As temperatures across the UK continue to climb this summer, renowned baker and food writer Helen Goh offers a refreshing solution to combat the heat with her vibrant recipes for homemade paletas. These Mexican-inspired iced treats, which blend fresh fruit with unique flavourings, promise a delightful and cooling experience for all ages.
Goh describes her first encounter with paletas in Mexico as a familiar revelation, drawing parallels to the fruit-driven iced treats of her Malaysian childhood. She highlights a shared culinary philosophy where sweetness is often enhanced with elements like salt, chilli, tamarind, or citrus, which serve to brighten and sharpen the fruit's natural flavours, making them seem more vivid and refreshing. A key characteristic of paletas is their texture, often featuring small pieces of fruit suspended within the ice rather than being perfectly smooth.
The recipes provided by Goh offer two distinct flavour profiles from a single fruit base. The pineapple, lime, and ginger paletas are designed to be sharp, clean, and bright, with the zestiness of lime and the warmth of ginger complementing the pineapple. In contrast, the mango paletas are sweeter and rounder, elevated with a spike of chilli, lime, and a pinch of salt, often using Tajín or a similar chilli-lime seasoning for an extra kick just before serving.
Making these paletas at home is straightforward. Both recipes begin with a simple base syrup made from caster sugar and water, cooled completely before use. For the pineapple version, 600g of fresh pineapple chunks are blended with the syrup, lime juice, grated ginger, and a pinch of sea salt until smooth. For the mango paletas, 500g of ripe mango flesh is blended with the cooled syrup, lime juice, and a small pinch of sea salt. Goh notes that the flavour should seem slightly brighter than desired before freezing, as the cold dulls intensity.
To achieve the characteristic texture, 70g of finely diced fruit (either pineapple or mango) is added to each mould, gently nudged down to ensure even suspension throughout the mixture. Paleta moulds are readily available, but small paper cups with wooden sticks can serve as an effective alternative. After tapping the moulds to remove air bubbles and inserting sticks, the paletas require at least six hours of freezing, or ideally overnight, before they are ready to be enjoyed. A brief run under warm water helps with unmoulding.