Popsicle Test Kitchen

photo by Ali Schalop (Samantha's sister), pretty, right?

In our June newsletter we discussed many of our favorite summer treats. While we mentioned some of our favorite store-bought brands, we’re huge fans of making your own popsicles. You can control the ingredients assuring they’re all pronounceable, organic and fresh. You can also get creative testing out flavor combinations.  If you haven’t made popsicles before it’s pretty simple you blend ingredients together and pour them into the molds. Leave ½ inch of space at the top as they’ll expand with freezing. The hard part is waiting the 4 hours it takes for them to set (truth be told one impatient 9 year old and I found out 3 hours is fine for the small molds). Our fantastic summer interns Sam and Brittany conducted a popsicle test kitchen last week.  Here are their results:

Brittany used the Tovolo Jewel Pop Molds available at Whole Foods Market and at Zabars in NYC.  We got the idea from Nourish and Flourish when she talked about these ring-pop like molds (fun). Samantha used the Tovolo Groovy Pop molds. Both are BPA free and easy to clean. We had them rate their creations on a scale of 1 to 4 “pops”.

Brittany:

Both recipes were easy and not very time consuming. However, I found the product a bit difficult to pour into because of the shape. Also, the molds were a bit small. I preferred the pina colada popsicles over the blueberry yogurt popsicles.

Pina Colada Pops 

Fresh  pineapple, a banana, ½ cup unsweetened coconut flakes.

The pina colada popsicles were delicious. The flavor was tropical and the banana gave it a smooth almost ice-cream texture.

 I would rate the pina colada a 3.5 out of 4. 

Blueberry Yogurt Pops

1 cup frozen blueberries, Siggi’s vanilla yogurt, agave nectar.   

 The blueberry yogurt popsicles were a bit tart. I did not love the vanilla flavoring. It needed more sweetening. 

All in all, I would rate the blueberry yogurt popsicle a 1-2.

Samantha:

I had one major hit and a couple of misses.

Avocado Coconut Pops

We had high hopes for these from the tiny morsels blog:

1 ripe avocado, 3/4 cup light coconut milk, 1 tablespoon agave nectar filtered water, as needed

 This sounded good but seemed to have too much coconut milk, 1 give it 1 pop.

Healthy Veggie Pops

This recipe was from nature moms blog:

Baby spinach blended with strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, 1-2 tablespoons of raw agave nectar, and fresh squeezed orange juice.

These were perfect! I give them 4 pops.

I made Sam’s Veggie pops and I cannot tell you the delight I was filled with when my boys asked for “Spinach Pops”. I also added some fresh mint because everything is better with mint. We had some testing at our house too with Blueberry Lemonade Ring Pops and Watermelon, Lime (zest) Groovy Pops. I can see making post-workout pops with a little protein and even happy hour (I vote sangria) pops as well. Sara, at nourish and flourish,  called herself a ring pop addict, I may become a frozen pop fiend before labor day.

What’s your favorite flavor pop? Have you made your own pops? Any flops? What can we do to improve this avocado dessert situation? I’m on a misson.