I can enjoy ice cream year-round, no matter the weather. Judging by the number of ice cream shops and frozen yogurt places in my suburban area, I am in good company. Where I grew up, in a small town, the ice cream places were seasonal. It was a special treat to play tennis with my dad outside on the high school courts and then drive to an ice cream shop on the outskirts of town–the one that made the best sundaes. Other times of year, it was rare to find our home freezer devoid of Breyer’s natural vanilla ice cream.

Some frozen treats are more refreshing than others. When the heat and humidity of summer finally arrived this year, right as the calendar was switching to September, I had a very particular craving. I wanted something on a stick. There’s something about the iciness of popsicles, and the fact that one can literally wrap one’s mouth around them, that makes me feel cooler, amidst the stickiness. Many of the bloggers I follow started making popsicles regularly in the past year. They offer recipes with interesting ingredients like butterscotch, pink lemonade, and strawberry with coconut. But those didn’t quite fit the bill. I wanted a fudgesicle.

Hence my decision to make them at home. I did use Smitten Kitchen’s 2011 recipe as a guide. I particularly appreciate her inclusion of ounces and grams, because I have that digital kitchen scale that helps make measurement easy and requires fewer utensils. Once I had all of my other ingredients set out and was reaching for the vanilla extract, I thought, why not add this peppermint extract for extra oomph?

Another note: I have yet to add real popsicle molds to my kitchen collection. No worries: a mishmash of free shot glasses, like mine, work just fine. If you have those little disposable paper cups some people keep in bathrooms, they would work great.

Peppermint Fudgesicles
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen’s Fudge Popsicles recipe

2 Tablespoons / 21 grams / 3/4 ounce semisweet chocolate, chopped or as chips or chunks
1/3 Cup / 67 grams / 2 1/3 ounce granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon / 7 grams / 1/4 ounce cornstarch
1 1/2 Tablespoons / 8 grams / 1/4 ounce unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Cup fat free milk
1/4 Cup heavy cream
Pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/2 Tablespoon / 7 grams / 1/4 ounce unsalted butter

Set a medium saucepan over very low heat. Add the chocolate and gently melt, stirring until smooth.

Incorporate sugar, cornstarch, cocoa powder, milk and salt. Turn up the heat slightly and cook mixture until it thickens, stirring often. This will take no shorter than 5 minutes and could take 10. Remove saucepan from heat. Add butter and stir until melted. Add peppermint extract.

Be careful not to over-pour…when the peppermint extract came out of the bottle and into my spoon a little too fast to capture, I feared I had ruined the whole batch (spoiler alert: I didn’t.)

Mix well. Allow to cool slightly, and then pour into shot glasses.

It’s easier to transport the fudgesicles to and from the freezer if you corral them in a single container, like this Pyrex.

Now the popsicles need to be frozen slightly before the adding the sticks. If you try to stick them too early, the fudge mixture won’t support the stick enough to stay centered. On the other hand, you can’t let the popsicles freeze too much or you won’t be able to get the stick in, nor will the mixture adhere to the stick, for holding, once frozen. Deb from Smitten Kitchen said it would take 30 minutes for the mixture to freeze enough to add the sticks, but this will really depend on how much you let your mixture cool, or how cold your freezer is. After 30 minutes, my sticks were still flopping over. At this point, I had to go to bed, so I couldn’t wait. I made it work: with scotch tape, I supported the sticks so they would stay centered. Why not?

The next night, the fudgesicles were fully frozen and ready to be enjoyed.

Remove them from the freezer, and dip the glass in a mug of warm water until the popsicle melts enough on the sides to pull out.

Mini fudgesicle!