It is 7am on a Friday morning and I have the urge to make popsicle with the brand new Tovolo Groovy Ice Pop Molds I bought from Amazon for only $10.99. Since then the price went up to $11.95.
Ever since I was little, growing up in the humid and hot summers of Taiwan and Singapore weather, cold snacks like ice cream and popsicle are a must to help keep you cool in those crazy hot days. When Jeremy and I moved to Arizona, I found out about Paletas Betty. It was love at first bite~ I love the fact that they hand make every popsicle from scratch with fresh fruit and cream, and without any canned, frozen fruits, preservatives or coloring. Their classic fresa con crema (strawberry and cream) pop is good any time! I also love the naranja (orange vanilla cream) pop. They even make couple of special popsicles for dogs.
So back to my kitchen at seven in the morning. With a big smile on my face, I started to check in my fridge for potential ingredients.
Since this is the first time I make popsicle and first time using the popsicle mold, I have no idea how they will turn out. So I have the crazy idea of writing things down, which I have never done when I cook for those who know how I cook (winking at Jeremy). I cook by feel, almost never do taste test either and amazingly, things turn out pretty good most of the time.
I was curious how much liquid is required to fill the 6 molds, and there was no information like that on the packaging, so I pulled one mold and filled it with water till there is about 1/4 inch of space from the top of the mold. Pour the water in my measuring cup and repeated it six times. That gave me exactly three cups, so I decided to try and measure my ingredient to make 3 cups of final liquid.
These Tovolo Groovy Ice Pop Molds are pretty big. So I moved things around in my freezer to make room for the tray.
I did some light reading about making popsicles and one thing that I learned is that you need some sort of sugar and fruit particles to avoid making rock hard pops. I do prefer my pops on the softer side, but I don’t want to use just pure sugar. So I will be making my pop with grade A organic pure maple syrup.
I used 1/4 cup of this maple syrup, which has 53g of sugar. I think it should be enough to sweeten 6 popsicles. That is only about 8-9g of sugar each pop. Not too bad right?
Next I wanted to add some creaminess to this pop, so I grabbed my trusted Organic Valley Pasture-Raised Heavy Whipped Cream. I have been using this stuff for cooking and love the fact that it is pasture-raised. I added 1/4 cup of this to the maple syrup in my measuring cup. I wanted to add all my liquid ingredients in the 2-cup measuring cup to help me keep track of the total volume.
The next ingredient is 1/2 cup of orange juice, because I love the smell and taste of citrus. This organic orange juice with calcium and vitamin D has 11g of sugar in 1/2 cup. Barely adding 2g of sugar to each pop. So we have 10-11g of sugar in each pop.
Now it is time to add some fresh squeezed lemon and lime, plus some zest! The juice from one lemon and one lime is about 1/4 cup.
Now, the main attraction~ Organic strawberries! I will use about two cups of these babies to make up the rest of the liquid. I am guessing two cups of strawberry will give me about one cup of liquid.
Liquid ingredient, meet strawberries~ HAHA, making popsicle at seven in the morning can make you giddy~
Time to blend this lovely creation! Actually, I am not sure how this will taste. Not really following any recipe, just stuff I have in the fridge and pantry.
Mmmmm, it was hard not to drink it~ Smells so delicious! Can you see it? Exactly 3 cups!
Sorry for the bad focus. I wanted to show you the bubbles. These should make the pops a little softer too. I took this idea from reading about making ice cream.
In the mold they go. It was a little hard to pour and take photo at the same time.
Like I expected, 6 molds all filled with room on the top to spare and no waste! Now, I just have to wait a few hours to see how they turn out! Stay tuned…
So this is the first time ever I write down ingredient and measurements of something I made. That way I know what to adjust for next time. All ingredients are organic!
Jacq’s Creamy Citrusy Strawberry Pops
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup orange juice
1 lime – juice and zest
1 lemon – juice and zest
2 cups of strawberries
Measure and blend everything together well. Fill the popsicle molds till there is about 1/4 inch of space from the top to compensate for expansion. Everything I read says 3-4 hours to freeze the pops, so it will be perfect after lunch dessert for me!
UPDATE!
Ok, taste test! It has been in the fridge for 4.5 hours. You can see the tiny bit of expansion on the top of the pink.
I had to run the mold under warm water for a few seconds to successfully pull out the popsicle.
Oh, my! It turned out as good as I hoped! Light flaky texture, just enough sweetness to balance the tartness from the citrus and strawberry~ Yummy! This thing was gone in a couple of minutes. Now I have yummy home made popsicle to enjoy over the weekend~
