Whip up these easy, classy ice blocks at home and save yourself a trip to the dairy on a stinking hot afternoon.

These ice blocks came into being just at the right time, at the start of the summer, enjoyed in the heat of the afternoon as we gazed admiringly over our ever-expanding vege garden contemplating the fruits of our labour. While our strawberry patch is perhaps not as abundant as we might have hoped it would be, due to last-minute relocations and pesky birds, it is now finally delivering deliciously tasty bright red berries. When I can keep the biggest pests (the kids!) away from them long enough, I’m going to whip up a batch of these to have on hand to savour on sunny summer afternoons in our garden.

STRAWBERRY & BROWN SUGAR FROZEN YOGHURT ICE BLOCKS

Makes 10

• 450g strawberries, hulled, halved
• 2 cups Greek yoghurt
• 6 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste or extract

Preheat the oven to 200ºC. Arrange the strawberries in a single layer in an ovenproof dish and roast for 30 minutes until soft. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.  

Put the yoghurt into a bowl along with the brown sugar and vanilla and mix until well combined.

Using a slotted spoon, scoop the strawberries from the dish, leaving behind any syrup (reserve and use in drinks, over ice cream or on your porridge) and put into a small pyrex jug. Using a stick blender, blend until smooth. Add ½ cup of the yoghurt mixture and mix well. Reserve the rest of the yoghurt mix.

To make the ice blocks, I used a spoon and spooned in a tablespoon of the strawberry mix, followed by a tablespoon of the yoghurt/brown sugar mix, repeating until finished. Don’t worry about getting them uniform, what makes them lovely is the randomness and unevenness of them! Insert sticks and freeze overnight.