Dessert on a Shoestring: Homemade Popsicles
By David & Martha Cox 04/28/2010I’m going to apologize up front for not having any pictures in this one. This post is more about a concept I would like to explore through future posts than it is a specific recipe. Just the same, however, I think the information below should be enough to get you pointed in the right direction toward making your own popsicles.
As kids, nearly all of us enjoyed popsicles at one point in time or another. Hot summer days in the park or by a pool just got better when Mom pulled out a brightly colored popsicle (and of course being kids, we ate them too slowly or too inconsiderately, and wound up with runny streams of popsicle syrup all over our hands). Today I want to talk about recapturing some of those memories by making popsicles at home on a shoestring budget.
Homemade popsicles are something that can be as simple or as complex as you want. If you want to use an ice tray as your popsicle mold, you can. If you have a few bucks, and want something a little fancier, you can purchase an actual mold that will give your popsicles a more professional look.
The same goes for the popsicles themselves: You can simply freeze Kool-Aid in the mold with a stick or tooth pick stuck in it, or you can mix a more complex popsicle syrup and use actual popsicle sticks. It’s just up to you.
The cheapest route, obviously, is to go with an ice tray filled with off-brand Kool-Aid with tooth picks stuck in each cube of the tray. Placing this in the freezer overnight will result in “Kool-Aid cubes” with tooth picks frozen into them for handles. At that point, it’s simply a matter of removing the cubes of frozen Kool-Aid from the tray, and enjoying them.
If you want to go a little fancier, try pouring the Kool-Aid into plastic cups, covering the top of each cup with foil, inserting a large popsicle stick through the foil and into the cup, and freezing. The result will be an upright popsicle stick resting firmly in the middle of a frozen Kool-Aid popsicle. At that point, all you need to do is remove the cup and the foil, and enjoy!
In both of these cases, you’re only out the $0.50 for a packet of Kool-Aid and the minimal price of your toothpicks or popsicle sticks and cups. Either way, it’s extremely affordable, and can yield as many servings as you like!
Currently, I’m working on scrounging up some good “fudge-pop” and ice-cream-pop types of recipes. I’ll try to post some of those as we get closer to summertime. Until then, enjoy!
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