I am a popsicle enthusiast. A good creamy popsicle is my quintessential comfort food. I'm not really much of a chip lover; I prefer sweet over salty and ice cream and popsicles are my ultimate weakness.

I've talked a little bit about comfort food and my affinity for it. I tend to keep myself good and energized with nourishing foods throughout most of the day. I'm not one to struggle with fast food or take out. I'm absolutely happy with a big healthy breakfast, and a veggie-filled lunch & dinner and I don't really eat a lot of sugar throughout the day - I don't want it. Night time, however, is a different story. 

I stayed home for several years with my babes and when we were in the 'toddler and a baby' stage of our family, I needed all the comfort and serotonin - boosting foods I could get. After a very long day of fussing, playing, crying, diaper changing, food rejecting, story telling, bath splashing, more crying, more food rejecting and breastfeeding the whole, entire way through it, I NEEDED SOME SUGAR! It came the form of these delicious, creamy and super sweet popsicles that I discovered at the grocery store. 

They look like this. You might recognize them. They call themselves "Kefir Smoothie Pops" or something along those lines. They are touted as being low in calories & fat and a source of probiotics.  I bought them knowing full well that they are nothing but sugar and unsavoury dairy products, but I didn't care.  Life was overwhelming me.

I must admit, they are delicious. They have that tart kefir flavour with a hint of vanilla and fresh, sweet strawberry . I hadn't eaten these guys in ages, and then recently, I had a relapse at the grocery store and bought myself a box. After eating one (or two, or three), my body didn't feel so well. Just look at what's in them!  So I decided to make my own - because the concept is a good one.

The first and most significant ingredient is a good quality kefir. This one's a great one.

It contains about 5 billion friendly bacteria per tbsp and, as you can see here, 46 billion per 125ml. Awesome! 

The thing is, you can't just freeze this kefir and have it turn into a creamy kefir pop.

Because it's not very creamy. It's not like yogurt, which is often the expectation. So adding kefir to the popsicles will do a couple of things instead:

1.  Lend that beautiful tart zing that I love so much (which comes through quite beautifully in those unsavoury pops)
2. Offer up a significant amount of probiotics, which I am hugely sceptical of in those mentioned above (when the food you're eating is absolutely loaded with sugar and chemicals, any probiotics that may be listed on the label are either dead or will be crowded out by all the pathogenic bacteria and yeast that are already present in your gut; feeding on all that sugar, growing bigger and stronger with each bite; contributing to inflammation, brain fog, moodiness, weight gain, etc)

So this is a good start.

We'll combine the kefir with some ultra creamy fats to finish the job. Because we don't give a hoot about "low fat". 

We're adding Coconut cream, melted coconut oil and raw cashew butter. Have you made yours yet? It is absolutely perfect in recipes like this. It's going to contribute to the wonderful creaminess and the almost 'chewiness' of these popsicles. It will give these pops that ultra satisfying "bite factor". Sometimes you want a popsicle so creamy that you can easily just bite it. No breaking your teeth. It will not, however, contribute any flavour, which is perfect. Just richness. 

If you haven't got any raw cashew butter, you can use a roasted version or almond butter. 

For the raspberry swirl, we'll simply heat our frozen raspberries with some coconut oil, a bit of honey and a splash of lemon. Once heated through, we puree it together and allow it to cool ever so slightly. 

The kefir part of the popsicle will be very thick and creamy, so the two layers will easily be kept separate within the mold. I poured my kefir mixture in first and almost swirled my raspberries in with a fork. If you want to create clean layers instead, go for it.

These popsicles are creamy, tart and sweet. They're high in good fats, fibre and good bacteria thanks to that awesome Liberte Kefir. You can play around with the sugar content, decreasing it or increasing it to suit your taste. Change up the fruit if you want, or totally omit it. You can throw some cacao into the kefir cream and, just like that, you've got creamy chocolate kefir pops!

Raspberry-Kefir Pops

Approx 7 billion live friendly bacteria per bar

Makes 12 bars - depending on the size of your mold

Kefir Cream

• About 1/2 of the 454ml container of kefir
• Cream from three 90ml cans of coconut milk (because I stock my pantry full of those babies - you can use the cream from one 400ml can and it should work out to be very similar)
• 2 tbsp of raw cashew butter
• 2 tbsp of melted coconut oil
• 1/8 - 1/4 cup pure maple syrup (your desired sweetness)
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp sea salt

Raspberry Swirl

• 2 cups of fresh or frozen raspberries
• 3 tbsp coconut oil
• 2 tbsp raw honey
• juice from 1/2 a lemon
• pinch of sea salt

1. For the kefir cream, add all ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth. 
2. For the raspberry swirl, heat all ingredients over med-low heat until the coconut oil and honey are melted, puree with a hand blender or in a blender. Set aside to cool for about 5 minutes (just do it's not burning hot)
3. Start by pouring the kefir cream into your molds about 1/2 way up
4. Top the molds off with the slightly cooled raspberry swirl, swirling it in with a knife or fork (omit the swirrling step if you'd prefer clean layers)
5. Freeze for several hours, over night is best

Enjoy!