Having just sent off two rolls of film which I’ve been using since Autumn-ish last year, I’ve had film vs. digital on my mind. A digital camera is great for most things because you can take so many photos so easily (the only caveat being that you’ll probably need a few 1 TB external harddrives 😉 ). That said, I still can’t help but feel excited by the possibilities that a new reel of film, loaded into my mum’s old Olympus, brings. There’s something a bit more magical about the potential that each of those 36 exposures contains.
During my past few months of travelling, I’ve found that I much prefer to leave my heavy DSLR at home and bring its lighter, ‘vintage’ sibling along. Each click holds a memory in the little plastic time capsule, only to be remembered and revealed once the roll is done and the film sent off to be developed. As someone who is very visually attuned, I love having a physical, atmospheric print to help me to think back to a time or place. It’s much better than having to rely on my, frankly rather rickety, memory.
Food, however, is one thing I remember very easily. Somehow (!) ice cream is especially present in my mind. Those 99p soft-serve flake ice creams from the ice cream van, my lactose-intolerant phase which saw me sacrifice feeling well for a spoonful of chocolate Haagen-Daz, the first bite of a Cornetto on the beach in Spain. It’s special, it’s delicious and I want to eat it ALL the time.
Last month I found myself addicted to a malted-milk ice cream that my mum had made on a whim. So when #popsicleweek rolled around I immediately knew what I wanted to make! I laced a cornstarch thickened, malty ice cream with flakes of chocolate, stracciatella style. I used vegetable oil in the chocolate flakes so that their melting temperature is lower. This means that the chocolate isn’t waxy and tasteless when frozen, each flake will simply melt in your mouth. I then dipped the ice cream in a chocolate-coconut oil shell – the coconut oil thins the chocolate out so that dipping is easier – and sprinkled with whatever fanciness I could find. I went for bee pollen cos it’s fabulously pretty (no, I don’t believe in any of the health claims about it. It IS tasty though!!) and crunchy cacao nibs. Chopped nuts, dehydrated fruit powder or a sprinkle of Maldon salt would be fab too!
Notes:
– I used the Horlicks Instant Light brand of malted milk powder as I didn’t want the ice cream to be too rich.
– I used 2 of these silicone moulds*
Malted Milk & Stracciatella Gelato Pops
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)
- 1 tbsp creme fraiche or cream cheese
- 1 1/2 cups (375 ml) milk (I used 2%)
- 1/2 cup (125 ml) double (heavy) cream
- 1/2 cup (8 tbsp) instant malted milk powder (see notes)
- 1/4 cup (50 g) granulated sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
For the 'stracciatella' mixture (chocolate chips):
- 1 oz (30 g) bittersweet chocolate
- 1 tsp vegetable oil
For dipping:
- 3 oz bittersweet chocolate
- 2 tbsp coconut oil
- decorations: cacao nibs , bee pollen
Instructions
-
In a small bowl, mix the cornflour and creme fraiche. Slowly mix in a few tablespoons of the milk until the mixture is fluid then set aside.
-
Place the remaining milk in a medium pot along with the cream, malted milk powder and sugar. Whisk this mixture over a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. Pour the cornflour mixture into the pot and continue to cook over a medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture has thickened slightly. Stir in the vanilla and chill the mixture until completely cooled (I like to transfer the mixture into a large jug to save space in the fridge).
-
Churn the mixture in an ice cream maker according to the machine's instructions. Once churned, transfer the gelato to a freezer safe container.
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Make the 'stracciatella' mixture by melting together the 1 oz of chocolate and 1 tsp of vegetable oil. Drizzle some of this mixture over the churned gelato. Freeze the gelato for a minute so the chocolate sets, then stir it to break up the chocolate layer. Repeat the drizzle/freeze/stir until all the mixture has been stirred in.
-
Scoop the gelato into popsicle moulds and insert a popsicle stick (see notes for the mould I used). Freeze overnight until solid.
-
Make the dipping mixture by combining the 3 oz of chocolate and 2 tbsp of coconut oil in a small pot. Heat and stir over a low heat until just melted. Run the mould under hot water to loosen, then remove the pops and dip, one by one, into the dipping mixture. Set onto a plate or baking tray lined with baking paper, sprinkle with decorations and freeze again until the chocolate has set.
*affiliate link
These look amazing! With you on the film vs digital, I have my mom’s old camera as well and I love carrying something with history.
These sound amazing!
YES to everything about these ice cream pops. Love anything malted milk and the fact that these ice creams are dipped in rich chocolate and sprinkled with cacao nibs AND bee pollen is too good. Yum!
haha my dad would super-appreciate reading this post–I think he really misses the good ol’ days of film. For that matter, I do, too! So much more precision in each photo, and I love how photos in our old photo albums are never perfect (in fact, they’re all suuuuper awkward because we’re all caught mid-yawn or doing something embarrasingly out of place that nobody caught at the time). Also, I used to eat ice cream chocolate-covered pops three times a day in high school, so I love this post 🙂 cheers, girl.
These look and sound heavenly. I hope those rolls of film turn out beautifully…
This looks so tasty!
xx,
Lotte – Paperblooming Prints
http://www.etsy.com/shop/paperblooming
I love straticella and everything about these! You don’t need to miss Haagen Daaz anymore with those around!! Yum!!
Living in the constant summer heat of Darwin anything cold and delicious is a lifesaver. These will definitely be added to my list of help-it’s-to-hot afternoon treats!
Wow what fancy pops! I love the decorations you used, the cacao nibs sound awesome 🙂
These are so pretty (especially the bee pollen ones)!
Awesome!!
Wow, these sound heavenly. I defiantly want to give them a go.
This summer has been all about ice cream for me. I’ve been visiting all the old fashioned British seaside places, and you can’t go to those without a trip to the ice cream van, can you! 99p flakes in abundance, and plenty of homemade, creamy local ice creams too.
Jennie // Scarletscorchdroppers
x
These look amazing. I love the crunch of biting into thick chocolate and finding ice-cream lurking beneath.
A beautiful post.
Well, I’ll be getting myself down to the shops asap to get some malted milk powder because I seriously can’t think of anything I want to eat more than this right now. Also stracciatella is totally the best type of ice cream so I’m excited to use your vegetable oil tip to recreate it at home.
I love the styling in these photographs. I made a no-churn malted milk ice cream on the blog not long ago and it’s such a brilliant flavour and goes so well with dark chocolate. Love this recipe.
These look amazing! I can’t get over how much I want to dive into the screen right now!
These pops are pretty, have a wicked flavour and even sound awesome!! LOVE!
Yesssss. Ice cream bars > popsicles ALWAYS. These looks so dreamy creamy delicious!
Dream pops!!
Hi,
This recipe sounds amazing! I don’t currently own an ice-cream maker, so I was wondering if it would work by me just stirring the mixture at regular intervals whilst freezing it?
Thanks!
I think what you can try instead is freezing the ice cream mixture in a wide, shallow dish. Then you break it up into chunks and blend it in a food processor until smooth. Let me know if you try it out!
Malted milk all things are my fave. And I love film, but haven’t used any since I used to develop my own rolls in my blacked-out dorm bathroom…like a million years ago (seriously, a whole decade ago). I have a film camera but haven’t even picked it up for years. I need to give it some love, for sure. Thanks for the reminder, Izy!
Your words about film and traveling are so, so lovely and poignant, Izy! We brought our wedding Instax with us for kicks but it ended up feeling unexpectedly meaningful for the exact same reasons. So wonderfully put. And these pops — omg. Milk powder perfection.
As much as I love the photo quality of the DSLR I’m always wishing I actually made an effort to get those photos printed up more often. Would love a film camera so I am actually forced to get the photos printed! Straciatella is my favvvve flavour!!
These look soooo good!
I love stracciatella…can’t go wrong with these!!
Izy, these look fabulous! And agreed, all ice cream, all the time. Also, you had a lactose intolerant phase?! If you don’t mind me asking, did you do anything to recover from it or did you just kind of “grow out of it”? My bf is LI and I’d love to get him back on the ice cream train. 🙂
Thanks Katie! Yeah I was lactose intolerant for about 3 years when I was young (I think I was like 6 or so). I did end up ‘growing out of it’ but dairy can still bother me a bit now. I remember that my mum used to buy Lactase pills for me from the US which I was allowed every now and then – you just take one before eating any dairy and you’ll be fine!
[…] Malted Milk & Stracciatella Gelato Pops -> amazing. […]
I’ve never tried bee pollen! I’m intrigued. These are so pretty. I too am an ice cream addict, it’s a curse. But it’s so good!
These are too cute Izy! Malted milk flavour is the best – so good in milkshakes (malted chocolate milkshake YES PLZ)!
Hi Izy,
Thanks for all you do! These taste delicious but should update the recipe to include the instructions for adding the vanilla extract 🙂
holy WAT. the bee pollen man. like the pops of childhood but so much more ~sophisticated~
This is food heaven for me. will try this week 🙂
why is Clean 9 most popular diet ?
these look so delicious! dying to give them a go!
[…] 4. I want to cool down with these! […]
These are so cute!! And I love it how you use your ‘vintage’ film camera. It’s so much more special, capturing only one moment instead of hundreds.
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These look incredible! A must for summer 🙂 thanks for sharing
Yum! I like all the delicious toppings! I haven’t used a real film camara in ages.
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