Strawberry ice lolly

A deep red fruit lolly made from fresh strawberries that you can actually bite into — not a block of ice.

A fruit lolly is essentially a sorbet that froze without being stirred. But stirring in a machine is exactly what keeps the ice crystals small, so here the formulation has to do that job: part of the sugar is glucose syrup and dextrose, and a little pectin binds water. The sweetness sits deliberately at the lower end of the sorbet range — an over-sweet lolly falls off the stick and melts before you finish it.

Type: Sorbet · Servings: 10 · Difficulty: Easy

Equipment

Ingredients

  • 700 g strawberries (hulled; thawed frozen fruit works too)
  • 80 g water
  • 150 g granulated sugar (sucrose)
  • 3 g pectin (0.3 % — makes the lolly smoother and slower to drip)
  • 70 g glucose syrup (DE 40, 80 % solids)
  • 25 g dextrose (glucose powder)
  • 20 g lemon juice (fresh)

Making the mix

  1. Mix the sugar thoroughly with the pectin while both are dry — pectin on its own would form lumps in water.
  2. Heat the water, stir in the sugar and pectin, add the glucose syrup and dextrose and simmer for 1–2 minutes, stirring, until everything has dissolved.
  3. Take the syrup off the heat and leave it to cool.
  4. Blend the strawberries with the syrup and lemon juice until smooth. If the seeds bother you, push the purée through a fine sieve.
  5. Chill the mix in the fridge for at least an hour. It should go into the moulds cold — a lukewarm mix freezes slowly and the crystals grow.

Method — No-machine method

  1. Fill the moulds about four fifths full — the mix expands slightly as it freezes and would otherwise seep out around the lid.
  2. If your mould has no lid with stick holders, put it in the freezer first and insert the sticks after 60–90 minutes, when the mix is firm at the sides and slushy in the middle. At that point the stick stands upright and will not float.
  3. Freeze for at least 6 hours, ideally overnight. The lolly must be hard all the way through.
  4. Dip the mould up to its rim in lukewarm (not hot) water for five to ten seconds and pull the lolly out slowly and straight by the stick. If it resists, dip it for a few more seconds — pulling sideways tears the stick out.

Nothing stirs inside the mould: the mix freezes at rest and the ice crystals end up larger than in a machine. A cold mix (5 °C or below) and the coldest spot in the freezer help — the faster the lolly freezes, the smoother it will be.

Total time: 7 h 20 min

Method — Compressor ice cream maker

  1. Switch the ice cream maker on 5–10 minutes ahead so the bowl can pre-chill.
  2. Pour in the chilled mix and churn for 15–25 minutes — only to the consistency of thick soft-serve, not hard.
  3. Transfer the soft ice cream to a piping bag and pipe it into the moulds. Tap the mould on the worktop a few times to release air bubbles and level the surface.
  4. Push in the sticks (the mix already holds them) and leave to harden in the freezer for 2 hours. Dip the mould up to its rim in lukewarm (not hot) water for five to ten seconds and pull the lolly out slowly and straight by the stick. If it resists, dip it for a few more seconds — pulling sideways tears the stick out.

This gives the smoothest lolly you can make at home: the machine creates many tiny crystals at once and the mould only hardens them. Pipe the ice cream straight away — after a few minutes on the worktop it stiffens and will not fill the mould without holes.

Total time: 3 h 40 min

Method — Freezer-bowl ice cream maker

  1. Fit the frozen bowl (at least 24 hours in the freezer) just before use and switch the machine on.
  2. Pour in the chilled mix and churn for 15–25 minutes — only to the consistency of thick soft-serve, not hard.
  3. Transfer the soft ice cream to a piping bag and pipe it into the moulds. Tap the mould on the worktop a few times to release air bubbles and level the surface.
  4. Push in the sticks (the mix already holds them) and leave to harden in the freezer for 3 hours. Dip the mould up to its rim in lukewarm (not hot) water for five to ten seconds and pull the lolly out slowly and straight by the stick. If it resists, dip it for a few more seconds — pulling sideways tears the stick out.

This gives the smoothest lolly you can make at home: the machine creates many tiny crystals at once and the mould only hardens them. Pipe the ice cream straight away — after a few minutes on the worktop it stiffens and will not fill the mould without holes.

Total time: 4 h 10 min

Stages

Preparation
15 min
Cooking
5 min
Cooling
1 h
Freezing
6 h
Total time
7 h 20 min

Plan: what to do and when

The whole recipe takes 7 h 20 min, of which 30 min is hands-on — the rest is waiting you can spend elsewhere.

The making itself fits into a single day — start at least 7 h 20 min before serving.

  • Prepare the mix (weigh and stir the ingredients) — 15 min
  • Cook the mix — 5 min
  • Cool the mix down — 1 h
  • Put the mix in the freezer — 6 h

Serving and storage

Take the lolly out of the freezer a minute before eating — by then you can bite it and it is not yet dripping. For children, slip a paper cupcake case onto the stick to catch the drips.

Wrap the unmoulded lollies individually in baking paper or small bags and keep them in a closed container at the back of the freezer. They are best within two weeks; after that they turn coarse even when wrapped and start picking up freezer smells. Do not refreeze a lolly that has already softened.

Tips

  • Strawberries are sometimes sweeter, sometimes more tart. Taste the mix before freezing — it should be a little sweeter than seems right, as the cold dulls sweetness. With a refractometer, aim for 25–28 °Bx.
  • You can drop a few strawberry halves into the mould before pouring. They stick to the wall and the lolly looks shop-made.
  • You can swap the glucose syrup for the same weight of sugar, but the lolly will be harder and sweeter. It does not work the other way round: glucose syrup alone makes the mix gluey.
  • Moulds: silicone ones are the easiest to unmould, rigid plastic gives a sharper shape and lasts longer. If you have neither, small cups or yogurt pots work — cover the top with foil and push the stick through it, and it will stand upright.
  • Keep the moulds level in the freezer and not in the door. A tilted mould gives a crooked lolly, and in the door the temperature swings every time you open it, so the ice grows coarse.

Why it works

A lolly freezes at rest, so few nuclei form and each one grows into a larger crystal than it would in a stirred mix. The formulation can offset this with two levers. The first is the freezing point: dextrose lowers it almost twice as much as the same amount of granulated sugar, so even at −18 °C part of the water stays unfrozen and the lolly can be bitten. The second is solids: glucose syrup and pectin thicken the solution between the crystals, slow the growth of ice and make the lolly drip more slowly. That is why the sweetness here stays around 25 °Bx — any higher and the lolly would soften enough to slide off the stick.

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Sources