Cookbook Review - Poptails by Erin Nichols - Bellini Pops

A "boozy treat" from POPTAILS.

"Poptails" by Erin Nichols is all about putting frozen cocktails on sticks!

Living in Vancouver means long, hot summers...well ok maybe two weeks of hot weather...over the course of two months... but we Vancouverites relish those hot, dry days and try to make the most of them (well ok we complain about the heat and wonder if it will ever cool off... I think think this is why we are sometimes referred to as Crazy Canucks...). When you add two young kids  on summer vacation into the mix trying to beat the heat and have fun you can be sure our freezer has its fair share of popsicles...as a kid my favorite kind was rootbeer popsicles...I can't find them anywhere anymore but grape, lime, raspberry still seem to make the kids happy! 

Anyways, when Erin Nichols' new book "Poptails" landed in my mail box it just happened to be a really hot, wish-I-had-air-conditioning, kind of day. And flipping through the 60 cocktail-on-a-stick recipes and lush photos helped me cool off and made me crave these adult popsicles.

Erin does a great job in offering a variety of recipes to satisfy any adult craving including:

• strawberry-basil margarita
• cosmopolitan
• mojito
• moscow mule
• festive spiked eggnog
• white russian
• creamsicle
• and dessert on a stick like the "oatmeal cookie" and the "banana split"!

Obviously most alcohol doesn't freeze so Erin tells us the secret - boiling down the alcohol a little bit to keep the flavour and make it freezable!

I recommend this book for any adult having a fun party and looking for "something different" to make their guest "ooh and ahh".

I decided to make the Bellini Pops because I had a bottle of prosecco in the fridge and it didn't require the alcohol to be boiled down saving me some time.

They are delicious but definitely strong! Next time I will try them with pureed fruit to sweeten them up a bit. Btw...Erin has a recipe for "Big Girl Root beer Float" ...bet that will bring back root beer popsicle memories! Buy this book for great summer time treat ideas... even if it isn't summertime for much longer...who says a frozen treat in the fall or winter wouldn't brighten up someone's day!!

Bellini Pops from Poptails

Ingredients 
1-1/4 c flattened prosecco
20 ounces fresh or frozen sliced peaches (or other fruit)

What to do

• flatten prosecco (in your fridge) for 8 hours
• pour prosecco into moulds
• add a peach slice into each mould making sure there is at 1 cm of space at the top so the liquid to expand 
• add sticks or mould tops and freeze for at 24 hours

Note: How many this makes will depend on the size of your moulds - mine made 6.