Made | Dark chocolate pudding pops with hazelnut

Mike and I often have a conversation about how picking favorites of anything is so childish and pointless. Why pick a favorite movie when there will always be more movies coming out? How can you even know? we ask each other. And each time we have this self-congratulating conversation about absolutely nothing, usually while flipping through Netflix with no end in sight, there's a little voice in the back of my head calling me a liar. Because I do have a favorite food. And it's ice cream.

This past weekend my friend Ron asked me what my favorite ice cream was, and I froze. I can't answer that, I apologized. Every ice cream has a different occasion. Vanilla is perfect for fresh-out-of-the-oven desserts. Chocolate is good when I'm feeling indecisive. I choose banana when I'm feeling healthy.

Then there are the crazy flavors: red velvet cake, bourbon pecan caramel swirl, Late Night Snack from Ben & Jerry's. There are not-quite-ice-creams like salted caramel gelato, blueberry and graham cracker frozen Greek yogurt, and Pinkberry's peanut butter whatever-it-is. There's frozen bananas blended with coconut milk when I want to relate to my Paleo friends and those chocolate ice cream sandwiches from Trader Joe's when I'm on the go.
This is all to say that popsicles, while not technically "ice cream," have their own time and place. And with weather reports threatening upwards of 90 degrees this week (there you are, not-Winter!), this is that time and place.

This is sort of a non-recipe; you layer pudding (store-bought, instant, or made from scratch), whipped cream (store-bought or made from scratch), and hazelnuts (or whatever nut you prefer!) into popsicle molds. The hardest part is waiting for them to set.




What you'll need
Chocolate pudding (I used Hershey's Special Dark because I impulse-bought it a month ago and why not?)
Whipped cream (I made this from scratch by combining ~1/2 cup whipping cream, 1/2 tsp vanilla, 1 tsp sugar in a mason jar and going to town [that means shaking it really fast, not actually traveling to town])
Chopped hazelnuts

1. Make the pudding according to the package instructions (or make fresh pudding and share the recipe in the comments!). Let set in the fridge while you make your whipped cream.
2. If you're using store bought whipped cream, then chop your nuts now. Otherwise, combine whipping cream, vanilla, and sugar in a mason jar and shake it until it resembles whipped cream and before it becomes butter.
3. Chop your hazelnuts.
4. First layer the pudding, then the whipped cream, and top it all off with your chopped nuts. Leave a little room for the filling to expand while freezing.
5. Let freeze for at least 4 hours or until you just can't stand it anymore.
6. Optional: Eat any remaining chocolate pudding with any remaining whipped cream and top with whole hazelnuts while you wait.

Update: I had every intention of taking pictures while Mike and I ate these delicious and genius pudding pops, but they didn't actually want to come out of the molds. Either way, these were delicious eaten off of spoons dipped straight into the molds. Next time I'll just layer these into paper cups and peel them off when we're ready to eat.