I like to make frozen treats for my son. When he was a toddler, I used to pulverize frozen fruit in my vita mix and tell him it was ice cream. He’s not so easy to fool these days. This has been a hot summer, so frozen treats are high on his radar of requests. What’s a mom to do? I’m not interested is purchasing bulk boxes of sugary and food coloring laden product. I pull out my popsicle mold. I actually have about 6 different kinds, but my favorite one is a 10 serving version that uses wooden popsicle sticks, and produces rectangular shaped ice pops (they freeze a bit faster than the round shapes).
What is fun about these molds is that we can experiment with different flavours. We aren’t fussy about how well they freeze, so I don’t often add in extra sugar or corn syrup, both which help create smoother pops. This summer we have been experimenting with frozen drink blends. I tried apple (that one got a 7 out of 10), and some iced tea (8 out of 10). Our latest test was a purple grape/cranberry juice blend (100% juice) which achieved a 10 out of 10. I’m planning on introducing some blended fruit purees to see how those go over – watermelon pops, here we come. This is a great, inexpensive way to keep us all happy and cool!