These days there’s never a time when we can’t find blueberries at the supermarket. But summertime is the season for the homegrown varieties. They’re abundant right now and can be used in all kinds of recipes. One of my favorites is blueberries and vanilla ice cream — it’s sweet and tart and creamy all at once — so I thought I’d team blueberries and heavy cream in frozen pop form for Blueberries and Cream Ice Pops.
Blueberries can vary wildly in flavor and texture, even when they’re in season and locally grown. They can be very sweet or tart, large and soft, or small and crunchy. Occasionally, they can also be sort of bland. But even a bland berry can be pointed up with a few ingredients.
All blueberries, bland or flavorful, benefit from sugar and lemon, which balance out the berries’ natural sweetness and acidity. There are fixed amounts of each in this recipe, but you should taste the berries and adjust accordingly. If they’re extra-sweet, add more lemon and less sugar. If they’re extra-tart, increase the sugar and decrease the acid. Then taste them again after you’ve pureed the berries and adjust accordingly.
Fruit pop recipes usually call for sugar syrup rather than granulated sugar because the latter doesn’t dissolve well in a cold liquid. To avoid having to make the sugar syrup — an extra step — I’ve called for superfine sugar, which dissolves easily because it’s so fine. If you don’t have superfine at hand, measure out 1/4 cup minus 1 1/2 tablespoons of granulated sugar and blend it in the blender until fine. Set aside 1/2 teaspoon for the cream, then add the blueberries and lemon juice and rock on with the recipe.
