Coconut Cream Freezer Pops
Coconut milk, maple, and a dark chocolate shell. Made at home, packed in the cooler, eaten at the picnic table.
- calories
- 290
- weight
- 3.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 83
- protein
- 2 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 15 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dessert
- Cooler only
- No cook
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- Eat in the bag
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Full-fat coconut milk | 1 can (13.5 oz) | shake it, the fat separates |
|---|---|---|
| Heavy cream | 1/2 cup | swap in more coconut milk to keep it dairy-free |
| Maple syrup | 1/3 cup | |
| Vanilla extract | 1 tsp | |
| Sea salt | a pinch | |
| Shredded coconut | 1/2 cup | plus a spoonful for the coating |
| Dark chocolate | 4 oz | optional |
| Coconut oil | 1 tbsp | optional, scale it with the chocolate |
Method
- At home, whisk the coconut milk, cream, maple syrup, vanilla, and salt until the syrup is gone. Taste and add salt if it reads flat.
- Stir in the shredded coconut. It floats, so stir again right before you pour.
- Fill the molds, set the sticks, freeze at least four hours or overnight.
- Melt the chocolate with the coconut oil in short bursts and let it cool to just warm.
- Unmold a pop, dip it, and sprinkle coconut on the shell before it hardens. It sets in a few seconds against a frozen pop.
- Wrap each one and hold them in the freezer until you load the cooler.
This is a car-camping dessert, not a trail one. Nothing here survives a pack, so the work happens in your kitchen and the cooler does the rest. The freezer pop is the point: coconut fat plus cream freezes soft instead of into a solid ice brick, and the maple syrup keeps the texture from going grainy since sugar lowers the freezing point.
The salt matters more than it looks. Coconut and maple both read sweet and one-note, and a pinch pulls them apart. The chocolate shell is optional, but the coconut oil in it is not — it thins the chocolate enough to coat and then snaps hard against the frozen pop instead of sliding off.
Packing
Wrap each pop in parchment, then bag them all together. Bury the bag under block ice at the bottom of the cooler, not in the loose cubes on top. They keep about a day in a well-packed cooler and less than half that in a hot car.
Variations
- Skip the cream entirely and use a second can of coconut milk. Slightly icier, still works.
- Stir in instant espresso powder or lime zest before freezing.
- No molds: use small paper cups and stand a stick in each once they firm up.
https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/recipe-coconut-cream-popsicles