Tips and Gadgets: Nine-Minute Tropical Popsicles

Kids here are having lots of fun with our new pop maker. So much fun that they are always inviting more and more kids to come here and try their recipes. The ZOKU is really efficient: It makes your own personal popsicle in about 7 to 12 minutes, and, if you follow the instructions by the book or reading the tips on its website, it will work perfectly fine.

Our main recipe takes an average of 9 minutes to be ready, not forgetting that the maker hibernates in the freezer for at least 24 hours before its ready to make popsicles, just like an ice cream machine does. The difference is that it requires no energy to work after. And maybe this was the main factor that made up my mind about its coolness.

We had already tested many recipes, but at our last playdate, the choice of ingredients was made by my older kid, who picked some items that I couldn't see how would work together.

But good reviews of his combination of flavors and textures told me  that his recipe actually worked...

Tropical Orange Coconut Popsicle

Each popsicle takes a little bit of everything, totaling about 4 tablespoons of liquid. After inviting our friends to test it I've found out that the main thing is not to spill liquid out of the enclosures, and not take too long to put the sticks.  This recipe is for one popsicle.

1 1/2  tablespoons light coconut milk
1 teaspoon shredded coconut
1 1/2  tablespoons fresh orange juice
Some dark chocolate chips
1/8 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Chocolate syrup (Midnight Moo) right after on the bottom (optional) 

Mix everything and pour into the popsicle maker (or layer them) and follow the instructions with the popsicle maker.

To make sure that we wouldn't be crazy about spilling things, we made them in the back yard. We made about six popsicle all the times we played with it.