Lychee Popsicle 荔枝雪條

By Ellen L. Published: 2013-07-08

There's nothing that can cool you down on a hot summer's day like a icy cold popsicle.  I remember traveling in the earlier days in China when there was very little in the way of proper air conditioning (actually not just little but none!) but there was always the red bean popsicle vendor just around the corner.  

Adults and children both would sit in what shade they could find and cool their whole body down by eating the delicious icy treats.  Yummy!  What a fun and natural way to cool down!

Recently the Hong Kong summer was getting hotter by the day and my little girl was clamoring for these cooling treats all the time.  However checking the ingredients list on the commercial popsicles were giving me a headache:  why do popsicles need so many strange chemically sounding ingredients in them?  

So much for 'natural' way to cool down.  There are even popsicles nowadays that bend over and bounce back like rubber (gross!).  The only thing to do,of course, was to make our own Lychee Popsicles, or 荔枝冰棒, which turned out to be easy and super delicious.

We decided to do a Lychee Popsicle since we love lychees in this house.  I looked around for canned lychee and found them available without preservatives or strange chemicals.  Just water and sugar and lychee.  A bit more expensive but worth it to not have that metallic taste from the chemicals.  In the photo below is canned Longan fruit which is similar to lychee fruit.  We tried both and decided that Lychee popsicle was our favorite even though both were delicious.

You also need coconut milk:  again look for coconut milk that doesn't have preservative in it.  And last of all you will need condensed milk.  Look for the condensed milk that uses real milk, not milk powder.  It sometimes exasperates me that food is so stupidly complicated and not what it seems nowadays!  Why can't food just be food?!

Canned Lychee and Longan are whole fruits minus the hard seed inside.  In order prepare the lychee for the popsicle you must cut the lychee up.  Don't use a knife here, you will just end up squeezing all the juice out.  Use a scissors to cut it up gently, retaining the plumpness of Lychee.

Lychee Popsicle Recipe 荔枝冰棒
(Makes 14 popsicles) (Prep time: 7 mins  Freeze time: 3 hours)

Ingredients:

• Popsicle Maker
• 
  
• 1 20 oz can of Lychee or Longan fruit (without preservative if you can find it)
• 200 ml coconut milk
• 185 g (1 tube or can) condensed milk (look for condensed milk made from real milk instead of milk powder)

Directions:

Open canned Lychee and drain, reserving the lychee syrup.  Use scissors to cut the lychee into small pieces.  

In a large bowl, combine reserved lychee syrup, coconut milk and condensed milk.  Divide the cut lychee pieces evenly into your popsicle makers.

Carefully spoon in the liquid mix to fill up.  Cap with your popsicle maker's caps and pop into the freezer.  After three hours check if solidly frozen.  If frozen hold under running water for a minute or two until the popsicle pulls out from the form.  Enjoy your lychee popsicle!

Sweet Delights at The Hong Kong Cookery:

Lychee Time of the Year! 荔枝 - 糯米糍

Rose Dragon Eye Jelly 龍眼玫瑰茶果凍

Longan Dragon Eye Fruit 龍眼

Lychee Jam

Luscious Lychee Ice Cream 

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