21 Aug Winesicles! Easy to make and easy to like!

As this is written, we have 31 days of summer left and one more big summer holiday on the way.  Thus, it’s not too late…actually, the timing is perfect…for winesicles!

It doesn’t take much searching to find dozens of winesicle recipes either on line or in wine publications.  Some are fairly complicated, involving throwing fruit into food processors, heating simple syrup on the cooktop, etc.  Those recipes are probably fine but we like to adhere to the KISS principle (keep it simple, stupid).  As a result, we found some much simpler recipes that still produce delicious winesicles.

Recipe # 1 requires just five ingredients.  If you are feeling particularly decadent, you could add a sixth…chunks of chocolate.

Cherry Red Wine Popsicles

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup maple syrup

3/4 cup red wine  (can use pinot noir, cabernet, merlot or red blend)

1 can of light coconut milk

1/2 cup cherries   (pitted and chopped)

Combine the vanilla, syrup, red wine and coconut milk.  Blend thoroughly with a whisk.  Fold in the chopped cherries.  Pour into popsicle molds.  Freeze for 8 hours or overnight.

Recipe #2 is even simpler…only three ingredients.  You can use rosé, sparkling rosé, or sparkling wine.  The first time I tried this, I used champagne.  But the rosé version was much more flavorful.

Rosésicles

2 cups rosé (or sparkling rosé, sparkling wine or champagne)

1 cup lemonade  (don’t use low cal lemonade…it will taste like a diet rosésicle)

1/4 cup gin

Combine the rosé, lemonade and gin.  Blend thoroughly with a whisk. Pour into popsicle molds.  Freeze overnight.  (Note: alcohol freezes at a lower temperature than water.  Since the alcohol content in this recipe is high, this solution will take longer to freeze.)

One last note:  don’t mix up these winesicles with the popsicles that you’re serving at your grade school child’s birthday party.  That might not work out so well.  Or who knows?  Maybe it will.