Happy 4th of July! These are by far my favorite pops from our “Popsicle Week” adventures. How can you possibly not love anything that looks like a rocket ship?! And they’re green to boot, although I’m quite sure that real aliens probably don’t taste like pistachios. Using these Rocket Pop molds really made me wish that someone sold a popsicle tray Tardis. I think the Doctor would approve of Blueberry Tardis Pops, don’t you?

Pistachio Pudding Pops
Adapted from Krystina Castella’s new book: Pops! Icy Treats for Everyone published by Quirk Books.
Variations of additional Pudding Pops can be found at IcyPops.com

1 cup sugar
3/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 cups milk (Note: Do yourself a favor and use whole milk)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups shelled pistachios
Green food coloring

In a food processor or blender, grind 3/4 cup of the nuts to a paste. (Note: I couldn’t get my pistachios to form a paste without adding a teaspoon or two of water).

In a saucepan, combine the sugar, cornstarch, and salt.

Add the milk and pistachios and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly for 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from the heat as soon as the mixture thickens. (Note: This took approximately 12 minutes for me on a gas stove).

Stir in the butter until melted. Add the vanilla. Let cool in refrigerator for 10 minutes.

Add 3 drops green food coloring and mix with a spoon to combine.

Pour into the pop molds. Insert the sticks. Freeze for at least 8 hours.

Remove from the freezer. Let stand at room temperature for 5 minutes before removing the pops from the molds. (Note: Be gentle! I found that running the molds under warm water also helped to neatly loosen them).

Just a moment ago I was looking up the recipe for Nigella Lawson’s Chocolate Pistachio Fudge online and I came across the actual clip of her making it on YouTube. So I sat through it thoroughly enjoying Nigella in all her glory of shiny black curls and smoldering looks when it dawned on me that I’d never added any butter to my mixture when I made it for the party. Had I been so distracted by Texas Spice’s presence in the kitchen that I’d left out an ingredient? Then I checked the Food Network website and discovered that it didn’t mention butter at all in the recipe. I should have used the BBC website. At least they got it right.

My fudge came out just as sickeningly sweet as you can imagine a gigantic pot of melted chocolate and condensed milk would be, even without the small addition of butter, but it totally annoys me that it was left out. That seems to happen quite frequently actually. What you see on the cooking shows isn’t always duplicated in the recipes they provide to the public. Smarten up copy editors! Anyway, one piece of this decadent fudge will completely wreck you and probably make your dentist shutter in horror, but it will be worth it. After all, Christmas comes but once a year and obviously this gives us free reign to be complete and utter gluttons. Note: The images below are a doubled version of the recipe which I poured into a 9” by 13” pan. I also used half dark, and half milk chocolate.

A Lot of Chopped Chocolate	Serious Nutcracking
Melt	Pour, Smooth, & Chill
Give Them a Toothache

Chocolate Pistachio Fudge (Originally published by Nigella Lawson)

12 ounces 70 percent dark chocolate, chopped or 12 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 (14-ounce) can condensed milk
2 tablespoons butter
Pinch salt
1 cup shelled pistachios

Melt the chopped chocolate, condensed milk, butter, and salt in a heavy based pan on a low heat.
Put the nuts into a freezer bag and bash them with a rolling pin, until broken up into both big and little pieces.
Add the nuts to the melted chocolate and condensed milk and stir well to mix.
Pour this mixture into a 9-inch square foil tray, smoothing the top.

Let the fudge cool and then refrigerate until set. You can then cut into small pieces approximately 3/4 by 1 3/4 inches or cutting 8 by 8 lines in the tin to give 64 pieces.

Once cut you can keep it in the freezer, no need to thaw just eat straight away.