Fourth of July Pops!

Happy Independence Day, America!!  I found this recipe a few weeks ago and thought they would be perfect for the summer holiday. While perusing my favorite blog list, I came across a recipe for popsicles on Eat Good 4 Life.  She actually posted a couple different versions of these popsicles and they seemed so easy I had to give them a try.

The ones I made were the Strawberry and Lime Popsicles. She also did a Raspberries and Cream version too that I'm going to try next week for a church meeting. I swear these are so simple and very yummy, you will want to make these every week during the summer. And they are quite pretty too. And the possibilities are endless! The Eat Good 4 Life lady also mentioned a coconut version...and seeing as how i LOVE coconut, I will have to experiment with that flavor too.

Here's the original recipe (with my personal notes in blue)...

Ingredients:
Yields 9 3oz Popsicles (using 3oz Dixie cups, I actually ended up with 10)

1 cup heavy cream
1 cup low fat yogurt (I use organic)...(I did too, Stonyfield is great in plain or vanilla)
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup fresh strawberries, chopped (I actually used the food processor and chopped them almost to a slightly chunky puree. I'm not a fan of huge chunks of fruit in dessert.)
2-3 limes, juice (If you like, you can also add in about 1-2TBsp of liqueur for an extra layer of flavor and to keep it from freezing too hard. I used Chambord, a raspberry liqueur.)

  In a bowl whip heavy cream and sugar until soft peaks form. Fold in yogurt, juice, (and liqueur if desired) and strawberries.(For this part, I followed a little bit what she did in the Rasberries and cream version, where she layered the ingredients in the cup...yogurt, fruit, more yogurt. But I still mixed in a little of the fruit with the yogurt as well so there were strawberries throughout but still had a pretty red stripe across the middle of the pop.)

Snip the top edge of the Dixie cups with scissors for easy peeling. Fill Dixie cups all the the way with the whipped mixture.

Place a pop stick in the middle of each Popsicle and freeze 4-5 hours before serving.

Note: I find that I don't have to freeze Popsicles before inserting Popsicle stick. The whipped cream is strong enough to hold the stick in place :-).

  

 

The yogurt makes them super creamy and the combination of strawberries and lime provide a refreshing sweet-tartness making them the perfect treat for summer.  These pops are also the perfect size for a small sweet snack and not too large for the kids to enjoy too!

the paper cup peeled off nicely too!