These summery fresh fruit freeze pops are made with pectin for a less icy, more pleasing mouthfeel; they’re essentially a quick freezer jam in popsicle form!
Yield: 4-5 (100mL) pops
Prep Time: 20 minutesminutes
Total Time: 12 hourshours
Ingredients
12oz/ 340gfresh fruit, such as strawberries (hulled and chopped), blueberries (whole), or peaches (pitted and chopped)
½cup/ 120gfiltered water
2tablespoonsfreshly squeezed lemon juice
½teaspoonpowdered citric acid, more or less to taste (I found the strawberries only needed 1/4 teaspoon, but the peaches and blueberries were better with 1/2).
1 ½teaspoonscalcium water*, increase to 2 teaspoons for peaches
¼cup/ 50ggranulated sugar, more or less to taste (you can use as little as 2 tablespoons or as much as 6, or replace with any liquid or granulated sugar substitute)
Prepare your fruit. For strawberries, remove hulls and coarsely chop. For peaches, remove pits and coarsely chop. You can peel them if you want (I did not for mine). Blueberries are fine whole. You should have about 2 cups of coarsely chopped fruit.
Place fruit in the blender or food processor along with water, lemon juice, and citric acid. Blend until smooth.
Transfer to a medium saucepan and set over medium-high heat. Add calcium water (if using Pomona's pectin).
Whisk sugar together with pectin until evenly distributed.
When fruit comes to a boil, add sugar/pectin mixture and stir vigorously until sugar is completely dissolved and mixture returns to a boil.
Transfer to a heat-proof glass measuring cup with a spout. You should have about 2 cups (475mL) of liquid. Let cool for 10 to 15 minutes before pouring into ice pop bags or popsicle molds.
Transfer to the freezer until frozen solid, at least 12 hours or overnight. Pops will keep in the freezer for up to 6 months.
Notes
*This recipe is written for Pomona's Universal Pectin, which works a bit differently than other low-sugar pectins. To substitute another brand like Ball or SureJell Low or No Sugar pectin, omit the calcium water, but otherwise follow the recipe as instructed. These two brands of pectin contain dextrose (a sweetener), so you may also want to reduce the sugar by a tablespoon.
*Calcium water comes with the Pomona's pectin pack (if using another brand of low sugar pectin you won't need it).