Blueberry Maple Swirled Chia Pops.
I think these are the BEST POPSICLES EVER. No joke.
Kind of a life changing concept to add chia seeds to a popsicle base…
These are undoubtedly delicious on their own, but to add a bit of chocolate and roasted nuts satisfies my salty-sweet combo addiction.
Unfortunately for us, I used the last of our hand picked blueberries for these pops. I think the last time we picked was in late September, so I did pace myself pretty well but still AAAHHH no more blueberries until July?!! I’m ready for you spring!!
I never tried chia pudding as a popsicle but considering how often we eat chia pudding in our household, I knew that they would be loved by all. And they were. Devoured would be an appropriate verb.
Inspiration was taken from Secret Squirrel Food !
Quick tangent about non-vegan blogs: I’ve read some really nasty things lately about vegans sharing and supporting non-vegan blogs/recipes/ etc…Let’s be clear here; the entire world is never going to go vegan. There are always going to be people that eat dairy, meat, fish, etc…it’s just not practical to limit yourself to one specific group of people for inspiration! Why seclude yourself from the ideas and brainpower of others that don’t eat exactly the same way you do? It doesn’t make you any better of a person and it certainly doesn’t help to spread the ideas and values of veganism. Veganism is about being compassionate and caring for our earth and it’s beings. Even if I inspire people to eat 1 or 2 vegan meals each week, instead of none, I feel like I’ve done my part. 🙂 Spread love, not hate and most importantly, keep an open mind.
So I did make a few aberrations from Karen’s recipe, mainly I made a jammy syrup to mix into the chia pudding before freezing and I used full fat coconut milk instead of low fat (oops). These are not an every day treat if you make them with full fat coconut milk, please be forewarned!
makes 3-4 popsicles, depending on how much of the chia pudding gets eaten beforehand….
ingredients:
- 1 cup full fat (or low fat) coconut milk
- 2 T chia seeds
- 1/4 t vanilla bean paste or extract or a bit of scraped vanilla bean seeds straight from a pod
- 1/2 c frozen or fresh blueberries (raspberries would substitute as well)
- 2-3 T maple syrup
- 1/2 c semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
- 1 t coconut oil
- extras for sprinkling – finely chopped nuts or dried fruits
Whisk together the chia seeds, milk and vanilla.
Set your chia pudding aside and give it a stir every once in a while. Once it thickens up a bit, it’s ready to pour into your mold. Shouldn’t take more than 2 hours to set up. Keep it in the fridge while you’re waiting.
If you use full fat coconut milk it will be very thick! You can add a tablespoon of water at a time if necessary to thin it out.
While the chia pudding is setting, put the blueberries and maple syrup into a small sauce pan over very low heat. Stir occasionally until the blueberries have softened and you have a thick jammy mixture, about 10-15 minutes.
When you’re ready to fill your popsicle molds, start with a few tablespoons of jam and then fill the rest with chia pudding. If your pudding is too thick to pour into the molds, spoon it in and just remember to tap the molds against your counter top to get the air bubbles to rise up and out. Use a small fork or a chopstick to swirl the pudding with the jam. Push a popsicle stick into each mold about halfway through. Freeze for at least 6 hours.
To decorate these with chocolate, carefully melt the 1/2 cup of chocolate chips over a double boiler or in a saucepan over the lowest heat possible. You don’t need to melt the chips completely, just heat until they are halfway melted and then remove from heat and stir until they are all smooth and melted. Add in the coconut oil to help stabilize the chocolate and keep it from hardening too fast.
Remove the popsicles from their molds and lay them on a piece of wax paper, parchment paper or a plate.
Drizzle the chocolate over the popsicles and after a few minutes they should be hard enough to wrap up and stick back into the freezer. (they won’t fit back into the molds so don’t even try 😉 )
You can sprinkle some goodies over the chocolate before it hardens if you wish. I did chopped salted & roasted pistachios and freeze dried cherries (smashed) on this version that I omitted the blueberries for. If you’d like to omit the blueberry jam step, just add in the maple syrup to your chia pudding base.
Enjoy!
Eat More Plants. 
6 Responses to “Blueberry Maple Swirled Chia Pops.”
These look absolutely amazing.
Thank you! 🙂
Great recipe! Those pictures are stunning!!!
They were so beautiful, I almost didn’t want to eat them…almost…ha!
Hi! These are gorgeous… Can you tell me where you got your Popsicle molds?? I’m having the hardest time finding these! Thanks.
Thank you!! The brand is called norpro and I ordered them from Amazon.com 🙂