Rainbow Ice Popsicles

This is a colorful, easy to make summer treat. It' s easily variable, you can use any fruit according to your preference. My kids like sour flavor, therefore I decided to make them with no added sugar, but you may add a little sugar if you wish.

It is such a simple thing that I would not even call it a recipe. What you do is clean and freeze your fruits (cut the bigger ones in cubes) then blend it with something to give creaminess. The ratio roughly 1/3 - 1/2 of a banana, 1 cup of fruit (that gives the color and the flavor), 2-3 tablespoons of plain yogurt or coconut cream. That's it!

Here comes in detail:

Ingredients:

3 bananas

1 cup raspberries and redcurrant

1 cup peaches

1/3 cup apricot jam

1 cup pineapple

1 cup kiwi

small bunch of parsley

blue food color gel

1 cup blackberries

yogurt

coconut cream

Tools:

blender

knife

popsicle mold

parchment paper

Clean, where necessary wash the fruits. Cut the big ones (like peaches, banana) into bite-sized bits. Layer them on trays covered with parchment paper and freeze them until solid (at least 2 hours).

Blend your layers. Work fast (or just take those fruits out of the freezer that you are actually working with and leave the rest)! Blend one of the layers, remove the mixture into a separate bowl, rinse the blender, and go on with the next one. If you go in the yellow - orange - red - violet order you may skip rinsing in between. I chose to rinse before the blue and green.

Yellow(ish)

(I know, it's closer to white, my pineapple was not the best choice)

1/2 banana, 1 cup pineapple, 3 tablespoons coconut cream. Blend, remove from the blender, set aside.

Orange

(Apricots make a fabulous orange color ice-cream, but our apricots need 2-3 more weeks on the tree, so I used last year's jam and peaches instead.)

1/2 banana, 1 cup peaches, 1/3 cup apricot jam, 2 tablespoons yogurt

Red

1/2 banana, 1 cup (in total) raspberries and redcurrant, 2 tablespoons yogurt

Green

1/2 banana, 1 cup kiwi, 1 small bunch of parsley

Blue

Take 1/3 of the yellow base and add a tiny amount of food color gel.

Violet

1/3 banana, 1 cup blackberries, 2 tablespoons coconut cream

As you'll see the blended mixtures are quite thick and foamy therefore - believe or not - they won't get mixed in the molds, or just a little when you insert the popsicle sticks. There is no need to freeze the layers one after the other. Layer the different color mixtures into the molds using a spoon, then add the sticks and freeze them overnight.

To remove them, place the mold into lukewarm water for a couple of seconds until the popsicles are released. The quantities above will be enough to make at least 18 popsicles.