Smoothie Pops!

Making your own popsicles is easy-peasy. It's also a fun way to fool yourself you're eating dessert when it's really just healthy stuff like yogurt, fruit and the like. Gotcha, taste buds!

Try making these Smoothie Pops from your favorite smoothie recipe (mine follows.)

Step 1 Gather Supplies

Popsicle molds--we have these ones from Tovolo
Fruit, yogurt, and/or juice of your choosing
Flax oil, spirulina, or healthy smoothie-type additives of your choosing
Food processor or blender
Paring Knife

Comments

[Batness]

I never even *thought* to try this with smoothies before! I went out immediately and bought popsicle molds (I also went to Ross and ALSO found the SAME Tovolo mold!). Blended up some low-fat vanilla yogurt and a blend of berries. It's a little "icier" than I'd like it, so next time I'll use more yogurt, but the flavor was AMAZING. I just ran some warm water over the frozen pop in the mold to loosen it and they popped out just fine. Can't wait to try this with other stuff blended in!

[izzyinsf]

hey wow, our pops match! :)

[janetcunningham4]

Upon reading this forum, I got really quite interested as I learned a lot from all the other postings in here. Summer is so with us now and this is one of the ways of somehow enjoying the Summer. With the different varieties of smoothies that I could indulge in I would say that I could live with smoothies everyday specially that there is no cream involved in here. I was pondering on the possibility of having mixed smoothies and so I consulted by program about that and to my surprise, it was listed there. Now, that is what I call a wonderful surprise. Now I will go ahead and have different matching fruits for my smoothies and store them in the ref and enjoy them this weekend.

[Buskieboy]

Thanks for the tips! What I was doing recently was pre-chilling my molds to start the freezing process faster and not give the Kool-Aid flavor/water a longer chance to separate. It did improve it somewhat, but I was still left with basically a hard water ice cube shell with the flavor trapped inside. I will definitely try your suggestions, and I like the idea of making a slush, to suspend the water and flavor equally. This would also be helped by the pre-chilling of the molds too! I will experiment and if successful make an instructable for sure!

**
BTW, this pre-chill ideaI got from watching a show called "How It's Made" Fascinating process.  Simple but elegant! 
Here are the ULTIMATE Instructables on popsicle making! :D

HOW IT'S MADE FROZEN TREAT YOUTUBE EPISODE
(starts at 5:45)

Continues here:
HOW IT'S MADE FROZEN TREAT YOUTUBE EPISODE PART 2

[Buskieboy]

Yum!  I'm hungry!  They look deeeelish!

I've been trying to make regular popsicles using Kool-aid, but
I find it tends to separate, i.e. water and flavor, and I get basically
an icecube wrapped around the flavor core.
Does anything like that happen with these recipes?
If not, I think I'll go with the yogurt etc. and forget about the Kool-aid.

cheers,
Buskieboy

[egbertfitzwilly]

Take a look at my soft and easy lemon sorbet, a similiar process can be used by you.

Use some clear Karo syrup to lower the freezing point, this will keep them from turning into flavored ice cubes.

Mix up a batch of Kool Aid sorbet in a large bowl and place in the freezer. Periodically stir the mixture with a spoon. Start with water as cold as you can get the mix and sugar to dissolve in. Consider making a simple syrup with the Kool Aid, allowing that to cool and chilling thoroughly ( ice cubes can be added since its all going there anyway ) then adding this liquid to a larger quantity of pre-chilled water.

Once it begins to freeze into slush pour into popsicle molds and allow to fully solidify. The thicker the slush the creamier the final popsicle will be.

Experiment with the Karo syrup and sugar in the Kool Aid ( use real Kool Aid, not the pre-sweetened kind ). If you try this please consider making an instructable.

[izzyinsf]

Yes! Oddly enough strawberries and other watery fruits can turn into little ice cubes if they're chunky. "Creamier" fruits like bananas, along with adding lots of yogurt and blending everything up really well, seems to make a better smoothie pop.

[egbertfitzwilly]

If you follow a similar procedure to the one outlined the bits of berrysicle can be reduced.

Use the blender to puree most of the strawberries. Use this in the base smoothy mix. As above pour the blend into a large bowl and place in freezer. Stir periodically as it begins to form a slush.

Once the frozen mixture begins to solidify dice up the remaining berries, either by hand or in a blender to get "nibbles" of berry. Mix these thoroughly into the slush and pour into the popsicle molds.

In most cases the slushie mix will insulate the berry bits enough to keep them soft and edible.

[NicOmbra]

You could also add a "cream layer" by pouring smoothie in about third of the way, freeze, then add pure yogurt, freeze, and add smoothie again. More work, but mnnnn.....

[startree]

hey thats a great idea! i've been doing smoothies with protein powders for a while now since i had a root canal get infected making it hard to chew, but now that that's over it'd be great to have a smoothie like this when the weather warms up a bit...

[cowboy1638]

I love frozen pops...however...where do you find the pop molds?

[izzyinsf]

http://www.amazon.com/Tovolo-Green-Shooting-Star-Molds/dp/B000G34F2U we got them at Ross. most kitchen stores and even some supermarkets have them.

[macrumpton]

I make these in ice trays with popsicle sticks for handles. They are smaller, but that just means you can eat more of them. After they are frozen I harvest them into a ziplock bag. BTW my other favorite frozen treat is frozen green grapes. Just wash them thoroughly shake dry and freeze them in a ziplock bag. They are best texture after they have been in the freezer about 1.5 hours, but they are still good (if a little crunchy icy) after weeks frozen.

[mooseo]

Any tricks for getting the pops out of the molds? Mine always seem to stick and I have to stick them in warm water but then they get sticky.

[izzyinsf]

i run really hot water over them back and forth quickly until they just start to come undone. usually this gets them out of the molds without beginning to melt the pop.

[anniebananie]

Also, love your pictures!

[anniebananie]

One funny thing: I had recently just made some Popsicle out of my smoothie, too! :) It was yummy, And the interesting thing is, mine is also a purple/pinkish color like yours. I made mine with Barley Powder for fiber, Soy Milk, Frozen Banana, Frozen Blueberries, and some fresh peach from my peach tree. Hehe, it was amazingly. I'm glad you are sharing this awesome idea to people. Agree that this is one of the easiest,awesome-st summer treat, ever!

[pedleyfigg]

We've also been making them for years. We make ours dairy free from any fruit that purees (raspberry and strawberry are my favourite combo at the mo). But any soft fruit works, or cook hard fruit in a little juice and puree also works ( apple and cinamon flavour!). Great way of getting fruit into anyone. Especially good when someone is ill, as they soothe throats as well.

[fozzy13]

Hey you totally stole my idea!! I've been making these for years : ).. They're good aren't they? And healthy and unprocessed.. Anyway, I like your pictures, thanks for sharing our idea with the world : )..

[scoochmaroo]

This just made me say (out loud, at work) I'm 'onna eat that!

[seamster]

We make these at my house too. They're a perfect summertime treat!

[mrmath]

My Strawberry Banana smooties: 1 cup Vanilla Yogurt / 1 Frozen Banana / 6-8 Frozen Strawberries / About 1 cup ice / About 1 cup milk // Using frozen fruit reduces the amount of ice you need to add, and increases the flavor.  Add all ingredients to blender, starting with the yogurt, cover and blend. Once everything is mixed, you can add a little milk at a time to make the smoothie less icy and more smoothie.  It's not an exact science.  If you like other fruits, add them in, or replace these fruits with yours. I sometimes add blueberry and/or raspberries.  If you like mango, I hear that's go in a smoothie.  Just remember, freeze the fruit first, and before you freeze the bananas, peel them. You can't peel a frozen banana real well.