Berry Ice

Summer so far has been quite brutal. It's just started and temperatures have already shot up to mid 30 C.  In North Europe, such high temperatures are unheard of and we don't have air conditioning or fans at home. So, there has been a mad rush to buy fans. But owning a fan isn't enough. One needs to cool down the system with calming foods and drinks. I decided to make a batch of  Fruit Bars because this is the berry season here in The Netherlands and I always prefer home-made to store bought desserts. For starters, ice cream begins to melt before you can get home and also, you don't know just how much sugar (or additives or preservatives) are added in it. Yes, by now ( if you have been following my website) you must have realized that I am rather stringent when it comes to oil, salt and sugar intake :)
Anyway, let's get started on these bars. Really simple to make these -

Ingredients

1 box of fresh, ripe organic strawberries (about 12 small ones or 6 big ones)
1 box of blueberries (there were 20 blueberries in my box. Use 10 for blending and keep the remaining whole)
1/4 cup of sugar ( you can add more but I like to let my fruits shine through)
1 teaspoon vanilla bourbon powder
5 shelled unsalted pistachios chopped up into bits and pieces
1 teacup drinking water

Method

Blend the above EXCEPT the pistachios and the 8 blueberries I mentioned above.

Add the chopped up pistachios to the blended puree and mix with a spatula. (I like to keep them in bits and pieces because it's nice to bite into whole blueberries and pistachios. If you have small kids, you can always blend everything).

Now gently pour the blended puree into individual ice cream moulds and add the whole blueberries in as well. Some can have more, some can have less.

Put on the covers and put the moulds in the freezer to set.

I generally set mine for 8-10 hours.

While taking the ice bars out, I generally wet the mould base a bit (with regular room temperature water) so that the ice bars slide out smoothly.

Enjoy!