Home Made Popsicle Recipes - Easy, Cheap, Fast and Delicious!
Hey everyone,
I wanted to make a hub here for everyone that loves popsicles. They are cool, sweet, refreshing and satisfying. We all know that. What's the big deal, right?
Well. the big deal is you can make them in your own home for less than you'd pay at the grocery store, and you'll know exactly what's in them! With making popsicles at home you have:
a) A great activity to do with the kids
b) The ability to save $$$
c) The means to cut the sugar waaay down on these icy treats, while making them even more delicious and better looking than store bought pops!
Let's look a little further into why making popsicles at home is a novel idea.
Chilling with Gretchen
The actual $$$ you'll save
You'll enjoy your homemade sweet treats even more when you see this!
Cost of a 64 oz. half gallon of Newmans Own (All natural and delicious) Gorilla Grape Ade = $1.99
The average sized popsicle is about 2 oz's.
Average number of pops per $1.99 half gallon =24
If you use my method of 3/4 juice and 1/4 water (recommended),
This will yield about 30 pops that taste delicious! you won't even notice the difference in flavor.
By doing this, you consume less sugar, less calories, and save more money!
So, where are we at? About 24-30 all natural popsicles for $1.99? Lets see... that comes out to be less than 8 cents per pop! That is an amazing value! Let's see how you would fare at the supermarket, shall we?
A typical package of 12 pops at 1.65 ounces each will run you about $2.79. So that's a little over 23 cents per pop AND it's a little smaller at 1.65 ounces, than the ones I calculated at 2 oz's!
Homemade pops = .8 cents/pop .96 cents per 12
Store bought pops = .23 cents +/pop $2.79 per 12
Why not make them at home?
Popsicles aren't just for kids!
Another advantage you have of making popsicles at home, is the wide variety of flavors you can use to make them.
How does a Cantaloupe and Lime popsicle sound? How about Cinnamon-Strawberry?
Herbal pops can actually be made with medicinal qualities, which is the perfect way to get your kids to ingest the benefits of herbs!. (Little ones aren't usually crazy for hot tea.)
You can use lavender, jasmine, basil, thyme – really any herb. You’d
be surprised at some of the flavorful ice pops herbs can make. If you are hesitant at first, try making herbal ice cubes (less waste). And samples can help you figure out what your favorite flavor combinations are!
The method to making a delicious herbal pop is to simply steep an herbal tea. Let it come down to room temp before putting it into popsicle or ice cube molds, and that's it! It's so easy.
For adding sweetener to your creations, pound herbs down with a mortar and pestle, blender or food processor. Add an ounce of natural sugar (or sweetener of choice), and combine to make a dry paste. Next, boil a pint of water to 1 ounce of preferred sugar for five minutes. Add 3-4 ounces of fresh fruit juice (if it applies to your recipe). You could even just add more water or some saved tea. Combine the herb mixture and the liquid mixture and stir it well with a whisk. Cool down before filling your molds.
Plain Water – plain water is way fun to freeze. Every kid I know likes plain ice pops, and we need lots of water to stay healthy. Also, if you’re having a summer picnic, barbecue. or party in general you can make plain water pops with beautiful tiny edible flowers, flower petals, small whole berries, or whole herb leaves in them. Stick them in a bucket of cubed ice to serve and everyone will think you’re some sort of genius. People will envy you for your frozen water!
The lowdown on my pops
Since I was a kid, I have always enjoyed watering down my juice. I just find juice out of the bottle a little too sweet for my liking. I have no problem making what I call a "50-50." It's simply half juice, half water. It still tastes great, and stretches your dollar even further! It's also a great way to get your kids to become less dependent on the really sweet stuff. Start them on low sugar stuff young!
However, a 50-50 doesn't work quite as well with popsicles due to the fact that the juice gets sucked out of the pop quickly, leaving you with a bland, icy pop. No good, right? I recommend diluting the juice only 25% when making pops at home. You'll thank me for that little bit of advice :)
Making them a reality! (It's easy)
Here's how to do it:
1)Take your favorite juice (I recommend Cran-Grape/Raspberry or apple)
2)This next step is entirely up to you/your kids tastes. You can water the juice down either 50% (not recommended) or 25% (which is what I like)
3) Simply fill your pop tray either halfway or 3/4 full of juice, then add water to the remainder of the pop molds. Stir rapidly, and insert sticks!
4) An additional step i like to take with making popsicles sometimes, is adding fruit (fresh or frozen) to the pops. This is a fancy and healthy way of not only making them more delicious, but making them look awesome, too!
Try all different things, experiment! It's a lot of fun to mess around with different recipes!
Fell free to add your own to this page!