Ice Pop Molds
You can relive the days of homemade ice pops with the help of an ice cream and Popsicle mold. There's nothing quite as refreshing as a frozen Popsicle made from fresh fruit juice, crushed assorted fruit, yogurt, or ice cream. From plastic to silicone to stainless steel, ice pop molds are as popular and easy to use as when you were a kid.
How do you make homemade Popsicles in a mold?Making great-tasting Popsicles is easy, but preparing them without a mold can be messy. Using prefabricated Popsicle molds to create your frozen treats ensures uniformity and eliminates mess. Whatever type of mold you use, the procedure for making frozen ice cream pops and Popsicles is as follows:
- Choose ingredients: Popsicle recipes can be as straightforward or exotic as you'd like. When selecting ingredients for your ice pops, you might prefer to stick with pure fruit juices. Fresh or frozen-fresh orange, grape, and pineapple juices are all tasty options, and all three work well alone or blended together. Other options for Popsicles include fresh or frozen peaches, strawberries, bananas, watermelon, honeydew, and pineapple. You can add frozen yogurt or ice cream to your Popsicle recipes, blending them with juices or fruit. Feeling particularly daring? Add coconut or almond milk, vanilla extract, peanut butter, cocoa powder, or honey. For extra fun, try mixing in a bit of granola, nuts and seeds, or whole berries before you freeze your pops.
- Blend ingredients: If necessary, blend ingredients in a blender to get a consistency that is good for pouring.
- Pour your blended ingredients into your mold: Distribute liquid evenly among the individual compartments, filling to the suggested fill line.
- Insert sticks: Reusable ice pop molds generally have fitted tops with integrated sticks. When you pour your Popsicle liquid into your mold, fit the tops on securely. If you're using standard wooden Popsicle sticks instead of prefabricated pop molds, freeze your Popsicles for about 30 minutes and then insert sticks. Once you've added the sticks, return ice pop molds to the freezer and freeze until solid.
- Find an aluminum pan or plastic container that is the same height or taller than your mold.
- Fill the pan or container with warm water.
- Dip the mold in the pan or container, keeping it under water for about 20 to 30 seconds, or until the freezer pops begin to melt away from the sides of the mold.
- Remove the mold from the water and place it on a counter, table, or other flat surface.
- Gently twist the pops from their mold, pulling straight upward to remove.
ZOKU manufactures a reusable ice pop maker that can freeze ice pops in only a few minutes. The ZOKU ice pop maker has a specially designed core that is placed in the freezer until thoroughly frozen. Once the inner core is frozen, you remove it from the freezer, fill the mold with liquid, and insert pop sticks. Popsicles are ready within 7 to 8 minutes.