Lemon Pudding and Red Currant Jelly Ice Pops

We were lucky to receive some red currants in our farmshare last week, but due to the tiny quantity, I left them in the fridge for more than a week pondering the best way to use them.

But since I've been on a bit of a run exploring ice pop flavours, I figured there was a good chance that they would end up reduced into syrup and incorporated into a popsicle of some sort. The answer occurred to me as I was grating some lemon zest for a quinoa salad... lemon and currant popsicles!

First, I reduced the currants into a sauce with some water and sugar and pureed them in the magic bullet.

Currants, like raspberries, have tons of seeds and little stems that are tough to remove. So I strained out the seeds/stems and ended up with a thick red currant coulis of sorts. This already tasted so good that I had a hard time resisting eating it as a red currant fool.

I'm glad I waited though because the ice pops turned out even better than I expected. I was a little unsure what the texture or taste would be like since I was a bit like a mad scientist in the kitchen while I was concocting them... but they were everything I wanted them to be.

Light, lemony, a little bit icy, and very refreshing with bursts of tangy, sweet red currant jelly. The adults enjoyed them and the kids loved them. They definitely give me encouragement to experiment a bit more with my popsicle mold. Don't be surprised to see a whole lot of ice pop recipes through the summer.

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Lemon Pudding and Red Currant Jelly Ice Pops 
Yield: 300ml (=9 Onyx pops or 6 full-size and 6 kid-sized pops)

Red Currant Jelly
150g red currants, washed
1/8 - 1/4 cup sugar, (sweeten according to your taste)
1 - 2 tablespoons water

1. Add currants and sugar to a small saucepan. Add enough water to get the mixture bubbling and prevent burning. Heat gently over medium heat until mixture is bubbling and the currants have mostly broken down.
2. Let cool. Strain to remove seeds and pulp.

Lemon Pudding
3 teaspoons cornstarch
1 egg yolk
1-1/2 cups milk (I used 2% but I think whole milk would have been heavenly)
1-1/2 cups half and half cream (what I had on hand, but I'm sure 35% cream would be richer and delish too)
1/4 cup sugar
zest of 1/2 lemon

1. In a medium saucepan, whisk together cornstarch, egg yolk and a small amount of the milk until smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients and heat over medium-high heat until mixture begins to boil.
2. Continue heating until mixture is boiling fairly uniformly (i.e. bubbles are appearing on the edges and in the centre). 
3. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
4. Pour lemon pudding into molds. Reserve leftover mixture by covering with cellophane (let the plastic wrap touch the surface of the liquid) and refrigerate until you're ready to freeze a second batch* (1-2 days).
5. Add a heaping teaspoonful of red currant jelly to each ice pop, and using a chopstick/skewer swirl the jelly into the pudding.
6. Freeze 5 hours or until frozen. Enjoy!

*I always unmold my ice pops and wrap them in parchment paper as soon as they are frozen. This way I can use the mold again to make more ice pops to create a freezer stockpile of hot weather treats.