Cookhacker

This might be the best smoothie ever made…it’s simple to make, it tastes great and has the consistency of creamy soft serve ice cream. I took fresh picked papayas and bananas, cut them into chunks and froze them overnight. To make the smoothie, put about a cup of frozen papaya chunks, a cup of frozen banana chunks,  6 oz. of  your favorite blueberry yogurt ( I use Dannon) into a blender and add about 3/4 cup of V8 Splash (available everywhere…I use Tropical Blend, but any flavor will do). Pulse the blender for about 30 seconds, give it a quick stir (make sure the blades have stopped!), and repeat a few times. It should be very thick at this point, so to get the perfect consistency, take the top off the blender while it’s running (make sure all the fruit has been pureed before you do this or you may end up wearing some smoothie) and slowly pour in a little more Splash until you see a vortex form in the center-you’ll know what I mean when you see it happen-and the Smoothie will be perfect. If you love peanut butter like I do, you can add a heaping tablespoon (I prefer chunky) and blend for a couple of seconds more…it’s incredible!

This dessert is delicious, impressive and, best of all, deceptively easy to make. You can make your own cheesecake (here is a great recipe from Cook’s Illustrated magazine) , but even a good store-bought cheesecake works well for this enticing dessert. First, put the cheesecake in the freezer until it gets nice and firm. Then remove it and scoop golf ball size hunks out of the cheesecake and quickly roll them into balls before they start to melt.  Insert a lollipop stick (you can also use wooden skewers) into each ball and pop them in the freezer for around 2-3 hours until frozen.

While the lollipops are freezing, prepare your toppings by crushing oreos, peanuts, pistachios, almonds, malted milk balls, coconut or toffee. Almost anything can be used, and it’s great to mix and match the flavors.

The next step is whip up a simple chocolate ganache, which is just a mixture of equal parts chocolate and heavy cream, where you bring the cream to a boil, remove it from the heat and pour it over the bowl of chopped chocolate and whisk it together.

When the lollipops are frozen solid, take them out of the freezer, dip them in the ganache, roll them in your favorite toppings and then immediately stick them back in the freezer to set (you should lay them on parchment paper so they don’t stick)…that’s it.

Just take them out of the freezer about 30 minutes before your ready to serve them (make sure they’re served very cold or they will start to drop off the sticks!) and arrange them like a bouquet of flowers…I guarantee your guests will be impressed!