Easy Icy Treats
Way-Cool Fruit Pops [1]
Frozen fruit on a stick makes an easy and healthful snack. Each 34-calorie pop provides almost a full serving of fruit!
In a blender, combine 1 cup guava nectar, pear nectar or orange juice with 1 cup pineapple juice and 1 cup fresh pineapple chunks. Cover and blend until smooth. Divide 1 cup coarsely chopped or sliced fresh fruit (such as strawberries, kiwifruit, papaya or melon) among 12 freezer-pop molds or 4- to 6-ounce paper cups. Pour blended mixture over fruit.
Add wood sticks, and cover the molds. Or cover each cup with foil; make a small hole in the foil with a knife, and insert sticks into cups through holes where the foil will hold the sticks upright. Freeze 4 hours or until the fruit pops are firm.
Cherry-Berry Smoothie [4]
This quick-and-easy blender drink, from the Michigan Cherry Committee, combines cherries, milk, yogurt, blueberries or raspberries, juice concentrate, honey and vanilla.
Cool tip Blender freeze-ups happen when there's not enough liquid around frozen ingredients. To solve the problem, pour liquids and soft ingredients into the blender first, then add the frozen stuff on top and blend. Still stuck? Pour in some juice or milk, then cover and blend again.
Black Forest Freezer Pie [8]
This layered dessert combines cream cheese, powdered sugar and whipped dessert topping over vanilla ice cream in a graham cracker crust. When you're ready to serve the pie, spoon on cherry pie filling, and drizzle with fudge topping. The recipe is from Friske's Farm Market near Ellsworth, Michigan.
Favorite Frozen Fruit Cup [12]
Throw together these fruit cups after dinner to enjoy a frosty side the next day.
Java Jump-Up [16]
Coffee ice cream forms the base for chocolate syrup and regular and cocoa-flavored frozen nondairy topping. Chocolate-covered coffee beans add a caffeinated crunch.
Apricot-Cheesecake Frozen Pops [19]
Blend canned apricots or peaches with yogurt, honey, lemon juice, and crushed shortbread cookies for a homemade Popsicle treat.
Cool tip If you don't use actual Popsicle molds, freeze pops in silicone muffin cups; their soft sides make it easy to remove the treat. If metal muffin cups are all you have, line them with paper bake cups before spooning in the mixture and adding the sticks.
Tropical Berry Pops [23]
Fresh berries star in these 42-calorie pops with a juice base. Change out the berries and juice for a new flavor and look.
Tropical Berry Pops [24]
Tangy Cherry-Tea Sorbet [27]
You can blend this dessert in just a couple of minutes by combining unsweetened ice tea mix, frozen tart red cherries, lemon juice, sugar and water. Serve immediately, or pour into a dish and freeze for later. The sorbet recipe comes from the Michigan Cherry Committee.
Freezer Flowers [31]
These colorful cold treats are easy to make and fun to serve. If you have kids in the house, they'll enjoy choosing the fruit and ice cream layers, as well as adding touches such as sugar sprinkles.
Soften sorbet, frozen yogurt or ice cream about 20 minutes, then spread into a flexible small container such as a silicone Mini Flower Mold. Drop fresh fruit in first or use several ice cream flavors to make layers. Freeze 6 to 24 hours, then dip bottom of the mold in warm water before inverting to release. Molds are available at kitchen stores or online through sources such as wilton.com.
Upside-Down Maple Pie [34]
Maple syrup drizzles over a square of cinnamon ice cream, then a sprinkling of pecans and a dab of whipped cream finish off this delicious treat. Try adding a maple leaf piecrust cutout baked with a coating of cinnamon sugar--or a crispy cinnamon sugar cookie from the store if you're not in the mood to bake.
Patriotic Salute [37]
Patriotic color bursts from strawberry ice cream, strawberry topping, whipped cream, cinnamon candies and fresh strawberries dipped in white chocolate and colored sugar. Add a star cookie cutout baked with a sprinkling of colored sugar (blue, of course).
Honey-Berry Yogurt Frozen Yogurt Sundaes [40]
Fresh raspberries, blackberries, strawberries or blueberries star in our Honey-Berry Frozen Yogurt Sundaes, which take only 15 minutes to make from start to finish.
A Honey of a Dessert [44]
French vanilla ice cream creates a buzz with broken waffle cones, almonds, honey and edible flowers (find them in your produce section).
Tropical Fruit Freeze [47]
This slushy ice tastes like a sweet snowball. Just freeze the ingredients together in a container. Then let it stand at room temperature 30 to 60 minutes before scraping off the icy mix.
Triple Red Berry Dessert Sauce [51]
This easy blender sauce tops ice cream with a gorgeous red berry punch. Look for spreadable fruit in the jam/jelly section of your supermarket. The sauce has just 37 calories for a two-tablespoon serving.
Watermelon-Tea Snow Cones [55]
This frozen dessert gets its lively flavor from mint, Red Zinger tea, and watermelon.
Dark Chocolate Fudge Sauce [59]
A homemade sauce takes only minutes to make, but can make your ice cream dessert extra-special.
Our Dark Chocolate Fudge Sauce combines brown sugar, cocoa powder, butter, buttermilk, chocolate and whipping cream. The recipe also tells you how to make Amaretto-Fudge, Espresso-Fudge and Peanut Butter-Fudge flavors.
Make-Your-Own Banana Split [63]
Both adults and kids will enjoy the culinary creativity of building homemade banana splits. Put out ingredients such as chopped nuts, crushed or chopped pineapple, cherries, sliced bananas, chocolate syrup and ice cream. Add whipped cream, if you like, and enjoy!
Ginger Fruit with Pineapple Sherbet [66]
Easy ingredients--canned pineapple and mandarin orange sections tossed with orange marmalade, crystallized ginger and vanilla--make this topping a snap to create and pair with good-for-you sherbet.
Ice Cream Sundae Bar [70]
Store-bought vanilla or chocolate ice cream can become a gourmet treat with mix-ins such as chocolate mint pieces (pictured at left). Try one or two toppings for a casual family dinner, or go all-out for a party with an ice cream sundae bar.
Creative topping ideas: miniature marshmallows, chopped or crushed candy bars (just about any flavor is good!), candy-coated milk chocolate pieces, finely broken peppermint candies, miniature semisweet chocolate pieces or white baking chips, chopped nuts, chocolate-covered espresso beans, flaked coconut, a variety of syrups, chopped cookies, fresh fruit and whipped cream or nondairy whipped topping.