Fruit Popsicles
Making fruit popsicles at home is easy and quick! You can use your family’s favorite fruits for a healthy treat you can serve all summer long!
Hot summer days call for popsicles, but sometimes you want to limit the amount of sugar and junk your kids are taking in. Homemade Fruit Popsicles are a summertime staple in our house, as much as Crab Legs are a staple of our summer dinner table! We actually love to have fresh fruit popsicles as a refreshing treat in the summer after a delicious crab boil.
I make popsicles that I know my kids will like, and I can control just how much sugar goes into them by adding the juices I prefer. If we get a whole bunch of blueberries or strawberries from the local farm stand one week, I can make up some popsicles with extras and keep them for weeks to enjoy when we are ready. I also like that I can use different juices and even coconut water to get different flavors and necessary nutrition.
Why We Love Fruit Popsicles
I can use up fresh produce before it goes bad by making up a batch of popsicles quickly and easily. Pop them out and save them for later, or eat them when they are ready. Either way, we are not wasting precious seasonal fruit.
We like to mix and match different juices like apple, white grape, white cranberry, pineapple, lemonade, orange juice, and coconut water to get different flavor combinations. I like to use clear juices for this recipe so you can see all the pretty fruit, but there’s no wrong answer!
If I really want to be adventurous I can make a “grown-up” fruit popsicles recipe by adding a little gin or vodka. We just have to make sure they go in the garage freezer in a container the kids won’t go scrounging through!
Ingredients
Fresh Fruit: Any fresh fruit will work, cut up larger fruits into small pieces, and don’t pack them into the popsicle forms too tightly.
Fruit Juice: This recipe specifically calls for clear juices, like apple juice and white grape. I can also use lemonade and pineapple juice or coconut water.
Variations
- Make “grown-up” popsicles by substituting 1 cup fruit juice for a fruity white wine or rose. Or add 3 ounces of vodka to the juice before filling the molds.
- Use frozen fruit if you don’t have fresh fruit around.
- If you have picky kids that don’t want to see that there is fruit in the popsicle, put everything through the blender and then pour it into the popsicle molds.
How to Make Fruit Popsicles
PACK the fruit into the popsicle molds.
POUR juice over the fruit to fill the molds and add a popsicle stick.
FREEZE the popsicles until completely frozen through, about 5 hours or overnight.
Tips & Tricks
- If your fruit tends to sink to the bottom, freeze with the molds laying sideways for half the time and then turn them up like normal, this way the fruit will be dispersed evenly.
- To get the popsicles out of the mold more easily, run them under warm water. Evenly turn the molds to get the surface warm enough to pop them out easily. I do this and then transfer them to another container or individual bags and put them back into the freezer for later.
Real Fruit Popsicle Pairing Ideas
Berry Lemonade Popsicles: Swap out clear juice for lemonade and use strawberries and blackberries for the fruits.
Tropical Popsicles: Use a combination of 2 cups pineapple juice and 1 cup water and use kiwis, mango, and strawberries for the fruits.
Peach Raspberry Popsicles: Use 2 cups peach nectar and 1 cup water with raspberries for the fruit.
Creamy Fruit Popsicles: Add the fruit, juice, and frozen bananas to a blender and puree until smooth. Or swap out 1 cup of juice for coconut milk before blending. Then pour into the molds for a softer, creamier bite. You can also puree the fruit and juice and then add dollops of Greek yogurt to the popsicle mold in between pouring the fruit puree.
Are Fruit Popsicles healthy?
Usually, these homemade fruit popsicles will be healthier than store-bought and have less sugar. I like knowing these homemade popsicles have a minimal amount of added sugar.
You can compare the amount of sugar in your juice and the amount of sugar in the brand of store-bought popsicles you would normally buy and make this determination. My son’s favorite store-bought fruit bars have about 14g of sugar each. So we’re right around that at 16g of sugar.
If you use a lower sugar juice or use coconut water instead of juice you will lower the sugar amount even more. These numbers can also change based on the fruits you use.
More delicious summer recipes
- Caribbean Passion Smoothie
- Strawberry Caprese Salad
- Hawaiian Punch
- Blueberry Fluff
- No-Bake Strawberry Lemonade Pie
Fruit Popsicles
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups fresh fruit chopped
- 3 cups white grape juice (apple juice or white grapefruit juice works too)
Fruit Suggestions
- Strawberries
- Blueberries
- Raspberries
- Blackberries
- Kiwi
- Melon
- Pineapple
Instructions
- Place some of each fruit into the popsicle molds. Be sure to place some fruit directly against the sides of the mold.
- Pour in the fruit juice until each mold is almost filled. (This leaves a little room for the stick/base.)
- Add the popsicle sticks or reusable popsicle bases into the center of each mold.
- Freeze for at least 5 hours to overnight until the popsicles are set.
- Remove popsicles from the mold and enjoy immediately. If you have a little trouble getting them loose, run the bottom of the mold (where the popsicle is) under warm water for 10 seconds and try again.
Nutrition
All nutritional information is based on third party calculations and is only an estimate. Each recipe and nutritional value will vary depending on the brands you use, measuring methods and portion sizes per household.
Can u use Concord grape juice
Hi Maryl! You can use concord grape juice. The fruit won’t show through the juice very much and you’ll want to be careful of drips (grape juice stains!), but you can just whichever grape juice you like.