One thing I’ve never made is homemade popsicles. I don’t have the molds. I’m not that into popsicles. And the girls have never asked to make them before. Hence, no homemade popsicles at the Maynard home! But I remember loving them as a kid and when I mentioned possibly making popsicles at home, Cate and Anna started cheering. Literally.
Tropicana recently contacted me about writing a post incorporating orange juice with making something fun with my kids. Since we had already been contemplating making popsicles, Tropicana finally kicked me into gear! We went out and bought a really cool Zoku popsicle maker and were ready to go!
My most favorite popsicles as a child were creamsicles. Whenever I take a bite of one, I’m instantly transported to my childhood home on Ensign Court, eating creamsicles on the front porch. I decided making homemade creamsicles would be a great way to use orange juice and make some new memories with my kids.
We hit the store and picked up Tropicana’s Pure Premium orange juice, pulp free of course for the popsicles! Tropicana makes their juice with fresh oranges and it is 100% pure and natural, which makes me happy to use their product. We grabbed whole milk, orange extract, and, of course, cream and headed home to mix and freeze!
I found a recipe on a blog called Nourished Kitchen that looked promising. It’s simple to throw together, providing ample opportunity for the kids to pour, mix and stir. There is also a lot of down time while the orange juice simmers, so you can grab some books and read together while you occasionally stir the juice. All in all, it is a great recipe to make with the kids!
And the final product was good! We had leftover filling (the original recipe made a TON), so I threw it in the ice cream maker with a pinch of xanthan gum. The ice cream was yummy, although it had sort of a dry taste to it. I think I might need to perfect a creamsicle-flavored ice cream based on the vanilla ice cream recipe we’ve had such great success with. Does that not sound completely heavenly?
There was one major snafu with the popsicles, though. This filling did NOT work with the Zoku maker. Such a sad discovery! The pops were totally stuck, so don’t use the maker for this recipe! My friend Necia swears that they’ve had great success with the Zoku, so we’re just going to have to try some other recipes! Thankfully I have friends with regular popsicle molds who were able to save the day. My favorite molds were the ones from Ikea, they worked great!
See those there creamsicles freezing nicely in the Zoku? Yeah, they’re never comin’ out. At least not without lots of hot water.
I’ll be sure to report on more of our homemade popsicle ventures!
- 1 cup orange juice
- 2½ tablespoons honey
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 cup cream
- 1 cup whole milk
- ½ teaspoon orange extract
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Simmer honey and orange juice over medium heat in a small saucepan until reduced by half – this will take 20-40 minutes. Just grab some books and read in the kitchen with your kids while you wait! Stir occasionally. Once it has reduced, remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.
- Whisk together egg yolks, cream, milk, orange extract and vanilla extract. Add orange juice mixture and whisk well.
- Pour mixture into popsicle molds and freeze until solid. Do not use a Zoku popsicle maker for this recipe – it will stick inside!
- Will make at around 8-10 popsicles.
This post was sponsored by Tropicana. Tropicana Pure Premium is 100% pure Florida orange juice. If you would like to connect with the folks at Tropicana, visit them at Facebook.com/Tropicana.
Hi! My name is Jane Maynard and you've landed yourself on my blog, This Week for Dinner™. Every Sunday I share a weekly menu...and count on you to share yours! You'll also find other deliciousness that I hope you'll enjoy!
This looks so good! Can’t wait for you to make them again when we get back;) That’s a bummer the zoku didn’t work.
Wonderful post! I think I’m going to try it out for tomorrow’s Fourth of July ! Kids will absolutely love it!
I have made something very similar to this in a Zoku with success. It looks like there is not quite enough filling in the molds. I love my Zoku.
glad to hear more happy zoku reports…I was ready to just take it back, but I’m definitely going to give it a few more gos!
Is there a reason you don’t cook the egg yolks? It seems like since you let the OJ mixture cool, you never heat or cook the eggs in any way
if you click through to the original recipe, she talks about this a bit – I think there are some health benefits of raw eggs.
there are other recipes with raw egg – orange julius, egg nog, mousse come to mind immediately…
I believe there is a technique for whisking and cooking the egg over simmering water if you’re worried, but I don’t know much about it.
hopefully this is all helpful info! 🙂
here is a disclaimer from the Food Network website on a recipe that has raw eggs:
* Raw Egg Warning
Food Network Kitchens suggest caution in consuming raw and lightly cooked eggs due to the slight risk of salmonella or other food-borne illness. To reduce this risk, we recommend you use only fresh, properly refrigerated, clean grade A or AA eggs with intact shells, and avoid contact between the yolks or whites and the shell. For recipes that call for eggs that are raw or undercooked when the dish is served, use shell eggs that have been treated to destroy salmonella, by pasteurization or another approved method.
we make a ton of homemade popsicles all summer long. one of our favorites. and if you have molds it also a good way to use up smoothie leftovers. just freeze em and it’s a guilt free treat. tons of popsicle ideas on pinterest as well.
leftover smoothie idea is awesome – going to remember that! so simple!
These look good Jane! Wanna try to make them again at my house? 🙂
These look delicious! I LOVE popsicles of all kinds. We have a ZOKU maker but have gotten out of the habit of using it, so this is good inspiration. (Though I’ll make sure NOT to use it with the creamsicle recipe 😉
OK – I have to admit it – I totally love Tropicana OJ – especially in their ‘new’ bottles…. Always have some in the fridge for drinking and smoothie making!!!
by the way – the above post should be attributed to Mawa not heww….
What was the purpose of adding xantham gum to the left-over mixture for the ice cream? What does xantham gum do?
it helps keep the ice cream from icing when you freeze it after churning. I use it when I do frozen yogurt and before I used it, whenever I would freeze the yogurt after churning it would get super icy, but once I started using a bit of xanthan gum, it didn’t do that anymore – it was awesome! it’s basically a super strong thickener derived from a bean (Bob’s Red Mill sells it), stronger than cornstarch.
I must admit that this particular recipe still iced up a bit on freezing, which is why I think I might have to try to create a specific ice cream recipe for this flavor, it needs a bit of tweaking but would be so yummy if perfected!
This was delicious. I did it with full fat coconut milk and am amazed!
wonderful! coconut milk sounds like a wonderful idea, thank you for commenting!