No-Recipe Chocolate Banana Popsicles (Vegan & Naturally Sweetened)

Some recipes start with hunger. Others, nostalgia.

This one started with a photo of watermelon popsicles on Pinterest, from some stranger who so kindly shared and inspired, and a random question:

Why haven’t I ever made these?

I’ve made frozen banana ice cream before. But never popsicles. And lately I’ve needed something snacky—cool, light, not too sweet, yet rich enough to indulge with. So this just... happened.

Didn’t follow any recipe. Just instinct and whatever was in my kitchen.

I threw in:

PennyLane Brownies

I've been baking since I was little. My first memory of baking was in the kitchen with my mom, messing up her cake tin with brush and margarine all over. My Mom always had confidence in me, giving me real tasks, like greasing the tins or cookie sheets, sifting the flour, separating the eggs. Real serious tasks. I always had great times with her in the kitchen.

My first big project as a kid was when I was in 2nd grade, about 8 year old, my Mom asked me to bake 6 cakes for a family event, without her supervision whatsoever because she was gone the whole day helping the host to cook everything for the event. Bi idznillah, I delivered well, then she bragged about it to all our relatives the next day, haha. I love you, Mama.

Pepaya Kalimantan

I'm sorry, it was gone before I knew it. Couldn't help myself.

In Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, I came across this pepaya, or papaya as you may know, brought by my dear friend Rina Ahdalina. They call it Pepaya Hawaii. But I don't think it was the same as Pepaya Hawaii I once found being sold at Total Buah. This pepaya was smaller, way smaller, and way sweeter.

In between baking cookies for the next day seminar, we enjoyed spooning these babies and gulping its succulent burning orange meat like monkeys :D

I brought back some of them --so did Nadrah --, and yeah, you can see they're gone very fast.

Indonesian fruits are amazing. I always prefer our local grown fruits from the fake-fresh imported ones. Unfortunately not many of them make it to Jakarta. In many cases they are directly sent overseas to importer countries, usually the best variants in the bunch. And the locals were left with limited stock, only enough for them to eat, not enough crops to be sold to other parts of Indonesia --and Indonesia is indeed a big country.