Well with summer in full swing nothing sounds as refreshing as a nice cool popsicle. When I was little I know I really enjoyed the Big Stick. It was like a never ending pop, and then afterwards it would leave your lips stained bright red. Fast forward to 2012 and you have this nifty little gadget to make your own unique pops.
The best part about the Zoku maker is that its a fun project that you can to share it with your kiddos. They will enjoy the process as they see the liquid turn into a pop before their eyes. It retails for about $50 for a 3-pop maker, and can be purchased here at Williams- Sonoma
. The recipe book Zoku quick pops is separate at about $16 and can be purchased here.
I was captivated by a more complicated (I found out later just how complicated Grrrrr...)cookies & cream pop for my first venture. It turned out to be a bit of a disaster, to say the least. When making pops in the Zoku maker, you may not want to add as many fillings as the cookbook would suggest or at least until you become more fluent in popology (yes I made that up). If you have to many cookies (as in my instance) it will not freeze as well and take longer. I spoke with a couple of salespeople at William Sonoma and they were pretty firm on that your pops shouldn’t have to stay in for more than 10 minutes tops! And with all the fillings, I was letting my pops stay in for almost an hour, just because they were not set before then.
So I went back to basics and have just been doing the easier pops, using chocolate milk , juices and the like. Z likes them all the same, and those take about 10 minutes. The hardest part about the Zoku maker is getting them out when it’s time. If you do a simple juice, or milk, its relatively easy. But if you leave it in too long, or add too many extra ingredients like cookies it can make it more of an arduous task to get the pop out, which is just plain frustrating if you ask me!
 |
Chocolate milk poured into pop maker,
kiddo inserts sticks et voila! Chocolate
pops! |
 |
| One happy kiddo |
But once you have a perfect pop you do feel pretty successful! And the kid approval level is pretty great! It’s the perfect size for a toddler.
If I was to give it a start rating I would give it a 3.5-4 points. Perhaps practice makes perfect.
Here’s a recipe that I am looking to incorporate into our pop rotation via Martha Stewart found here. Recipe courtesy of Everday Food. Click the link to see a video demonstration.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Everyday Foods |
Creamy Orange Pops
Ingredients
- 1 cup thawed orange juice concentrate
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 cups full-fat plain yogurt
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Directions
In a small saucepan, combine juice concentrate and sugar over medium-low. Cook, stirring, until sugar is dissolved, 3 minutes.
Stir in yogurt and vanilla. Transfer to a large liquid-measuring cup, pour into ten 3-ounce ice-pop molds, and insert ice-pop sticks. Freeze until pops are solid, about 6 hours (or up to 1 week). Briefly run molds under hot water to release pops.
Happy pop making!!!
