Adult Summer Treats - Hendricksicles

Just a really quick post today. I wanted to get this out there in time for you to do this on the weekend. It’s forecast to be 38C on Saturday and Sunday, so if you chuck these in the freezer by Friday night, you’ll have a wonderful, refreshing, adult treat for any entertaining you do on the weekend. This time of year, Lance and I like taking our television outside and watching dodgy 80’s movies in the spa to help keep cool. I will no doubt take one of these in with me! I am in love with gins at the moment, they are so refreshing, and Hendricks is one of my favourites. It’s known for it’s distinctive cucumber flavour. And seeing as these icy poles are made with cucumber too, it’s like it’s healthy! You can also freeze these in ice cube trays and add a few to a glass of dry white wine for an easy sangria!

The flavour of these is fairly subtle - if you are feeling like a little more sugar and oomph in your frozen cocktail treat, you can always make these Dirty Pirate ones!

Hendricksicles
1/3 cup Hendricks Gin
1/4 cup St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur
1/4 cup simple syrup
2 small lebanese cucumbers, peeled and de-seeded
1 cup water
1/4 cup mint and basil leaves

Blend the cucumbers, water and mint and basil leaves well until liquid. Add the Gin, St. Germain and simple syrup.

Put into icy pole molds or ice cube trays

Freeze until solid. Enjoy!

Welcoming the Warmer Weather - Dirty Pirate Icy Poles

Growing up, one of the best things in summer is icy poles. Essentially, just frozen coloured sugar water, they were such an awesome treat. You would fight with your siblings to get the best colour/flavor even though they were essentially the same. In my house, usually the red went first and the green were left until last. Then you become a teenager, you move on to frozen coke and slushees. Essentially still frozen sugar water but so much cooler in a cup than eating it from a plastic tube.  Then you become an adult and you are supposed to be more grown up. But it’s still 40C + in summer and you still want to run around under the sprinklers (on your two allocated sprinkler nights), and you still want an icy treat.

The Dirty Pirate is so named for it’s two alcohols – Captain Morgan Dark Rum (Pirate) and Kahlua (the coffee makes it “Dirty” like a 'dirty chai'). Mixed with coke and frozen, it’s quite the fun little naughty treat. Incredibly easy, all you need is the icy pole molds. My ones I got from K-mart for $2 for the 4-tray. These measurements will make 12 of this size. I particularly like the cup/straw shape in the bottom of the handle, so you can drink up the drips as it melts. Being alcoholic, they can melt quite quickly.

It’s been a long wait for Spring to kick in over here in Perth (35C today!), so at the first sign of a warmer weekend, I made some of these to celebrate. I have a feeling they’ll make an appearance at a few BBQs over summer. You will have to remember though, that if you make these for a BBQ where kids are in attendance, that you better make a tray of non-alcoholic ones too! They will not be happy seeing adults eating icy poles when they can’t have one. Mark the trays, so they don’t end with yours!

This works best with flatter Coke, so if you open a new bottle/can to make it - stir it a bit to release some of the bubbles.

Dirty Pirate Icy Poles

2 3/4 cups flat Coke

1/3 cup Captain Morgan dark rum
1/3  cup Kahlua

Stir all together in a jug or bowl with a spout. Pour into icy pole molds and freeze!