Make Your Own Homemade Fruit Popsicles

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Healthy homemade fruit popsicles made with five ingredients or less! Four delicious recipes to choose from, strawberry, watermelon, lemon, and coconut. An easy and refreshing treat to help you cool down from the heat.

Healthy homemade fruit popsicles made with five ingredients or less! Four delicious recipes to choose from, strawberry, watermelon, lemon, and coconut.

There’s nothing like enjoying homemade fruit popsicles on a hot day. The problem with the store-bought kind is that they typically contain high fructose corn syrup and artificial flavors. Not these! All my popsicle recipes are 100 calories or less and made with only natural sweeteners!

Warm weather means beautiful ripe fruit starts to appear at the local market. With so many choices, I decided to make four recipe variations. I hope you have as much fun creating these frozen treats as I did. Almost anything can be frozen, so grab your favorite ingredients and let’s play around!

Making homemade fruit popsicles are a fun way for kids and adults to experiment in the kitchen. It’s also easy to add more nutrients to your day without using refined sugar.

Ingredients on a table to make homemade fruit popsicles

Molds

Popsicle-making technology has impressively advanced since I was a kid. Companies like Zoku have come up with smart gadgets. Consumers have also gotten impressively creative with shapes, characters, and even light-sabers! I decided to ditch my old-school plastic contraption for a slightly updated Norpro Ice Pop Maker that I found on Amazon.

Fruit

I like to puree naturally sweetened fruit with lemon or lime for some acidity to reduce the overly icy texture. Fruit juice such as orange, lemon, guava, grape, or apple makes the most reliable pops that tend to melt slower. A combination of puree and juice mixed also works to infuse different flavors. To add texture and visual appeal, chop small or thinly sliced pieces of fruit like watermelon, strawberry, mango, pineapple, or kiwi.

Norpro Ice Pop Maker filled with frozen homemade fruit popsicles

Creamy Popsicles

Adding yogurt for protein and probiotics for digestive health creates a natural creaminess that adds a smooth texture. Pureed bananas with juice can also create a soft bite. Unsweetened coconut milk adds a creamy popsicle texture with a subtle sweet flavor. Mixing or blending juice, whole fruit, and something creamy also make for a consistently creamy popsicle.

Freeze Time

Depending on the ingredients, at least 4 to 6 hours are needed to turn the parts from liquid to solid. Overnight freezing is the safest bet and something to look forward to the next day!

Four different flavors

  • Peach Strawberry Yogurt Popsicles
  • Minty Watermelon Popsicles
  • Blackberry Lemon Popsicles
  • Orange Mango Coconut Popsicles
Brightly colored homemade fruit popsicles on table with fruit slices

Each popsicle has a distinct flavor and texture. In fact, James told me, “mommy, these are yummy! I love popsicles.” That’s a Mom win! I love that I can make something my family can enjoy that is healthy, and they wouldn’t even know it. My son enjoys making new flavors with me, so it’s a great way to bond and teach kids about eating more fruit daily.

With a bit of creativity, you can take wholesome fruit, juice, yogurt, and milk and turn them into delicious homemade frozen popsicles. Since my popsicle mold has ten spots, I like to add different flavor combinations by adjusting the recipe size so we have variety whenever cravings hit.

Male toddler licking a fruit popsicle with cupcake wrapper around the wooden stick to prevent dripping

We’ve come a long way from Otter Pops, and I always feel good about offering one of these healthy popsicles to my family. To prevent the inevitable melted popsicle drip from making a total mess, I cut a small slit in the bottom of a cupcake liner and placed the popsicle stick through the bottom to catch the juice. It’s saved us a few times from some unwanted messes!

More popsicle recipes

How do popsicles freeze?

A fundamental property of liquid solutions is that increasing their concentrations of dissolved solids will lower their freezing points. That means that adding ingredients like sugar, salt, minerals, fruit, and proteins in a solution increases the time required to freeze the product and the need for lower temperatures to freeze thoroughly. When freezing a juice popsicle, the water will freeze first at 0°C. However, the fruit juice will never freeze completely, and it will remain icy and slushy unless the temperature is well below 0°C. This is desirable for popsicles so that they melt quicker in the mouth and are not as difficult to bite!

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Healthy Homemade Fruit Popsicles

Healthy homemade fruit popsicles made with five ingredients or less! Four delicious recipes to choose from, strawberry, watermelon, lemon, and coconut.
4.86 from 234 votes
Prep Time7 hours
Cook Time0 minutes
Total Time7 hours
Servings 10 popsicles
Course Dessert
Cuisine American

Ingredients  

Peach Strawberry Yogurt Popsicles

  • 3 cups strawberries, pureed to 1 ½ cup
  • 3 cups peaches, peeled and sliced, pureed to 1 ½ cup
  • 2 tablespoons honey, divided
  • cup vanilla greek yogurt

Minty Watermelon Popsicles

  • 3 cups watermelon slices, divided
  • 1 tablespoon fresh mint leaves
  • 1 ½ cups coconut water
  • 2 tablespoons lime juice
  • 1 tablespoon honey

Blackberry Lemon Popsicles

  • cup lemon juice, plus zest from lemons
  • 2 ½ cups vanilla greek yogurt
  • 2 ½ cups blackberries
  • 2 ½ cup mixed berry Greek yogurt

Orange Mango Coconut Popsicles

  • 4 cups mango, divided
  • 2 cup coconut milk, whisked and divided
  • 3 tablespoons orange juice
  • 3 tablespoons honey

Instructions 

Peach Strawberry Yogurt Popsicles

  • In a blender, puree strawberries with four teaspoons honey then set aside. Clean blender, puree sliced peaches with two teaspoons of honey, set aside.
  • Layer the popsicles as follows; 2 teaspoons strawberry puree, 1 teaspoon yogurt, 2 teaspoons peach puree and repeat. Make a fruit puree your last layer.
  • Tap the mold on the counter to make sure all of the layers settle. Use a small spoon to drag vertically from the bottom to the top of the mold a few times to create a swirled pattern.
  • Gently tap the molds on the countertop to remove any air bubbles. Insert the popsicle sticks, and then freeze for at least 6 hours, or overnight.

Minty Watermelon Popsicles

  • In a blender, puree 2 ½ cups diced watermelon pieces, mint leaves, coconut water, lime juice, and honey. Cut the remaining ½ cup watermelon slices into ¼-inch cubes.
  • Evenly divide the diced watermelon into the molds, tapping them down to the bottom.
  • Stir the popsicle mixture then evenly divide it among the popsicle molds.
  • Insert the popsicle sticks, if it does not stay in place use a piece of tape to hold them into place. Freeze for at least 6 hours, or overnight.

Blackberry Lemon Popsicles

  • In a medium-sized bowl whisk together lemon juice, zest, and vanilla yogurt, set aside.
  • Puree blackberries and mixed berry yogurt, set aside.
  • Layer the popsicles as follows; 1 tablespoon lemon, 1 tablespoon blackberry, repeat. Swirl layers if desired.
  • Gently tap the molds on the countertop to remove any air bubbles. Insert the popsicle sticks, and then freeze for at least 6 hours, or overnight.

Orange Mango Coconut Popsicles

  • Puree 3 cups mango slices, 1 ½ cup coconut milk, orange juice, and honey.
  • Cut the remaining 1 cup mango slices into ¼-inch cubes. Evenly divide them among the popsicle molds.
  • Add 3 tablespoons of mango coconut mixture, gently tapping mold on the counter to make sure liquid fills in the diced mango spaces.
  • Add 1 tablespoon of coconut milk, or until the mold is filled. Insert the popsicle sticks and then freeze for at least 6 hours, or overnight.

Recipe Video

Notes

  • Removing Popsicles From Molds: Run the molds under warm water for ten to fifteen seconds. Slowly and carefully remove each popsicle. If the popsicles remain in the mold, run them under the warm water for a few more seconds, ensuring not to melt the pops.
  • Recipe Yield: Each recipe makes approximately 10 popsicles, depending on the size and shape of your molds. Adjust batch sizes accordingly.

Nutrition Facts

Serves: 10 popsicles
Calories 100kcal (5%)Carbohydrates 20g (7%)Protein 4g (8%)Fat 1g (2%)Saturated Fat 1g (5%)Polyunsaturated Fat 0.03gMonounsaturated Fat 0.1gCholesterol 2mg (1%)Sodium 19mg (1%)Potassium 104mg (3%)Fiber 1g (4%)Sugar 16g (18%)Vitamin A 500IU (10%)Vitamin C 22.3mg (27%)Calcium 50mg (5%)Iron 0.1mg (1%)

Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000-calorie diet. All nutritional information is based on estimated third-party calculations. Each recipe and nutritional value will vary depending on the brands you use, measuring methods, and portion sizes per household.

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Jessica Gavin

I'm a culinary school graduate, cookbook author, and a mom who loves croissants! My passion is creating recipes and sharing the science behind cooking to help you gain confidence in the kitchen.

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91 Comments Leave a comment or review

  1. Jerry says

    These look fantastic. Up to this point I’ve been freezing the puréed baby food pouches for my three year old. He hasn’t tasted the sweet popsicles you get at the store yet. Now, since we are weaning him off of pouches, I am looking for a family friendly version and this seems to hit the mark.

    I am curious though, are there any recommendations for some mild vegetables that I might purée and add to the mix to give us some additional health benefits to the fruit and yogurt. I imagine carrots are a sweet addition we can easily work in. Any other ideas? Thanks in advance.

    • Jessica Gavin says

      I would steam the carrots or sweet potatoes before adding them to the popsicle base to make it a little softer. I have also found spinach to be very neutral in flavor, my kids don’t mind having it in their smoothie! Let me know how it goes!

  2. Sarah Eisenstadt says

    I tried the creamy strawberry and peach. I used vegan yoghurt . It came out amazing Super easy to make. Such a good base recipe I tried it with mangos and melons it was incredible! Thanks Jessica!

  3. Cameron Bales says

    Whenever I make homemade popsicles the water always separates out from the mix. So it’s ice separated from concentrated juice, not nice homogenous frozen slush.

    It’s always super lame. I don’t know if I need to freeze them faster, make the mixture much colder before freezing , add some sort of emulsifier.

    Do you have hints so they aren’t so lame?

    • Jessica Gavin says

      Can you please provide more info on what you’re adding to the popsicle mold? Just fruit juice, or are you making a puree and mixing? In popsicle manufacturing, stabilizers like xanthan gum and locust bean are used to help stabilize the ice matrix mix to prevent separation. The colder your freezer, the faster the popsicles with firm up, reducing the time allowed for any separation of the fruit particles and water to occur. Most commercial freezing operations have a blast freezer that goes below 0ºF to quickly solidify the popsicles. For creamy popsicles the fat helps with homogenization and separation; some people even add cornstarch for additional stabilization. For fruit popsicles, I would make sure to blend them well if using whole fruits into a smooth consistency. Increasing the sugar level and adding some corn syrup helps reduce the freezing point and gives a better texture. Let me know if that helps!

  4. Candice says

    Hello – I saved your recipes for homemade Popsicles & hope to make them soon.
    I am a diabetic and wondering:
    Can i substitute Monk Fruit Sweetener – White Sugar Substitute for the honey?
    if yes how much should i use?
    thanks
    Amanda

    • Jessica Gavin says

      Yes, you can substitute the honey with monk fruit sweetener. Is it pure monk fruit or is it a sweetener blend? I would check the package for the substitution amounts based on the brand you are using.

  5. Julilly says

    Do I have to use honey or other sweetener? I like the taste of plain fruit and yogurt, but will it freeze as well without the addition?

  6. Deion says

    Hello. My name is Deion. I have a question please. I love ‘Outshine’ popsicles, and I also love smoothies. Can a fruit popsicle be use to make a smoothie?

    • Jessica Gavin says

      You can use frozen fruit for the popsicles, especially if you are pureeing them. They will be thicker if pureed frozen. It will have a more similar consistency to fresh if thawed first.

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