Cherry- licious Pop

I'm SO glad I posted this Zuko review  (LINK TO POST) a while back and posted the picture up top on it. As I mentioned before I lost a memory card with 2,000+ pictures for this blog, of my kids and for the cook book on it. I still haven't found it. I also lost a few different kinds of quick pop that I made and photographed. Sigh. Anyway, I'm glad I could pull this picture off of my other post.

Let's get on with it right? I love cherries, cherries and lychee are my favorite fresh fruits. OK I love pineapple too. But these don't have pineapple, if you like pineapple you can check out the post HERE, for a pop with pineapple. This pop is pretty simple and definitely NOM NOM. Sweet cherries are easiest to find in the grocery stores here so I used them. Use whichever you can find and like best. I haven't tried using frozen cherries but I am certain you could. In the winter when I can't find cherries I'll use frozen. The amount of milk you use is really dependent on the thickness of your yogurt. If it's a Greek yogurt you may need more. Sometimes when I make yogurt it's not as thick as I want it before straining- and in that case you don't need to add much milk. You may not need any milk. I have a few homemade yogurt posts here on the blog. I used honey in these. I generally use honey or maple syrup. I have yet to put cane sugar in my pops, I try to avoid it.  Unless I do pudding pops and my pudding recipe has sugar in it.

I find that making these pops we still like the base thick as opposed to runny. It makes the pops creamier.

Cherry-licious Pops

1 cup Pitted fresh cherries, plus a few pitted cherries sliced to decorate the pops if you want

1/3 cup yogurt

2-4 tablespoons of milk, if needed

3/4 teaspoon almond extract - my favorite is listed below

3-4 tablespoons of honey, to taste

Put the cherries, yogurt, almond extract and honey into a blender. I use a small magic bullet type of machine that works great for small batches. If the ingredients won't blend add a little milk. I just add enough milk to get the blender going.  

To make the pops put some cherries on the sides of the empty molds. I don't have a Zuko Quick Pop tools set so I use chopsticks. Once the cherries are stuck on the sides of the frozen molds insert the sticks. For easy filling, since I use thick blended fillings instead of runny ones I use a funnel. Put the small end of the funnel into the mold and carefully spoon in a little mixture at a time. Use the chopstick to poke  it through, if needed. Don't put too much filling into the funnel. If the mold over flows I use my turkey baster to take some out. If you over fill the molds the pops will be harder to remove from the molds. I've only ever had one pop that was hard to remove.

That's it, what for it to freeze and enjoy.
You can make these in any Popsicle mold or  in dixie cups. Just pour the mix into Dixie cups and put foil on top, and stick the popsicle stick through the foil into the pop. The foil will hold the stick up.

I put my pop maker back in the freezer during the freezing time so I can get extra batches made.