Green Cooking

With sunny days on the way it’s easy to get ice pop fever. In the last two posts we looked at the benefits of homemade popsicles and saw some great non-toxic popsicle molds. Now it’s time to look at some cool popsicle recipes.

My favorite ice pop flavors are root beer, tangerine juice, and maybe lemon ice tea – not all together! I’m pretty boring though; there are many more amazing ice pop flavors you can make.

Tips for making the best popsicles: I’ve been making homemade ice pops for myself and son Cedar for years. Over said years we’ve figured out some helpful tips, such as…

• Go organic. In the recipes below I don’t say “organic this” and “organic that” but I do mean organic when possible. If you find a recipe that looks good just switch out conventional ingredients for organic.
• Leave room at the top of your mold. All fluids expand a little when freezing and if you fill the molds to the brim you’ll have a sticky freezer. When working with bubbly fluids (like root beer) leave extra room at the top of the mold or the molds will fizz over during the freezing process. It’s actually best to let fizzy drinks sit a while before freezing.
• Make sure you’ve cleared enough room in the freezer. I’m always making pops then realizing, darn, I didn’t clear a space for them.
• Juice and tea both freeze REALLY rock hard. However, the only way to really get juice or tea to freeze softer is to add more sugar or have less water. For example, if you’re going to make apple juice pops, and you’re using organic concentrate, make the apple juice with a cup less water. Another method is to boil juice down a little and add some light corn syrup (about a tablespoon of corn syrup to about 1 1/2  cups liquid). I’m not a corn syrup fan, so I don’t do this, because I’d rather have a super hard pop than the corn syrup. Plus, they last longer when rock hard. It’s up to you; I usually just add less water or make fruit puree pops, not straight up juice pops. A little pureed melon in a pop will also help cut the rock hard texture down.
• If you freeze ice cream textured treats use the right molds. These would be push pop style, not traditional molds. I offered some push pop mold ideas in the non-toxic popsicle molds post.
• Write down ingredients you use in your ice pop creations. The only thing worse than a terrible flavor idea, is the best flavor idea ever that you can’t remember how to make.
• You can add fun stuff to your ice pops like edible flowers, nuts, candy sprinkles, fruit slices, and more.
• You can freeze almost anything. Really. As you’ll see below, an insane amount of foods can be made into ice pops. Kids even like vegetable popsicles. Don’t be afraid to experiment. If you make a flavor mistake it’s no big deal.

I’ve collected (or experimented with) a ton of ice pop flavors. Some freeze hard, some freeze slushy, some are super sweet and some are delicately flavored. You have to play around with your own ingredients to see what your family likes. However, there are enough ideas here to keep you busy for a while. Now grab the kids and freeze up some fun in your kitchen.

50 Amazing Homemade Popsicle Recipes (and other ideas about good stuff to freeze) Keep on reading this post!

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