Orange-Vanilla and Chocolate-Chili Creamsicles

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Right after my first popsicle post, Seattle's summer weather stopped being polite and started getting real. The house was like a convection oven for a solid week, and we resorted to sleeping out on the deck for a couple of nights to escape it.

That kind of weather called for more popsicles. The fruity popsicles are fun, but what every vegan really misses is a good creamsicle. I'm a big fan of interesting, unconventional ice cream flavors. When it comes to popsicles, I tend to want to keep it relatively straightforward. You don't have a lot of time to enjoy a popsicle before it starts to become a messy game of beat the clock, so it makes sense to leave the more complex flavors to a bowl, where they can be savored more leisurely.

These take even less time than the strawberry and peach popsicles because there's no chopping or blending involved. The chocolate flavor needs to be cooked just a bit to smooth everything out. I'm only recently coming around to the whole chocolate-chili combination, and I'm a big wuss when it comes to heat. I found this amount of chili powder to be just right. You don't really taste it, but you do feel it. It was a bit hotter than I usually like it, but it worked well with this. If you're a big fan of hot chili and chocolate, feel free to bump it up a bit. If you have some left over, you can make it into pudding by refrigerating it for a bit so it sets up.


Ingredients

Orange-Vanilla:
2/3 cup soy or almond milk
1 1/3 cups orange juice
3 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate-Chili:
2 cups soy or almond milk
6 ounces of chopped dark chocolate (I used Ghirardelli)
3 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

For the orange flavor, just combine all the ingredients in a bowl and stir until the sugar is dissolved.

For the chocolate flavor, combine all the ingredients except the vanilla in a saucepan and cook over medium heat, whisking frequently until the chocolate has melted and everything is smooth. Stir in the vanilla and remove from the heat. Let it cool a bit.

Pour both flavors into the molds, put the caps on and let them freeze for about 8 hours or so.

To unmold, just run warm water over the mold and lightly wiggle the handle until the popsicle comes out.