18 Nov Rainbow Fruit Lollies

I’d love to tell you that my favourite thing about these ice lollies is that they are made with only fruit and are therefore super-healthy. But I’d be lying. What I love most about them is that are just so pretty! I mean look at those colours! Isn’t it pleasing to know that all those lovely, bright colours come from fruit alone?

These lollies are a great way to get your kids to eat something healthy on a hot summer’s day. In fact once they see these beautiful treats, you may have to fight them for one!

All you need to make these is fruit, water, a blender, and ice lolly moulds. Thats it! Feel free to experiment with different fruits than those stated in the recipe eg. you could try watermelon or pink grapefruit for the pink layer, or pawpaw for the orange layer. As long as you have about 1 cup of liquidised fruit for each layer, the rest is up to you. You may wish to add a drizzle of honey or sprinkling of icing sugar if any of the fruit is a little sour (I won’t tell).

Starting with all your fruits chopped and frozen saves rather a lot of time with freezing in between each layer. So plan ahead and freeze your fruit the night before. No problem if you forget, you’ll just need a bit more patience while waiting for each layer to set. This will make 12-20 ice lollies depending on the size of your moulds.

Ingredients:
(makes 12-20 ice lollies)

Red Layer:
¾ cup of strawberries, chopped and frozen
¼ cup water for blending

Orange Layer:
⅓ cup dried apricots, frozen
⅓ cup nectarines, chopped and frozen
⅓ cup mango juice or water for blending

Yellow layer:
¾ cup of pineapple, chopped and frozen
¼ cup orange pieces or juice

Green Layer:
¾ cup kiwi fruit, peeled, chopped and frozen
¼ cup water for blending
A few baby spinach leaves (optional, this really boosts the green colour and I promise you won’t taste it!)

Purple Layer:
¾ cup blueberries, frozen
¼cup water for blending

Pink Layer:
½ cup raspberries, frozen
¼ cup blackberries, frozen
¼ cup water for blending

Directions:

• Blitz together the strawberries and water, then fill your ice lolly mould one sixth of the way up. You might wish to mark this out beforehand to keep the layers nice and equal. I find spooning the mixture as opposed to pouring works best here, and tapping the mounds on a hard surface helps to get the layers level.
• Freeze until set, about 15 minutes (or about 45 minutes if your fruit wasn’t frozen to start with).
• Blend the ingredients for the orange layer (I added a little honey here as the apricots were quite sour). Fill each mould with a layer of the mixture another sixth of the way up.
• Repeat with the remaining layers, ensuring the previous layer is solid before adding the next to prevent the layers from mixing together,
• After the last layer, freeze your ice lollies for at least 2 hours so that they are completely solid.
• To remove the lollies from the mould, fill a bowl or sink with warm water and then place the mould in for a few seconds (but don’t let any water get into the moulds). If they don’t come out easily then leave them in the water a little longer.

TIP: If you are using the wooden ice cream sticks, push these in almost to the bottom after spooning in your orange layer. These are available at craft stores and baking stores. Otherwise use the tops that come with the mould after the last layer.