Somewhere in this still-not-fully-unpacked-and-sorted kitchen are at least three popsicle contraptions. I have a regular little plain one, a set Peo got as a really cool goodie-bag gift from a birthday party that makes rocket pops, and a set that makes highly detailed (and thus hard to release) animal pops.
England suddenly woke up last week and remembered that it can, in fact, do summer, so I’ve had Robin the backyard and wanted to whiz up some simple popsicles for her. We’ve received free samples of two kinds of vanilla yogurt from our grocery ordering company (we still do not have a car), and we judge them too sweet for regular eating so I figured they’d be perfect blitzed with some blueberries with the stick blender. I’ve seen various recipes on doing that and they mostly add honey or other sweeteners, but honestly with sweet yogurt and good quality berries (I buy mine frozen and always have some in the freezer for blueberry French toast) you do not need to add extra sugar of any sort.
But when I decided to make them, do you think I could find any of the popsicle makers? NOPE. I rooted through so many half-unpacked boxes and found other things I have been searching for (like my black ribbon that I need to go around cake boards and some flower cutters), but I just could not find those popsicle makers.
So I pulled out some of my vast stash of silicone moulds and various kinds of sticks and winged it.
I thawed about a cup-ish of berries on the counter for a few hours and then threw in some of the vanilla yogurt. I whizzed them with the stick blender. Then I dribbled some layers of just the yogurt (I really wanted to use it up before it went off) and the mix into some moulds.
First I used this matryoshka mould with regular lollipop sticks:
Vanilla yogurt on top, pureed vanilla yogurt with blueberries below.
I still had some mix and yogurt left so I used this ice-cocktail-stick-thing mould even though I couldn’t find the sticks that go with it. But I did find some other plastic sticks and used those instead:
I over-filled these just to use the stuff up, and they came out fine. Never heard a kid complain, “Oh noes, this popsicle is too big and poorly shaped on the back end, I could not possibly eat it.”
I think I got these at HEB years ago. They’re washable so they’re better than the disposable sticks, but I wasn’t sure if they were okay to be chomped on. Robin did fine and I was supervising her, but I wouldn’t give these to little kids unsupervised since they’re not made for this.
I froze them overnight and let Robin have some the next day in the yard. I think she liked them…
Well actually these are inside the kitchen because it’s a Rule of Toddlerism that the child begs all morning to be let outside and the moment they’re out there, all they want to do is get back in. They’re on the wrong side of every door.
I call this “Joker Face” because I am an inappropriate parent.
Robin has a really hard life with Duplo and jam and bread and blueberry yogurt popsicles out in the sunny backyard.
At the end of each disposable stick I let Robin put it in the trash because she’s very good at picking up trash when we volunteer at Anglesey Abbey. Then I caught her sticking the stick into the trash and taking it back out and licking it. Repeatedly. Toddlers are so gross, srsly, I just can’t even.
But…popsicles. Yay for easy fruity popsicles made in whatever you have on hand. Yay for random silicone moulds. Yay for summer and sunny days!
