The end of summer has never crept up so fast, and the end of the season wouldn’t necessarily be on my mind if it weren’t for the fact that in anticipation of our first small dinner party in our new home, I thought to make an apricot galette only to realize that due to our unusually packed travel schedule coupled with our cross-country move, I’ve missed the better part of the summer produce season.  And while we’re off the road for a little while, a coast-to-coast move isn’t exactly over once the moving truck departs.  These things being said, a sense of urgency to get some quick summer recipes in under the wire has hit hard!

Couple the sentiments above with my slow but steady muesli project, in which I am trying to recreate some of the muesli’s we had during the TransAlp bike race a few weeks ago.  During one attempt this week, I tried using muddled blackberries over the muesli.  Because I find that thawed out frozen fruit can make a perfect muddled consistency, I applied this approach to some perfectly ripe blackberries.

As you can see, these half-thawed berries did not muddle at all as they returned to room temp.  When I went ahead and smashed them down, the pile turned into a too-thick blob that looked unappetizing at best.  Lesson learned: the denser core of black berries makes them a great candidate for eating whole or blending entirely, but not muddling!

Enter these Summer Berry Pops – they obviously make excellent use of mushed up berries, let us squeeze in some still-in-season summer produce, and are really quick to make!  We’ve been on an ice pop kick since arriving and after going through a few store-bought boxes I thought, I can do better for less money and on way fewer ingredients.  Taking inspiration from the countless images of pops with swirls and swoops – layers of frozen fruit and creamy bases – I tried to replicate a few versions.  The unfortunate truth behind the lens is that while those pops look very pretty, they have too many bites of essentially solid ice (due to the high water content of the fruit), which leads to an overall uneven texture that is not very pleasing.  After a few batches, the consensus was to blend.

With the proliferation of blackberries in the house, I took an ice cream recipe Paul made several summers ago – blackberry/lime/coconut – as a springboard, and added blue and strawberries to round out the berry flavor with sweeter notes.  The lime juice adds a refreshing kick.

These might work for any case of back to school blues, although I love back to school myself!