These popsicles are adapted from the greenbabyguide.com ’s homemade popsicle recipe. (Greenbabyguide.com is a website with tons of great ideas for families with babies & toddlers!) We had some cherries that were a little bit overripe, but still had good flavor, & I was searching for something to do with them!
We experimented with strawberry/cherry popsicles & also orange juice popsicles…(we ended up trying strawberry~banana~yogurt pops the next day, which were really delicious), & I would also like to try cantaloupe & banana with a little bit of yogurt!
But, orange juice, or any fruit you have on hand, is fine for a cool summer snack! You can just save up the fruit in the freezer until ready to use…
There is gelatin in this healthy summer treat, which adds a little protein, & also makes the popsicles a bit softer & less drippy than plain frozen fruit juice!
Ingredients for fruit popsicles:
3 cups of fruit (the popsicles will freeze faster if start out with frozen fruit!)
1/4 cup sugar
1 package unflavored gelatin
1 cup water
Combine water, sugar, & gelatin in a saucepan & heat over low heat, stirring frequently until all of the gelatin & sugar are dissolved, about 5 minutes.
Then, combine fruit & gelatin mixture in a blender, & puree. Adding some yogurt will give a creamier flavor & texture, more like creamsicles…
Pour the mixture into popsicle trays if you have some handy, or small 2-ounce cups (which can be washed & reused). This yielded 4 standard popsicles & 10 small (2-ounce) cups. If you have popsicle trays, just put the sticks in & place in freezer.
For the small cups, place on a plate or in a pan & allow the popsicles to harden in the freezer for 1 hour before pushing the popsicle sticks in…Push the sticks about 2/3 of the way down into the cup, so they won’t pop out the top when the popsicle begins to melt.
(You can either reuse the washed sticks from store-bought popsicles, or otherwise these sticks are sold in the craft supply area of various stores. The sticks can be washed well, dried, & reused umpteen times! If no sticks are available, these pops can just be eaten with a spoon like icies!)
Freeze until solid–ours took about 8 to 10 hours!
Ingredients for the fruit juice variation:
3 cups of orange juice in a pitcher
2 packets of gelatin
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup water
Heat water, gelatin, & sugar for about 5 minutes in a small saucepan, stirring continuously until gelatin is dissolved. Remove from heat, add to the pitcher of fruit juice, & mix very well.
Pour into cups or popsicle trays as above. This yielded 12 popsicles using just the 2-ounce cups.
To remove the popsicles from the cups, just run the top, outside of the cup under warm water for a few seconds until the pop comes loose.
And the verdict was…
LB preferred the fruit variant…and Seala loved the orange juice pops!
I think these would be creamier & even more delicious with a little yogurt mixed in!
Enjoy!
love,
Clay Ball
