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I'll get back to theme days once I find a groove of posting regularly. In the meantime, most of my posts are about some variation of books, bikes, buses, or Broadway. Plus bits about writing, nonprofits, and grief from time to time.

This blog is mostly lighthearted and pretty silly. It's not about the terrible things happening in the world, but please know that I'm not ignoring those things. I just generally don't write about them here.

11 July 2011

A Cure for the Summer Heat

In a frenzy of holiday-weekend madness and another-job-rejection depression, I talked Chad into buying some fudgesicles last week. They're pretty much my favourite icy treat ever. Of course, having bought and inhaled them, I promptly wanted more. I didn't really want the trek to the store, though, especially given the likelihood of the fudgesicles melting on the way home, plus the equal likelihood of me buying more than I intended while there. And then my shoulder angel turned up and reminded me, "You have a recipe for those."

Yes. Yes, I do. A few years ago I was in a Once A Month Cooking craze, and during that time I found a HUGE database of recipes, compiled by mums who wanted to feed their kids homemade food but were constrained by budgets and limited time. There was great stuff on there, and I saved all the ones that sounded good, including this recipe for Magic Mix (which is good for lots of things, btw, not just fudgesicles; that may be a post for another day):

4 c nonfat dry milk powder
1 c flour
½ c vegetable oil


Put all the ingredients into a large bowl and mix until it looks like cornmeal. Keep mix tightly covered and store in freezer (or refrigerator). This recipe makes 10 servings. ½ c cornstarch and ¼ c oil can be used instead of the flour and ½ c oil.

When I went looking to see if I could still find the website to appropriately credit the geniuses who shared this with me, I was unsuccessful. I did, however, find an alternate recipe for Magic Mix:

2 1/3 C. Non instant Powdered Milk
1 C. All Purpose Flour
1 C. Real Margarine (not spread) or Butter, at room temperature


Combine dry milk, flour and margarine/butter into a large bowl and mix with electric mixer until it looks like corn meal. Keep mix tightly covered in the refrigerator, it will stay good up to 2 months.

Popsicle molds + ice cube tray of
soon-to-be fudgesicles. I stood my
molds on end because I had an
irrational fear that they would leak. 
So I promptly mixed some up, then launched into the fudgesicle recipe:

½ c sugar
2 cups water
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 t vanilla
2 c Magic mix


In a medium saucepan combine the sugar and cocoa powder. Stir in the Magic Mix and water. Cook and constantly stir over medium heat until the mixture bubbles. Stir in vanilla and beat mixture until smooth. Pour mixture into 3-ounce paper cups. Place a wooden popsicle stick in each cup. Freeze until firm. Popsicle can be stored in a plastic bag in the freezer. To eat, peel off the paper cup. Recipe makes 8 fudgesicles.


I thought this one looked like Darth
Vader's helmet. Then I took a bite out
of it and it really looked like Darth
Vader's helmet.
I tried some of the cooked mix when I switched spoons for filling my popsicle molds, and Wow. It was like hot cocoa had solidified itself into a thick chocolate sauce. Also, the recipe may say it makes eight paper-cup-sized treats, but I filled my four molds and still had enough mix to entirely fill an ice-cube tray.

And the result? Cool, creamy chocolate goodness. However. I will definitely try the alternative recipe for Magic Mix, just to see if I like it better. Also, the fudgesicles are a bit too sweet, and I've (finally!) reached an age where enough is enough as far as sugar is concerned. So, on my next go-round, I'll reduce the sugar as well. Your mileage may vary. Also, if you're doing the ice-cube-tray thing, use sturdy toothpicks.

This would be a fun project with school-aged kids, btw, if there are any mums out there who are having a mid-summer crisis with bored children. When I was a kid, I used to think that every mum but my own was making popsicles with their kids, but now I've come to believe that my mother is probably not alone in her reluctance. :)

Have you ever made your own fudgesicles? Popsicles? Other frozen delights?

19 comments:

Julie Flanders said...

It's so hot here right now, my mouth is watering just thinking about fudgesicles. I've never made any but these sound so yummy, I might just give it a try.

Love Darth Vader's helmet! :D

Very sorry to read about the job rejection, I hope your situation will turn around soon.

Anonymous said...

frozen cranberries/frozen cranberry ice cubes/cranberry juice/schewppes..=..cranberry sparkler.

Su said...

Whoa, the formatting on this post went all wacky! Will attempt to fix...

@Julie: I'm kind of sad that I ran out yesterday and neglected to make more! Silly me! And thank you for your kind words.

@Delores: Nice! My hubby would love that; he's a cranberry fiend.

Anonymous said...

The only frozen treat I make are ice cubes. Yeah, I'm no fun. Those fudgesicles look good though! :)

Misha Gerrick said...

Oooh... that looks yummy... No. I will not deviate from diet.

O_O

*slaps self*
NO!

Mary@GigglesandGuns said...

I admit this is one thing I have never made. I'm about to change that though. I'm for anything with the word fudge.

erica and christy said...

Very interesting, I've never heard of Magic Mix before, but my kids love to help in the kitchen, so we'll have to try it. So far we've just done simple popsicles with lemonade, orange juice, etc.
erica

Su said...

Okay, I guess the formatting with remain wacky. Yay for a wacky post!

@Madeline: I don't even make ice cubes; we have an ice cube maker in the freezer. :/

@Misha: Oops, didn't mean to tempt you! I bet you could use a sugar substitute!

@Giggles: I hear ya. When I get to heaven, forget the streets of gold; I'm going in search of the waterfall of chocolate.

@erica: That still makes you more fun that my mum-- she was not wild about orange juice popsicles! ;) When I googled Magic Mix, it was all over the place. I guess there's like a Magic Mix club that I accidentally stumbled on.

Jenni at talking hairdryer said...

I'm SO gonna try this with my kids, maybe not til August, unless some time opens up on my calendar that I hadn't planned for, but we'll for sure try it then.

I had big plans to make Crystal Lite popscicles for Brooke since she can't have the sugar ones. But I ended up just buying sugar free ones at the store.

We did freeze the leftover pickle juice from the empty jar and made pickle pops. Does that make me environmentally friendly?

nutschell said...

ooh. That looks so good right now! I haven't made popsicles in forever. I must try this recipe this weekend.:)
nutschell
www.thewritingnut.com

Su said...

@Jenni: I thought of you while writing this, since I'm sure the sugar could be easily replaced by something, but then I wasn't sure what all that flour would do for the glycemic index. And yes, you're totally environmentally friendly, and resourceful. Especially if you recycled the jar afterwards! ;)

@nutschell: I'm off to make some more right now! This recipe has turned out to be a winner!

Danette said...

Hmmm, wouldn't it be easier just to make a (instant) pudding pop or a frozen juice cycle? Just thinking out loud... the recipe just looks like a lot of work (okay I am sounding like my kids... whining, lol). Hope you're keeping cool! ~db

Su said...

Probably, but I didn't have any pudding in the house, so that goes back to the trek to the store. And frozen juice takes away the "fudge" aspect.

Anonymous said...

This sounds like a great project to do with my kids. I bet they'd love it. Thank you.

Felicity Grace Terry said...

Fudgesicles? I have never heard of them let alone made them but now that you have supplied some recipes I may well give them a try ..... I don't think even I could make a mess of these OR could I?

Su said...

@Shelley: You're welcome! I hate to keep a good thing to myself. ;)

@Petty: I noticed the lack of fudgesicles in Britain when I lived there. Of course, you do have other sources of chocolate that make up for it! And I managed to make them without making too much of a mess, which is practically a miracle.

Grahame said...

I'm going to try this fudgesicle recipe http://www.nourishingmeals.com/2010/06/avocado-fudgesicles.html when I get a chance. I usually make smoothies with frozen fruit and juice or rice milk and freeze the leftovers into popsicles.

Su said...

Wow, with avocados? I'm totally checking that out. Thanks!

Unknown said...

ok, as I'm reading I'm horrified by the Magic Mix recipe and thinking "why would i want that in my fridge for 2 months?"... well, then I read on and it all made sense... LOL Obviously I'm not a cook... but I wouldn't mind home made fudgesicles. YUM!