Making Ice Pops for Your Kids and Grandkids

When I was growing up my mom made ice pops for my brothers and me all summer. Generally they were made with juice or punch. As we grew a little older we would make them ourselves. It would take forever for them to freeze because we would open the freezer every 10 minutes to see how they were doing. My wife and I, at the constant urging of my 7 year old son, introduced making home-made ice pops to him and his little sister this summer. There are very few things that will brighten a kid's day like an ice pop. Where we come from, the generic name for ice pops is "p@pcicle$" (sorry for the spelling, but I once received a certified letter from the company that I intentionally misspelled telling me to cease using their trademarked name on my website).

The ice pop molds from my childhood were anything but exciting to me and many times we used the even more unexciting ice tray with toothpicks. Today, you can get some really cool ice pop mold shapes that kids will love like rockets and shooting stars. There are some really cool rocket ice pop molds that allow for two stage freezing so you can have two flavors in one. The most popular one we sell is called the Groovy ice pop mold, which holds a lot of icy goodness.

The problem with store purchased ice pops today is that they are full of refined sugars and corn syrup that many people argue are detrimental to a child's health. I am not an authority on the sugar debate, but I do know that supermarket varieties are full of dead calories with little nutritional content and the fact that the packaging they use is not "green" is of concern. If you want to see healthier recipes for making ice pops try looking at this blog.

Here is a recipe for Red, White and Blue ice pops. It is not the most healthy recipe, but you will know how much sugar your children will be taking into their bodies. Recipe is from Cuisipro.

1/4 cup blue raspberry Jell-O (half package)
1 cup water.
1/4 cup lemon juice.
1/2 cup sugar.
1 teaspoon gelatin powder.
1 cup water.
1/4 cup cherry Jell-O (half package).
1 cup water.

When making ice pops with more than one flavor, make sure to allow each flavor to cool before adding it to the mold or it will melt into the previous layer.

Combine the blue jello powder with 1/2 cup of hot water. Stir until the powder is dissolved and had 1/2 cup of cold water. Pour this mixture into the molds until the bottom one third of the mold is filled. Place in the freezer for at least two hours or until frozen.

While the bottom third is freezing, combine sugar, gelatin, lemon juice and 1/2 cup of hot water. Stir until dissolved and add 1/2 cup cold water. Allow the mixture to cool and fill the next third with this mixture. Freeze for another two hours.

In another bowl, repeat the same process with the cherry flavored gelatin that you did with the blue gelatin powder. Fill the pop molds almost to the top, put on the lids and insert the sticks. Allow to freeze overnight, or at least five hours.