After making iced tea cubes with Elizabeth, I happened upon a cheap set of popsicle molds at Bed Bath and Beyond. The mold caught my eye for a number of reasons. The first was that the handles had an interesting shape that seemed to catch runoff. The second reason was that the handles were colorful. The most important reason, however, was that it was an incredibly, triple-digit level, HOT day. So, of course, I bought the mold and promptly made myself a few popsicles.
Initially, I wasn’t sure what sort of popsicle I wanted to make. Then I remembered how great the iced tea cubes turned out and decided that I would use green tea as a base.
But I also wanted something fruity and a little sweet, so I added oranges to a simple syrup and came up with an iced tea and orange popsicle. I combined one cup sugar, one cup water and one whole orange, its juice and slices, into a small pot and let it simmer until the sugar was dissolved into a syrup.
I let it cool (important!) and then added three tablespoons to the amount of iced tea needed for the mold, mixing it well. Once that was done, I inserted the orange slices throughout the mold and then poured the tea mixture in afterward. I put them in the freezer for five hours.
To remove the popsicles, I ran the mold under warm water and then gently worked the handle back and forth until the popsicle was free. Be patient, especially if you don’t make popsicles often because it is easy to pull the handle straight out of the popsicle! I did that the first time and had to set the handle back into the mold and wait another hour before trying it again.
Success! The popsicle was great and I enjoyed the orange bits the most. However, it did turn out a little too sweet for me, so next time I will have a lighter hand when adding the simple syrup or even leave it out altogether.
And, please, let me know if you have any popsicle ideas! The summer here has been blistering and I’m sure that I’ll get plenty of use out of my new popsicle molds.
