Gourmet Popsicles are great on a hot summer day

In a recent issue of the New Yorker, Helen Rosner celebrates what most of us consider the travails of cooking during the hot summer months, even if you have air conditioning. This time of year she happily practices the art of the uncooked dinner, opting for cold soups, ceviche, refrigerator salads and occasionally in homage to Tennessee Williams, a glass of gin and a carton of Popsicles.

These days, Ms. Rosner may well have discovered, you can get Popsicles with the gin already in them, thanks to Gordon's, producers of Britain's most popular gin. But as intoxicatingly delicious as those frozen treats are, they, like all Popsicles, owe a debt to an 11-year-old boy.

He was Frank Epperson, a youngster who invented the first Popsicle as we know it over 100 years ago. It happened by accident in Oakland, California, back in 1905. Epperson took some powdered soda mix, a precursor of Kool-Aid, and using a wooden stirring stick mixed it into a glass of water. Before he could finish the drink, he was called inside for supper and absent-mindedly left the glass outside on the porch, where it stayed for the rest of the evening.

Oakland is one of California's cooler spots, located just across the bay from San Francisco, but even so it is not known for frigid temperatures. However, weather records reveal that it did get down to freezing there three times in 1905. One of those nights, as luck would have it, must have been the night Frank Epperson left his glass of homemade soda outside, for the next morning when he went to retrieve it he discovered that it was frozen solid -- with the stick stuck inside.

Viola! He had invented the Popsicle, and as he licked his way through it he realized he had stumbled upon a revolutionary idea. Street vendors in New York had been selling frozen fruit juice since the 1870s, but by making the treat fully portable Epperson was onto something bigger.

Some years later, in 1923, Epperson decided to go commercial with his discovery and obtained a patent. He wanted to call his product the Epsicle, but by then he had kids and as they had been calling them Pop's sicles all along, they persuaded him that Popsicle was a more salable moniker.

How right they were. Today, some 2 billion Popsicles are sold every year and they've gone upscale, especially in Mexico and Spain, as I discovered not long ago in Majorca. There they are called paletas, for "little stick" and come in all sorts of imaginative flavors, such as hibiscus, chili pepper, rompope (like eggnog), mango, and avocado, and may contain tequila or sangria. Not a bad legacy for a forgetful 11-year-old boy.

You can up the ante next week on National Cherry Popsicle Day with any of these homemade treats, clockwise from the top: Tomato-Strawberry-Basil Popsicle, Ginger-Lemonade Popsicle, Coconut-Carrot Popsicle, Cookies and Cheesecake Popsicle, Nutella Popsicle, and Blueberry Buttermilk Popsicle.Submitted by Tom Harte

Gourmet Popsicles

There's nothing wrong with a straightforward cherry Popsicle. In fact, it's the most popular flavor. National Cherry Popsicle Day, by the way, is coming up Aug. 26. But if you're in the mood for something more daring, try some of these versions.

Blueberry Buttermilk Popsicles (adapted from Country Living): Stir together 3/4 cup sour cream, 1/4 cup buttermilk, 3 tablespoons honey, and 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Add 1/2 cup slightly crushed blueberries. Freeze in Popsicle molds.

Nutella Popsicles (adapted from Delish): Combine 1 cup whipped cream, 1/2 cup milk, and 1/4 cup Nutella. Spoon into Popsicle molds, sprinkle with chopped peanuts, and freeze.

Cookies and Cheesecake Popsicles (adapted from the Popsicle Cookbook published by BookSumo Press): Cream together 4 ounces cream cheese and 1/2 cup powdered sugar. Stir in 1 cup heavy cream. Fold in five coarsely chopped Oreos. Freeze in Popsicle molds.

Ginger-Lemonade Popsicles (adapted from the New Yorker): Heat 1 cup sugar, zest of two lemons, 1 cup lemon juice, and 1/4 cup grated ginger until simmering. Strain if desired. Freeze in Popsicle molds.

Coconut-Carrot Popsicles (adapted from Country Living): In a blender puree 1 cup coconut, 1 cup chopped carrots, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, and 1/4 cup water. Strain and freeze in Popsicle molds.

Tomato-Strawberry-Basil Popsicles (adapted from the Popsicle Cookbook by Kathleen Donnelly): In a blender puree 12 cherry tomatoes, 20 strawberries, 12 basil leaves, 4 tablespoons lime juice, and 2 teaspoons maple syrup. Freeze in Popsicle molds.

Correction: If you tried the chicken and dumplings recipe in my last column, I hope you had plenty of wine or beer or just plain water to wash it down. The recipe should have called for 4 dashes of hot sauce, not 4 tablespoons. I apologize for the error.