Rich Frozen Reeses Pops

Margaret (00:00:05) - It's episode 259 and we are going to do frozen Reese's Pops to beat the heat. Welcome to Bite Me, the show about edibles where I help you take control of your high life. I'm your host and Certified Ganjier. Marge and I love helping cooks make safe and effective edibles at home. I'm so glad you're here. And thank you for joining me today. Welcome back, friends, to another fantastic episode of Bite Me, the show about edibles. If you're just tuning in for the first time, I am glad you found me. How did you discover the show? Shoot me a message with the fan mail feature that you'll find right inside your podcast app. And if you've been here for a while, I would still love to hear how you discovered the show. And boy am I ever grateful that you are here. I know I say this each and every week, and I don't hope it doesn't come off sounding not genuine because it really is genuine. I've been recording episodes for over five years now, just over five years.

Margaret (00:01:05) - I still love doing it. It's tough sometimes putting out an episode every single week. And yet here I am because if I didn't enjoy it, I still wouldn't be doing it. There are tons of things in my life that I have quit because I didn't enjoy doing it. And that really is the secret, isn't it? I mean, they talk about that when it comes to all kinds of things like exercise. Who's going to keep exercising if they choose an activity they don't enjoy doing? I'm certainly not. Thanks for being here and tuning in. This is going to be a tasty recipe that I'm excited to share. But before we do. I don't really have a whole lot of housekeeping this week. It's been really hot lately, though. It's muggy out today as I record this. Who knows what the weather will be like by the time this episode is released, because I'm finally getting on top of some shit and getting some episodes in the cans. So I'm recording this a couple of weeks ahead of time, but it feels good to be on top of things.

Margaret (00:02:07) - it really does. But the weather may be very different in a couple of weeks, but I hope not because it's July as I record this, and Canadian summers are so short that I really do appreciate the heat. Now, I recognize that I have the privilege, that I live in a place where there is air conditioning, and not everybody has that privilege. But and I'm grateful for the air conditioning. But I do spend a lot of time sitting outside because our Canadian summers are so short and I just want to maximize as much time as possible. And recently I just potted my plants. They were in pots, fabric pots. I've grown my cannabis and fabric pots for the last bunch of years, but I'm in a new place now and I have a lot more space to grow. So I put them in fabric pots because I had to buy clones this year. None of my seeds were taking. I don't really get it. I popped a bunch of seeds and not a single one of them made it.

Margaret (00:02:59) - I'm like, what is going on? And I had a few people give me a few ideas as to what it might be like. Maybe my soil was too hot because there's a lot of nutrients in it, because I'm using a super soil that I made a recipe from my friend known online as Temple Grower. He's really into the soil science, so maybe the soil was too hot. So I tried something different that wouldn't be nutrient filled, and perhaps too much for a small seedling seed to handle. I tried watering a little less. I tried planting it not quite as deep. I tried letting them germinate a little longer so they had little. The little tiny tap roots that were starting would be longer and it didn't seem to matter what I did. Actually, I had two little pots, two that I started most recently because I had some auto seeds. I was like, at this point, if I'm going to do anything, I have to do use autos. And they started to come up a little bit, and then one of the, one of the little pots got knocked over.

Margaret (00:03:49) - But what I can only imagine was one of the many chipmunks or squirrels or rabbits or whatever that like to run around the yard where I'm at. Needless to say, I had to go out and buy clones at a market that I was at a few weeks ago. But again, by the time this is recording, that was. It'll be more than just a few weeks ago, but I just put them in the ground. I put them in the ground with a lot of the super soil. They're in pots with super soil, and I just added that to the hole that I dug, because I'm hoping that they'll have a little more ability to grow freely and larger than if they're constrained in these fabric pots. And I also think that they will retain moisture a lot better as well, because sometimes I could water those fabric pots. I would tend to do it early in the morning before it was getting like 30 degrees, and you could almost see some of the water, like dripping on the outside of these fabric pots.

Margaret (00:04:37) - So a lot of that water probably didn't stay, I guess, for lack of a better way to describe it. But I'm kind of looking forward to see how they do. I just put them in the ground yesterday at the time of this recording once again, but so far they're still looking happy and that's what I want to see. I only have two plants this year, and I'm a little disappointed about that because my original plan had been to grow maybe eight. And technically you're supposed to grow eight. No. but this is a large property, like I said, and I was going to put them in different spots to see which ones did the best so that I would know for next year where to put my force, that I would know which ones thrived. Alas, things have not worked out that way, and that's the way it goes sometimes with growing cannabis. And I do hope to also get enough of a harvest that I can try my hand at making some of my own hash, because I have somebody who a little while ago gave me some bubble hash bags, and so I have some of the equipment.

Margaret (00:05:39) - It would be more of a hand, like a process that I'll be doing by hand, as opposed to I don't think I'd be going out to buy like a pollinator or anything like that at this point in time. But I am really curious about making my own hash, because in some respects I love I do love smoking cannabis. I am definitely a dry herb vaporizer user. I just joints are just always too much for me. And I know the dry vape is a different. Some people say they don't get as high with it, but I get plenty high frankly. And I love the taste. It's the taste that really gets me and I do get high enough, but with joints. As someone who used to smoke cigarettes, I just really don't like the way the smoke clings to you. It clings to your fingers. I love the smell of cannabis when it's burning, but I don't love that after smell of the burnt, combusted cannabis. It just everything about it I don't really like. And I know there's a lot of ritual around rolling up a joint, and I can appreciate that.

Margaret (00:06:37) - And that's something I do miss out on a little bit. But you can create a ritual around sort of, you know, grinding up your cannabis for packing a bowl in your dryer vaporizer so you can still make that as well. Make that a ritual if you'd like. And then for me also, I don't I'm not a heavy smoker, so I don't need a lot. And I find that I end up rolling joints that are too big, so I'm putting them out and then smoking them later is not as nice. And I'd use my dry vaporizer indoors, where I would never smoke a joint indoors because the smoke is heavier and it tends to cling. And it, you know, the smell is more pervasive. Why was I talking about all that? Oh yeah. But also it's been a day. But also I find that the, the idea of making hash in some respects is that it preserves your cannabis. If I get some beautiful cannabis, I'm going to smoke it. But if I get enough of it, I'm not going to smoke it that fast.

Margaret (00:07:33) - And if you have a harvest where you might be getting ounces and ounces, and if you're doing well, maybe a quarter pounds, half pounds, whatever, that's a lot of cannabis. And while you can store it properly, there's always you could possibly run into issues. And hash is one way to preserve that into something beautiful that you can enjoy later without it getting too dry or converting into a different cannabinoid. Or like all these things that can happen if your cannabis from a harvest has not been properly stored, because it's important. And if you're going to all the trouble, you want to make sure that you can preserve it as best as possible as you can enjoy it at a later time. Because half the point of growing your own is that you can stockpile a little bit of your medicine, so you have it for when you need it, and you're not having to go out all the time to buy more or source more, however it is that you're purchasing it. Why don't we do a little bit of stoner trivia today? Because I don't really have anything else planned.

Margaret (00:08:34) - I'm just rambling on about my own little grow that we'll see how it turns out. So far I'm happy. What makes me nervous when I only have two plants though? Stone or trivia. I've done lots of these before. This can be something you just do with yourself. I'm going to pick a card out of the stone or trivia race to 420 Dec that was generously, generously provided by listener Wayne Wayne. If you're listening, I appreciate it. Thank you. It's the gift that keeps on giving. And this question today is a musical question. Let's see if you can answer this question. What British band paid for a full page advertisement that read, the law against marijuana is immoral in principle and in practice, unworkable. That's a great question to be asking. And that question could be asking could be asked in 2024, let alone whenever this might have been originally asked. Was this asked by the Beatles, Coldplay or Rolling Stone? And the question again is I should be having some kind of like, some kind of music playing.

Margaret (00:09:46) - I don't have anything on my thing, but I should. The question is, what British band paid for a full page advertisement that read, the law against marijuana is immoral in practice, principle and in practice, unworkable. Was it the Beatles, Coldplay or the Rolling Stones? Well, if you answered the Beatles.

Margaret (00:10:12) - Then you got the correct answer. Imagine in the 60s.

Margaret (00:10:17) - That you decided to put out a full page advertisement because he felt so strongly about something at a time when we can imagine stigma now, but the stigma for cannabis in the 1960s, I can't even imagine. I mean, I went to high school, I'm going to date myself here, but I went to high school in the 90s and the Dare programs were in full force. They had those drug assemblies that a lot of times a lot of kids showed up to high. I mean, I had done that a few times, smoking hash too, conveniently enough, because that's what all you could get pretty much while I was in high school at that at that point in history.

Margaret (00:10:54) - And, you know, it was that propaganda like, this is what your brains look like, your brain looks like on drugs, and it was a gateway drug. And then if you're smoking weed, next thing you knew, you'd be shooting up heroin and back alley. And of course, none of that was true. But there was a heavy stigma associated with cannabis use even then. So in the 60s, that was a bold move. Kudos to the Beatles for that. Let's get into today's recipe because as I mentioned at the beginning of this episode, it has been hot where I am. And hopefully you've been enjoying some beautiful weather as well. And I found this video admittedly on TikTok. And yes, I'm on TikTok. I don't really post a whole lot. Sometimes I'll post clips of of interviews that I've done with people because they get recorded in some software that allows me to record the audio in the video, and then it generates these clips that I can post, and I post those on TikTok and YouTube shorts, I believe, just to sort of give people a teaser of an episode that has come out.

Margaret (00:12:05) - And I found I have really enjoyed TikTok as a platform. I'm going to say right now I am tired of Facebook. Every time I open it up, all I can think is what a cesspool it tends to be. A post from somebody I know, 5 or 6 posts from, people I don't know from sponsored ads and all the rest of it, and then maybe an ad or something more overt than some of the sponsored posts. You might see some friend requests from people I barely know or don't even know it all. And then maybe another post from somebody I know and And I just find that's not what I'm there for. That's the reason I started a club on a platform other than Facebook, because I just find the Facebook experience not to be a positive experience anymore. But TikTok, on the other hand, I have been really enjoying it and I've learned a lot, and I have a whole folder of recipes that I have saved. As I noticed today, I have 39. And have I done any of these for the show before? Actually, yes, I've done a few because they are so good.

Margaret (00:13:08) - Now this one stood out because it was a Reese's Ice Cream Bar recipe, and essentially the idea was you could create something that was very much like eating Reese's peanut Butter cups. Now, after having made them. And I made them twice. I'll tell you why in a minute. But after having made them, were they exactly like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups or Reese's Pieces? No. Did I find myself going back for a second? Yes. They were still delicious. And it could also be because I have to confess, I didn't use peanut butter. That's right. I used almond butter because I had just bought some almond butter from Costco. I had a big jar of it. I was running low on peanut butter. And you know, when peanut butter, when all the oil out of it, it's kind of gone. And it gets kind of like almost crusty at the bottom of the jar and harder to spread. That was the peanut butter that was kind of left. There was like maybe an eighth of a jar left enough to make some, probably, but I just wasn't feeling it.

Margaret (00:14:12) - And I also realized that the fellow in this video, which I'll try and link to in the show notes, hopefully it will allow me to post the the original video because it is from a creator called Eric and he has a lot of really cool little cooking videos. They're short, they're sweet, and they're, you know, they don't have a lot of ingredients in them, which makes them attractive because sometimes I want to make something that's kind of quick, and I don't want it to take a whole afternoon, like when I made that celebration cake for my birthday and five year bite me anniversary. That was a project, let me tell you. And a lot of the times I just want to get in and out of the kitchen so I know I have something in my fridge or freezer or a pantry for me to nibble on later when I want to get blitzed. Let's get into what you need for this recipe because it is so easy. You need Greek yogurt, peanut butter, sweetener, and chocolate chips.

Margaret (00:15:06) - Now, he says, Greek yogurt. I think the yogurt I used was just like a full fat organic yogurt that I got on sale, and maybe not as thick as a Greek yogurt, but it was worked well enough. A half a cup of peanut butter. So a half cup of yogurt, half cup of peanut butter. Again, I used the almond butter instead because I actually love almond butter. Most of the time I don't even buy it because sometimes I'll just eat. Like I'll find myself eating spoons right out of the jar. And then I'm like, I didn't actually eat any of this almond butter on anything. Most of it was consumed off a spoon. I've actually been pretty good this time because I haven't bought a jar in a long time, but that's typically why I don't end up buying it again, because I sometimes eat so much off the off the spoon. It looks like in his video that he used a or regular peanut butter, like a Kraft or a Skippy peanut butter. And what I happen to have in my pantry was a natural natural almond.

Margaret (00:16:07) - And I have natural peanut butter so that there's no other ingredients, and it tends to be a different consistency than the peanut butters. Like this. Kraft and the Skippy peanut butters. So the results might have been a little bit different. And of course, those Kraft and Skippy peanut butters have a lot of sugar and salt in them already. Now you are adding sweetener, so that's not going to be a problem. But they may have turned out a little bit differently. Maybe more Reese's peanut like Reese's peanut Butter Cup like, but I don't really I'm not going to buy a jar of that stuff just for the purposes of this recipe, because then I'd be stuck with the whole jar. And I don't eat nut butters a ton anyway, and I prefer to have the more natural ones. But if you try it with a Kraft or Skippy type peanut butter and let me know how you enjoy it. Because I'm always curious to hear how people's interpretations work out in the kitchen, because oftentimes we see these creators and they're putting together these beautiful recipes, and then you go and you try them in your own home kitchen and you're like, it was good.

Margaret (00:17:05) - But it did not look or turn out the same way at all. And I feel like I'm like most of you, I'm not a professional chef and I do cook a lot, but that's because I have to cook in order to sustain myself and live. And I like good food, so I do tend to try and buy the best ingredients that I can afford because I like fresh ingredients and I find that ends up, you know, tasting better in the end and fueling my body so I can be as healthy as possible. I'm not a professional chef. The sweetener, he says in his video that he used allulose. I can't even say allulose. I used a monk fruit sweetener at one point, and because I tried this recipe twice, the second time I used honey. And we'll talk about that in a minute as well. And then it calls for the sugar free chocolate chips melted. Because you're going to dip these. Dip your pops in the melted chocolate. I did not use sugar free chocolate chips.

Margaret (00:18:06) - I already had chocolate chips in my cupboard. They were a brand that is a fair trade organic brand, and so I wasn't going to go out and buy specialty chocolate chips for this when I already had a full thing in the cupboard. And those things can get a little pricey. So it was like they've been up there for a while, so I'm just going to use those. And perhaps he's just doing that to keep the sugar content down. Because if you're using a Kraft peanut butter and you have the sweetener and then you had sugar in the chocolate chips, you're getting to have like a high sugar treat and you want to keep the sugar down. Now, the first time I made these, basically what you're doing is you're taking the the peanut butter and the yogurt, and you're putting it in a bowl together with your sweetener and you're mixing it up, and then you are putting those on a tray with the popsicle sticks to freeze in the freezer. And then you take them out and you dip them in the chocolate.

Margaret (00:19:03) - That's what makes it so easy. It's super fast to put together, but the first time I made it, I was just like, is it going to get like thick enough? Because I'm using a natural peanut butter with this yogurt? But I was actually surprised that it did seem thick enough. And I put them in mold because I was like, you know what? It might be easier if I put them in some molds and I couldn't find the molds I had originally been looking for. It's possible that I may have gotten rid of them when I moved a few months ago, but I put them in these relatively, relatively large. I mean, they weren't too large, but they were these livo mole silicone molds that I had gotten a little while back. And I love the silicone mold, and I actually really like the Levo ones as well, because they have imprints on the bottom and they'll have imprints of different things. Some of them are cannabis leaves, but I prefer those molds to the ones magical butter has molds as well, but a lot of them I don't.

Margaret (00:19:51) - I haven't looked recently, but a lot of them would say 21 up on them to indicate that it might be like a, you know, an infused treat. And honestly, I live in a household where nobody's been even close to 21 in a very, very long time. So it kind of really don't like that. And I label everything anyway, so that's not going to be a concern. If one of my kids comes over or somebody comes over, they're not going to go into the fridge and inadvertently grab something because it's going to be clearly labeled that there's weed in it. So I like the fun molds myself. And the level molds are also like kind of psychedelic. They have like rainbow colors on them and stuff. So anyway, that's my little PSA of the day. I put them in the molds and then when I went to melt the chocolate, I'm out of the chocolate in a double broiler. You can do it however you want. There's really no specific way you need to do it.

Margaret (00:20:39) - I put them in the molds and then when I try to get them out of the molds, I don't know if I didn't leave in the freezer for long enough, but a lot of them kind of like did not come out of the molds very nicely. And I was like kind of trying to like squish them back together. So that was my first mistake. The mold thing was my own idea. And again, it was very likely that I could have frozen them for a little bit longer. But also when I was working with these both times, you really need to work quickly because they start the the, the peanut butter and the yogurt concoction starts to kind of soften pretty quickly. And then your popsicle sticks are going to fall out and you're dipping it in hot chocolate as well, because you've just just melted it. So you kind of have to work relatively quickly, but it only makes about six or so. So I might have had a couple of extra because the molds are smaller than what I did on the tray.

Margaret (00:21:26) - But skip the mold unless you have something that's like much bigger, I would just skip the mold. It did not make the process any easier. And so the second time I just poured out blobs on a tray, on a piece of parchment paper and froze it that way, and they seem to freeze faster, and it wasn't quite so troublesome. You still had to work pretty quickly, though, because by the time I was getting to the fifth and sixth, frozen pops, they were they were still starting to soften a little bit. And then with the hot chocolate, the chocolate wasn't spreading as nice because it was off the heat. So you have to work quickly. Now you're probably also wondering, Marge, you haven't said a thing about how you infused these. Well, that's because I'm getting to that. So the first batch that I made that I put in the molds, I put some of an infused MCT oil in with the melted chocolate. So it was the chocolate that was infused. I kept the dose relatively low in case.

Margaret (00:22:27) - I don't know why, I just did because sometimes I want to eat more than one, that's why. And when I added the MCT oil into the melting chocolate, I also added a little bit of sunflower lecithin. And that's going to help it emulsify with the chocolate, because if you leave that out, I have found many times when you use it in that kind of manner, they don't always emulsify well, and you'll find some separation of your oil and the chocolate. So this is just going to help make sure it's well homogenized within the mix. So you've got to add that sunflower lecithin I use a liquid I prefer. I haven't really used a powder. It's probably about the same. But I use a liquid. Just put in about a half teaspoon. And then I added in my MCT oil and then melted it all. And I stirred it really well to make sure it was well mixed. And then the second time I made them because I was just like, these were good, but I kind of fucked them up with the way they came out of the molds.

Margaret (00:23:23) - And then when the way I froze them there, some bunch of them stuck together and they were a bit of a shit show. The second time I made them, I put infused honey in with the almond butter, and I use that in lieu of the sweetener that he recommended. So the first time I use like a monk fruit sweetener to try it out, it also had a bit of a granular texture, even though I mixed it really, really well. So the honey was really nice. And then you can use infused honey as well. And then if you were really adventurous, you could also add some more infusion into your melted chocolate for the purposes of the dipping. So you have got a few options there. The infused honey is really nice. Now again, does it tastes exactly like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup on a stick? No. Were they still good? Yes. And are they pretty healthy? I would say also, yes. I mean, you're still getting some sugar in there, but you're getting, like, the protein from the nut butter and you're getting some of the healthy probiotics from the yogurt.

Margaret (00:24:29) - And if, depending on the chocolate chips that you use, you know, that's adding some. I was using semi-sweet, so they weren't as sweet. If you're stirring in some infused honey. Well, that unpasteurized honey is really good for you too, so it's a treat. It's going to help beat the heat, and it's not necessarily going to skyrocket your blood sugar too much. Hopefully. So. Have I eaten a bunch of them by now? Yes I have, yes, I've eaten too many and they're kind of feeling too, because it's not just like the other thing. When you make something like this, you're going to be eating it and then being like, well, that was good. But I don't necessarily feel satiated when you're eating peanut butter or almond butter and yogurt and stuff and chocolate off a stick, you are going to feel a little more full than you would with the high sugar, highly processed version that you would buy at the grocery store. Now, I had seen what sort of inspired this this week is I had seen another couple stitch the video and kind of with the original content creators, and they tried it themselves and they were like, oh my God, it's so amazing.

Margaret (00:25:30) - And again, I mean, people like, they're good, but you're going to be disappointed if you think they're going to be exactly like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. But they are delicious, so I highly recommend them. And again, I would love to hear how your variations turned out and what tips and tricks you got from it, which you could share over at the Bite Me Cannabis Club if you sign up and it's still free to join for a little bit longer. And I think that's it for this week, my friends. I hope you enjoyed that episode. If you know somebody else who might need a way to beat the heat with some minimal ingredients that are easily infusible, Then consider sending this recipe to them or sending this episode to them. You could also share the recipe because you can always send them the website page that goes along with this, with all the links and the recipe and the audio as well. You can listen right on Bite Me podcast.com. You know what else will help keep you cool? The products and services on the Marge Recommends page.

Margaret (00:26:21) - Check it out. I'm your host, Marj. And until next week, my friends stay high.