Dark Chocolate Dipped Passion Fruit Ice Cream Pops with a Passion Fruit chocolate drizzle. These ice cream pops are so good!
Still on my passion fruit kick since I seem to have a steady supply from Rincon Tropics as well as from a friend who's grandpa had a huge farm in Vista, CA and she just sent me a box. I figure I will freeze a bunch to save for later. Like when I want to make another batch of these crazy good passion fruit ice cream pops.
I want to extend a shout out to the fab Erin of Cloudy Kitchen for all my ice cream pop questions. She makes amazing ice cream pops and I asked her so many questions about making them. Please visit her blog and see all the pops she makes as well as all her amazing recipes, many inspired by her native country of New Zealand.
How you do make ice cream pops?
This recipe is a two part recipe where you make the ice cream first then the pops. I used these silicon molds for the pops since I wanted to have nice rounded pops instead of ones with ridges in them like my other popsicle molds have. You really can use any mold you like as long as they are easy to remove.
Popsicles that are more water based tend to freeze more solid, ice cream is definitely softer which is why I prefer the silicon molds. The molds make 3 pops each. I only have two so I make 6 ice cream bars at a time. This is a little more time consuming since you have to wait for the ice cream bars to freeze before removing then making more. I suggest buying enough to make 12 ice cream pops at once.
Once pops are made they get dipped in the chocolate and I added an extra drizzle using Valrhona Passion Fruit inspiration feves. Same feves I used in my dark chocolate hibiscus cookies.
I had posted my dark chocolate hibiscus cookies on Instagram after I made them and Valrhona loved them so much they offered to send me some goodies. One of the items they sent was a bag of their Caraïbe feves. 66% Dark chocolate. So smooth and just a hint of bitterness which works so well with the sweet-tart passion fruit ice cream.
How do you make passion fruit ice cream?
This passion fruit ice cream on its own is oh so good. Sweet, tart, tropical. I make a typical ice cream custard base with heated milk, cream and sugar tempered eggs, stirred until thick, then whisk in more cream and the fresh passion fruit juice. The color is all from the passion fruit. No food dye needed.
I used ⅔ a cup of fresh passion fruit juice for this recipe. I scooped out the juice, pulp and seeds from about 8-10 passion fruits, whizzed in a blender on low for about 30 seconds to separate the pulp and seeds then strained to get the juice.
I churn the ice cream base once chilled and then make the pops. You don't want to pour the ice cream base into the molds without churning first, they won't have that same ice cream texture.
I have never made no-churn ice cream since I have an ice cream maker ( I use a very basic Cuisinart ice cream maker) so if you go this route I cannot guarantee same results in texture of the ice cream.
If you wanted to just make the passion fruit ice cream and save making the pops for another day go for it. I still suggest making the chocolate coating and drizzling some over the top of a few scoops. The ice cream is so silky smooth, sweet and tart and very tropical.
I loved making it into these ice cream pops, and am planning on making another batch soon. Ice cream pops and popsicles go quickly at my house, especially in the Vegas summertime.
The chocolate coating for these pops is basically magic shell. That magical chocolate concoction that sets up solid as soon as it touches a frozen surface. Magic shell was a treat as a kid, we would try to pour as much as we could over ice cream because it was fun to watch it set up. When I found out how easy it is to make and with only two ingredients I have always made it at home since then.
For this magic shell I heated chocolate and coconut oil in a double boiler until smooth. I went a step further and tempered the chocolate, which is a method of heating to 115 Deg F, cooling to 85 degrees then heating again to 91 degrees. Do you have to do it this way? Nope. But what results is a super shiny chocolate that has a wonderful snap to it when you bite it.
You can heat the chocolate then let it cool to 95 deg and dip your bars that way too. It will be close to the same as tempering. Usually chocolate is tempered on its own, but it is fine to do here with the addition of the oil. What you never want is to heat the chocolate over 130 Deg F, it will burn, nor do you want to get any water in it, it will seize up.
A few more notes about these Dark Chocolate Dipped Passion Fruit Ice Cream Pops first:
- Read through the recipe directions first and make sure you have everything ready to go. If you don't have access to fresh passion fruit you can use puree. I often have frozen puree that is 100% passion fruit that I will thaw for recipes like this one. Make sure you use 100% passion fruit. A juice blend won't get you the same results or flavor.
- The eggs get tempered for the custard which is a method of slowly heating the eggs with a hot milk/cream/sugar mixture to make sure the eggs incorporate into the ice cream base and not become a scrambled mess. To do this you whisk the eggs with one hand while slowly adding heated milk mixture with the other hand using a small measuring scoop. This is what makes the ice cream thick and smooth.
- Make sure the passion fruit ice cream base is well chilled before adding to your ice cream maker. I will pop the ice cream bowl in the freezer the day before I make ice cream to ensure it will churn the ice cream properly.
- The ice cream molds I use holds ⅓ a cup of ice cream, my recipe makes 12 pops with a little ice cream leftover. Great for sampling!
- For the chocolate dipping, after tempering the chocolate ( see above in the blog post about how to do this). Owning a candy or digital thermometer is important for this step.
- I will pour some into a mason jar that the pop will fit into so you can quickly dunk the pop to get in completely covered. You want to make sure that the ice cream is covered even around the stick so none melts out.
- Work quickly to get all the pops dipped. I set all mine out on a parchment lined tray in a freezer and had my jar of chocolate set next to it. I was halfway in my freezer dipping the pops, I might have dripped some chocolate on other items in my freezer. Oops.
- The passion fruit drizzle is optional since those are a specialty ingredient that I had purchased a while back. A white chocolate drizzle would be just as good. You can just melt the chocolate and oil together for this, no need to temper.
- Once all the pops are made you can keep wrapped in parchment or wax paper in a resealable bag or container.
Dark Chocolate Dipped Passion Fruit Ice Cream Pops
Ingredients
For the passion fruit ice cream:
- 2 cups heavy cream divided (500ml)
- 1 cup whole milk 250 ml
- ¾ cup granulated sugar 150g
- 5 large egg yolks
- ⅔ cup fresh passion fruit juice pulp and seeds removed (160 ml)
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
For the dark chocolate coating:
- 400 g Valrhona Caraibe Feves or other high quality 65%-70% dark chocolate, chopped. Not chips
- 80 g coconut oil
For the passion fruit drizzle (optional):
- 100 g Valrhona Passion Fruit Inspiration Feves
- 1-2 teaspoon coconut oil
Instructions
Important read first:
- Prep, cook and additional time are all approximate. It doesn't take much prep for the ice cream or chocolate dipping sauce. Making the ice cream base takes about 20 min of cooking, tempering the chocolate takes about 10 min. The majority of the time spent on this recipe is chilling the ice cream base, churning it, then making the pops and freezing them, then dipping in chocolate. I made this recipe over two days. The time really is up to you as well as what kind of molds you have if you make all 12 pops at once or 6 at a time like I did.
Ice cream instructions:
- Scoop out the pulp, flesh and seeds from 8-10 passion fruits. Whiz for a few seconds in a blender to separate the pulp and seeds, strain to get ⅔ cup juice (160ml). Set aside. If using frozen puree, thaw completely.
- Set yolks in a medium sized bowl and whisk, set bowl next to stove. Have a small measuring cup ready for tempering the yolks.
- In a large bowl add one cup of the heavy cream, set aside.
- In a medium sauce pan combine the remaining cup of cream, whole milk, sugar and salt and heat over medium, stirring to dissolve sugar, until hot and steaming but not bubbling.
- Start whisking the eggs continuously and slowly add in some of the heated cream mixture a third of a cup at time in a thin stream until the eggs are hot ( tempered), scrape this mixture back into the saucepan and stir constantly over medium heat with a rubber spatula until thickened like custard.
- Strain this mixture into the heavy cream in a bowl, to get rid of any little bits of cooked egg, and stir then stir in the passion fruit juice and vanilla extract. Cool completely before churning, a few hours.
- Set out your ice cream pop molds with sticks on a tray that will fit into your freezer.
- Churn the ice cream according to your maker’s directions. Spread ⅓ a cup of churned ice cream into each mold, all the way to the top making sure the tops are smooth. Freeze completely before dipping in chocolate. This might take a little while depending on how many molds you have. If you don’t have 12 molds, transfer the remaining churned ice cream to a freezer safe tub.
- Once the pops in the molds are set, carefully remove starting with the top of the mold, folding it down and then press from the stick to pop them out. Set on a baking paper lined tray in your freezer.
- Rinse the molds then dry and then repeat with remaining ice cream. You might have to thaw the ice cream in the tub slightly to get it soft enough to spread into the molds.
Make the chocolate sauce then dip the pops in chocolate:
- Once all the pops are made make the dark chocolate dipping sauce and the passion fruit drizzle .
- Set a small saucepan with a couple inches of water over medium heat until simmering. Set a glass or stainless bowl over the pan that will rest above the water. You don’t want the bottom of the bowl touching the water.
- Add the chocolate and coconut oil and stir until very smooth, and heated to 115 Deg F.. Remove from heat and let cool to 85 deg F. Set back over the pan of water and heat back to 91 Deg. F This will give the chocolate a nice shine once hardened on the pops and they will have a nice snap to them when you bite into them.
- Transfer the chocolate icing to a 16 ounce jar so you can dip each pop all the way in quickly. I used a mason jar.
- Working with one pop at a time, dip into the chocolate up to the stick, let the excess drip off the back ( I hold upside down and tilted slightly to drip off the excess, then place back on the paper lined tray in your freezer. This helps to do this right next to your freezer.
- Repeat with remaining pops.
- If you choose to make the optional passion fruit drizzle, melt the passion fruit inspiration feves with the coconut oil the same double boiler method as the dark chocolate but not need to temper. Just heat and melt once. Drizzle over the pops using a fork. Let set. Pops are ready to serve once the chocolate is set. You could also use white chocolate for this.
- You can keep these wrapped in wax or parchment paper in an airtight container, wrap carefully to make sure the chocolate coatings don’t break off.
Notes
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