 ½ tsp cocoa powder
• 25 g dark chocolate chopped (I used Green & Black's 70%)
• 55 g dark chocolate ( used Willie’s Cacao Venezuelan Gold 72%)

Instructions

• Heat the milk in a small pan with the sugar (golden caster sugar) and cocoa powder.
• Stir until the sugar has dissolved and the milk is hot.
• Remove from the heat and add the 25g of chocolate. Leave for a couple of minutes to melt, then stir until smooth.
• Pour into 6 mini chocolate pop moulds. There was actually enough to make about 20, but I used the remainder for another iced treat I shall blog about soon.
• Pop into the freezer for a minimum of two hours.
• Melt 40g of chocolate in a small bowl suspended over a pan of hot but not boiling water water.
• As soon as it had melted, remove from the heat and add the remaining 15g of chocolate. Leave for a couple of minutes, then stir until smooth.
• Remove the cake pops from their moulds and either dip them into the melted chocolate or spoon the chocolate over them. This bit can end up being rather messy. I was unable to get a smooth finish as the chocolate froze on impact and I managed to get chocolate over pretty much everything.
• Put them back in the freezer until ready to eat.

Notes

Please note: calories and other nutritional information are per serving. They’re approximate and will depend on serving size and exact ingredients used.

Nutrition Estimate

Calories: 112kcal | Carbohydrates: 12g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 2mg | Sodium: 12mg | Potassium: 127mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 39IU | Calcium: 34mg | Iron: 2mg

Tried this recipe?Leave a comment below letting us know how you got on and do share a photo on Instagram. Tag @choclette8 or use hashtag #tinandthyme.

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You still have three more days to enter We Should BSFIC with your icy chocolate treats. Just link your post to this month’s We Should Cocoa and Kavey’s BSFIC post. You’ll find full instructions on both.