Cherry Lemonade Popsicle Recipe

My daughters love popsicles! What kid doesn’t? And with one kiddo being lactose intolerant, not being able to have ice cream, popsicles are a favorite around our house. I have a cookbook of popsicle recipes and I found it a bit funny. Literally all it told me was to pick my ingredients and freeze them. There wasn’t anything special at all. Some of the recipes and included using whole slices of fruit, which makes the popsicle hard to eat. The girls found the cookbook though and wanted to make some popsicles. So we did, but all I got from the experience was that the recipes were silly and the girls didn’t like the combinations we tried. Instead of using the cookbook, I thought of flavor profiles the girls like… and it just so happened that I was drinking cherry lemonade. The girls like. I, like it. So why not try my own recipe?

I thought about what made a good popsicle. It had to be sweet. It had to have a fruity flavor. And if I was going to do it with the girls, it needed to be easy. What should be the base? The Kool-Aid I was drinking or make my own. Well, using the Kool-Aid would be an easy way to make them, but then I wasn’t really teaching my kiddos anything in the kitchen. Make my own it is.

To be honest, I had no idea what to do for the base at first. I started to grab out the cherries and lemon juice from the fridge when I saw my inspiration: sugar water. My husband and made some sugar water for mint juleps earlier this week, so why not use it for the popsicles? Here’s the thing, you cannot just add sugar to the water and be done. You really need to boil them together and dissolve the sugar so you don’t end up with sugar crystals

Cherry Lemonade Popsicles

1 cup water

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup lemon juice

1/3 cup cherry juice

Using a small pot, add one cup water and two cups sugar. Stir and bring to a boil. I used a regular whisk while but I have read other recipes that suggest a rubber brush to keep brushing the sugar into the pot and make sure it doesn’t stick to the sides of the pot. I’ve never had that happen but I thought I would include it just in case it could help anyone else.

After the sugar has dissolved, let it sit for a few minutes. Measure the other ingredients while it cools. Depending on what you are putting the popsicles in, you can set that up now as well. I used small plastic cups rather than silicone molds. Mainly because my silicone molds are all too small for popsicles. I placed them in a baking pan for a few reasons. One, I didn’t want my kiddo to spill the red liquid onto my kinda cruddy counter tops that like to stain. Two, it makes moving them much easier.

Once the sugar water has cooled, add the lemon juice and the cherry juice. Stir thoroughly. I added the mixture to a measuring cup with a pour spout so it could be easily pour by my kiddos. Carolyn poured it into each cup then we covered the cups with aluminum foil being sure to press the foil hard enough to make impressions of each cup. I cut a slit in the foil in the middle of each cup. Lily then added a popsicle stick through each slit. Now, the sticks will stay upright as everything freezes.

These took quite a while to freeze, maybe they were too warm when I put them in, maybe it was the amount of sugar, I don’t know. They tasted amazing though!