- Make your own ice cream, Orange Julius and popsicles to help stay cool in the hot Hong Kong summer
- All these recipes can be easily made in your home with just a few ingredients
Can't stand the heat? These sweet treats are also easy to make!With the school year winding down and the weather heating up, we put together some of our favourite quick sweet treats (that aren’t Dalgona coffee) to keep you cool.
Nana nice cream
You need: 2 ripe bananas (or even the overripe ones you were going to use for yet another batch of banana bread), add-ins of your choice: jam, honey, berries, chocolate chips, etc
Make it: Chop up the bananas and freeze for 4-6 hours, or overnight. Tip them into a blender or food processor, and blitz until thick and creamy. If you want to flavour it, chuck in your add-ins and blend again. Otherwise, top with those ingredients and eat straightaway. This can also be frozen for two weeks.
7 ways to cool off in the crazy Hong Kong weather
Knock-off Orange Julius
You need: 500ml orange juice, 250ml fresh milk, 2 handfuls ice cubes, 2 tbsp icing sugar, 4 orange slices
Make it: Put all the ingredients, including the ice, in a blender. Blend until smooth and frothy, then divide into four glasses, and garnish with orange slices and a metal straw.
Mango lassi popsicles
You need: 2 fresh mangoes, 100g full-fat yogurt, honey to taste, pinch of salt (optional), pinch of cardamom
Make it: Blitz the mango using a stick blender or liquidiser. Add the yogurt and blend again. Taste some of the mixture, and add as much honey, salt and cardamom as you like. Pour into popsicle moulds and freeze for at least 4 hours, and preferably overnight.
Eat your way to a cool, refreshing summer
Jacket bananas
You need: bananas, lollipop sticks, chocolate, sprinkles (optional)
Make it: Melt the chocolate in the microwave in a wide, shallow microwavable dish – do it in 30-second bursts, stirring between each heating session, until liquid and glossy. Cover a tray in foil. Peel bananas and push a lollipop stick halfway into each one, lengthways. Dip into the melted chocolate, then lay on the tray. Cover in sprinkles if desired, then freeze until chocolate is firm.
Pineapple cooler
You need: 1 pineapple, lollipop sticks
Make it: Peel the pineapple, cut it in half lengthways, then cut each half into “cake slices”, so you have about 12 long triangles of pineapple. Slice off the core. Push a lollipop stick into each piece along the length, leaving at least 5cm for you to hold, then place in a (reusable) plastic food bag. Tuck in the freezer and leave for 4 hours, or preferably overnight – or until you feel the need to make believe you’re on a beach in Southeast Asia.
Very berry granita
You need: 450g strawberries or raspberries, 200ml hot water, 50g caster sugar, plus more to taste, 1 tsp lemon juice (optional)
Make it: Dissolve the sugar in the hot water. Blitz the berries in a blender or with a stick blender until smooth, then add the sugar water and blend again. Taste; add the lemon juice, and more sugar if you like. Pour mixture into a flat baking tray and freeze until it’s icy around the edges, around 30 minutes.
Remove from fridge, and use a fork to scrape the icy bits into the middle of the tray. Return to freezer, then repeat this scraping step every 30 minutes for about 2 hours until you have a consistently flaky slush. Serve in your parents’ wine glasses, and imagine you’re on the Italian Riviera.