Alert! Philadelphia is supposed to have a typical July weekend coming up - hot and humid! Come in from the passing t-storms for an icy treat. It’s time to whip out one of my other favorite “cook” books: Pops! by Krystina Castella.
Struck with nostalgia lately, I’m gonna share the frozen version of one of my favorite treats: Root Beer Float Pops. There seems to be some sort of root beer revival going on in Philly. (I’ve recently had one at Prohibition Taproom and seen them on the menu at the new Varga Bar. Plus there’s a new liquor in town - Root - which is delicious! I’m wondering how it would freeze…)
Root Beer Float Pops
Root Beer Float Pop
To make these pops solid, you have to cut down on the characteristic foam a bit by carefully lowering the ice cream into the root beer and scooping any foam that does form off the top.
You’ll need:
4 cups root beer
6 or 8 maraschino cherries, stemmed
2 1/2 cups vanilla ice cream
makes 6 8-ounce pops or 8 6-ounce pops
1. Pour cold root beer into a pitcher and put it in the freezer for 10 minutes. (This will make it very cold and reduce the ice cream melt factor.)
2. Put a cherry in each mold. Pour some root beer into each mold until it is half full.
3. Gently lower a small scoop of ice cream into each pop mold so it is about three quarters full.
4. Slowly add more root beer until the molds are full. Scoop off the foam with a spoon. Freeze for at least 6 hours.
5. Remove from the freezer; let stand at room temperature for 5 minutes before removing the pops from the molds.
To create the diagonal stripe, tilt the pop during freezing so one corner is lower than the rest of the pop. The root beer and cherries will slide to that corner, creating a colorful stripe.
Make, sit on the porch, enjoy, and take it easy!
p.s. if you make them tonight, you’ll be all prepped for the weekend.
