Alcoholic popsicles has been on my to-do list for like a year. I wasn't originally planning on doing a Mocha Baileys Fudge Pop - specifically, I wanted to do adult freezies. But the plastic sleeves I've had to special order from the states via Amazon.com, shelling out more than what they cost in shipping. Gah. They might actually be in my hands by fall. So I went back to the drawing board - or more specifically, my liquor cabinet - wondering what else I might make to help me survive this spate of 30+ Celsius weather without making me feel like a sticky three year-old.
Something that has the goodness of alcohol, because it's BBQ party season.
This poor little bottle of Baileys I had was sitting all forlorn like in my liquor cabinet waiting for winter, because the only thing I ever tend to use it in is a coffee drink. And coffee drinks, of course, do not make the ideal hot summer drink.
After I spotted the Baileys, I thought about the iced cappucinos I've been getting lately from Tim Hortons to give me the energy boost I needed around 2pm to survive summer excursions with a gaggle of friends with even bigger gaggles of kids who were all sugar-fueled on fudgsicles (of the storebought, non-alcoholic variety).
And then I started to wonder why I was waiting for winter to bring out my Baileys again. I promptly hit Walmart for some popsicle molds, mad scientist laughing all the way. I went home, brewed some coffee, and stirred up a chocolately, Mocha Baileys Fudge Pop. Because us adults should be able to enjoy treats too.
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups brewed coffee
5 tbsp 18% cream
5 tbsp Baileys
1/4 cup chocolate syrup
Directions
P.S. lest you look at my recipe and say "needs WAY more Baileys than that," I should point out that I had to go through a few failures (delicious, delicious failures). Why? Well, if you've ever been one of those college kids who kept a bottle of vodka in the freezer, you probably noticed that it doesn't tend to freeze much. The Kitchn suggested that to be able to freeze a popsicle, to keep to an alcohol-by-volume of 20% or less, which would be 1 shot (AKA 1.5 oz, AKA 3 tbsp) of every cup, total volume. However, practically speaking, being close to the maximum will give you difficulty with finicky moulds.
If you have a lot of trouble (particularly if your mold is old and rough on the inside), you may want to cut back to 1/4 cup of Baileys (4T) or use waxed paper cups as molds - you'll be able to tear them away.
When you look at this pan, do you think it's dirty? Maybe you're being generous and you think it's a well-loved pan at the end of its life expectancy and destined for the dump.
In fact, it's likely in the prime of its life.
If your initial thought was "Ew, yes, dirty!" then psst. Come here. You got baking to do this week for the holidays? You might have even bought an annual allotment of shiny new non-stick cookie sheets and bread pans.
Let me let you in on a little secret… you should try to never wash your metal bakeware, even the non-stick. Ever. Well, OK, at least not after that first hot and soapy hand-wash when you have just bought it.
Here’s why:
Dishwasher detergent contains harsh abrasive particles that don’t dissolve well (that’s how it gets tough food off). Unfortunately the downside is that it also causes fine scratches in the surface of some of your pans, killing its non-stick goodness rather quickly.
No problem. Hand-wash only, right?
Hold up.
You should also try to never wash with soap, if you can help it. Here’s why:
Similar to cast iron, non-stick bake ware can begin to develop a kind of seasoning with extended use, a patina of oil that begins to polymerize (that yellow stain stuff). No, don't scrape it off with an SOS pad! Let it stay. Over time you’ll find that, even with loaves of bread, you’ll have to add less additional oil or butter to keep things from sticking.
Between bakings, wipe whatever does stick off with a dry paper towel. If something is really stuck hard, let the pan soak in hot water before wiping it down.
Obviously, there will be some sticky messes that call for soap! But they should be very few and far between, and when you do have to break out the soap, make sure you wash by hand with something gentle.
Because of the seasoning, they won’t be pristine ultra-clean pretty after a while, and may even start looking like the photo. But they will last longer and perform better. Trust me… when it comes to bake-ware, you don’t want it to be immaculate!
Who knew that too-clean was a possibility?
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