While fruits are the healthiest of sweet snacks, wouldn’t they be better coated with some chocolate? The correct answer is yes, and you and your kids can easily make an afternoon activity of making these frozen chocolate-covered fruit pops.
Ingredients:
· Fresh fruit: use any kind of fruits that freeze well such as pineapple, bananas, kiwi, strawberries, or even grapes
· Chocolate for dipping
· Lollipop/candy sticks
· Toppings: chopped nuts, coconut, toffee bits, sprinkles, crushed cookies, anything you like
· Sticks, like the ones you use for lollipops or cake pops, or even wooden skewers. Depending on the size of your fruit pieces, toothpicks may do the trick.
Instructions:
1. Take the fruits and slice them into 1/2-3/4 inch slices. To cut them in uniform shapes you can use a cookie cutter.
2. Put the candy sticks into the fruit slices, so that it looks like a lollipop
3. Freeze them until the fruits are completely frozen and solid
4. Melt some chocolate, either in a microwave, or in a double boiler over the stove. (Easy double boiler: put a bit of water in a large pot. Find a bowl that fits in the pot but doesn’t touch the water. Put the bowl in the pot and the chocolate in the bowl. Boil the water; the heat will melt the chocolate without burning it on the bottom of the pot. You can also finagle a double boiler using a tiered steamer.)
5. Chocolate time! Dip the fruit in the chocolate dip and twirl them to remove the excess.
6. Quickly roll in toppings and let it harden. If your chocolate dip is still hot, return the pops to the freezer until the chocolate shell hardens.
7. Now it’s ready to eat – Yum! – or keep it in the freezer for later.
Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons author Taryn
