Orange Cream Popsicles

Ok, so I've been on a popsicle kick recently. Popsicles are great for the summer and they are so easy to make at home. Ever since I found that one recipe from Eat Good 4 Life blog where she made Strawberry Lime Pops (check out my previous post about the ones I made here) and Raspberry Cream pops, I've been dying to try out other flavors. So recently made a series of four different flavors and tested them out on some friends at church.

All of these flavors have the same basic recipe as the ones mentioned above.  The first one I'm going to share is Orange Cream.  As a kid, I always LOVED those orange Dreamsicles (and still do)!  This is my version of a kids classic.

Ingredients:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup low fat yogurt (I use Stonyfield organic, plain)
1/2 cup sugar
1 can frozen orange juice partially thawed (I prefer pulp free)
2 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp Grand Marnier

In a medium-large bowl, blend whipping cream and sugar with a hand mixer until soft peaks form.

You want to make sure your frozen orange juice is partially thawed.  If its completely thawed it will be too liquidy, if its completely frozen, it will be too hard to work with.  You may not need the whole can either.  You'll need at least 1 cup of it but you may add a little extra to suit your own orangey tastes. At this point, you can add the orange juice to the whipped cream mixture.

Also add the yogurt, vanilla, and Grand Marnier and stir until well blended.  The Grand Marnier is an orange liqueur.  You can omit this is you like but it does enhance the orange flavor a little and helps keep the pop from getting too solid frozen so that its too hard to eat or remove from its cup.

Using 3 oz Dixie cups, scoop the orange cream mixture into the cups almost to the top.  The original recipe says it makes 9 but I sometimes got as many as 11 cups filled. This mixture is a little more liquidy than the others. Remember to cut a small slit at the top of each cup to allow for easier removal from the pop later.  Once the cups are filled, you may insert a popsicle stick.  Because this mixture is more liquidy than some of the others, you may have to recenter the sticks once they start to freeze or just wait about 10-15 minutes before inserting stick.