If I’d known these Healthy Chocolate Paddle Pops were so easy to make, I would have done it years ago!

I’ve been reading lots of recipes for banana ice-cream lately with some peeps even making whole recipe books about it! And most others declaring that it is soooo good. I’ve been meaning to try it for a while, but I don’t often eat bananas as I find them too starchy and just all too much really.

I’ve bought bananas a few times and cut it up and whacked it in the freezer with the intention of giving it a go, to see if it is ‘just like normal ice-cream’ as they say but every time I would forget and a month later – oops the frozen bananas are a bit too rank to do anything other than throw them away. (Sorry food waste police!)

So I mentioned to a friend that that I was going to try it again and she said “no, I’ve tried before a few times and I don’t like it, none of my kids like it either.”

Ok…interesting. Opposing opinions; time to try it for myself!

So with purpose and intention I bought that banana, froze it overnight and remembered to do it. (Yay for me.) And the result? Well…. I’m in the ‘no, it’s yuk’ camp.

Opinions

It was smooth and creamy, so that wasn’t the problem – kind of like soft serve which is fine, but despite my best efforts of adding vanilla extract and quite a big dump of cacao powder, the strong banana flavour was just too overwhelming.

So at least I finally tried it, but rest assured I won’t be making it again!

But I still like my frozen pops, so I started to do a bit of research again as to how others make them. I’ve tried gelatin before but that sort of made them rubbery – perhaps I just used too much? But one other method I found that I haven’t seen before, was to add a type of flour/starch to it, so it thickened up a little like custard.

The result is…amazeballs! And here it is…

Healthy Chocolate Paddle Pops

3 TBS honey

1 TBS potato starch

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup skim milk (or coconut milk)

2 TBS cacao powder

Method

So in a pot over low heat place the honey & vanilla extract, stir until it is a little melty and starts to simmer. Add the potato starch and mix well ensuring you don’t have any lumpy bits. Add the cacao powder and do the same thing.

Then add the milk and turn up the stove to medium. Keep stirring slowly until the whole mixture heats up to a simmer and it thickens nicely.

Allow to cool a little before placing in Popsicle moulds. Freeze overnight.

So the heating part is necessary for the honey to blend properly as well as allowing the starch to do its thickening thing. Previously I would just blend everything (except the starch) and whack that in the freezer. Which is nice, but this is better; and not that much more difficult to do. (Ease is important to me!)

The taste is exactly like the Paddlepop of old – subtle chocolate, just sweet enough and creamy but a bit watery at the same time, which makes it kind of refreshing.

So sorry ‘nana lovers, I’m not going there again – this is soooo much nicer. (To me anyway!)

Bring on summer!

Kristy x

Update 2020 – for more delicious healthy Sweet Treat recipes check out my recipe book here.