Strawberry Banana Popsicles Recipe

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What says summertime treat more than popsicles? These sweets on a stick have been around since 1905, when 11-year-old Frank Epperson accidentally invented Epsicles, later known as Popsicles, in San Francisco. He had left a cup of soda outside in the cold overnight and found that the beverage, including the wooden mixing stick, froze, which led him to start selling the confections. Over a century later, popsicles are still around, and despite the variety of options in freezer aisles, many people enjoy channeling Epperson by making them at home.

If you also want to skip the store-bought versions, recipe developer Michelle Bottalico came up with these homemade strawberry banana popsicles that are sweet, creamy, and full of fresh fruit flavor. It doesn't take much to create these delicious treats — fruits, coconut milk, a little sweetener, and vanilla extract are blended together to create the refreshments. You can even leave the sweetener out if you use overripe bananas.

Thinly sliced strawberries decorate the walls of the popsicles, making them extra fun to look at. Though simple to make, the popsicles need to freeze for at least eight hours, so plan ahead. Consider making a few batches to have on hand all summer for whenever you need a refreshing pick-me-up.

For this recipe, you will only need five ingredients, including a very ripe medium banana and fresh strawberries. Roughly 12 medium strawberries are needed; about eight will yield the one cup of chopped strawberries that the recipe calls for. The remaining four strawberries are for the garnish. Have canned light coconut milk, maple syrup, and vanilla extract on hand as well.

Line a freezer-safe dish with wax or parchment paper. Place the banana slices on top, spaced out.

Cover the dish of bananas with food wrap and put in the freezer for about 2 hours until frozen solid. Let the bananas thaw for 5 to 10 minutes before proceeding.

In a blender or food processor, add the banana slices, 1 cup chopped strawberries, coconut milk, maple syrup, and vanilla extract and blend until smooth. Taste and add more maple syrup if desired.

Lay 2-3 strawberry slices on one side of each popsicle mold.

Pour the blended mixture into the molds slowly to avoid bubbles, leaving a little empty space at the top. Once full, tap the mold a couple of times to pop any bubbles.

Add popsicle mold handles, or cover mold and pierce each with a popsicle stick.

Place the molds in the freezer for 8 hours or overnight.

Submerge the molds in a bowl of warm water until you can unmold the popsicles by pulling them out.

Enjoy immediately or wrap tightly and keep frozen for up to 3 months.

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You're welcome to make substitutions in this strawberry banana popsicle recipe. For example, instead of frozen banana slices, you can opt for room temperature bananas if you don't have time to freeze them beforehand. The freezing step just helps to create less icy, more evenly frozen popsicles.

This recipe also uses light coconut milk instead of juice, which is commonly found in many homemade popsicle recipes, because light coconut milk produces fewer ice crystals and a creamier result. However, you can still use juice if preferred. We recommend apple or white grape juice for a balanced flavor. If you want to stick with coconut milk, the light version keeps the fat content lower, but you can substitute it with regular coconut milk for an even creamier texture if desired. 

Another swap you could make is with the maple syrup. If you prefer honey or agave, you can easily substitute one of those with the same amount. If you want to leave out the sweetener entirely and keep this recipe whole foods, make sure to use ripe strawberries and extra-ripe bananas. Making popsicles isn't normally one of the many uses for overripe bananas that people talk about, but the reason they work for banana bread is the same reason they work here. The riper the banana, the sweeter it is, so they can make the popsicles sweet enough on their own.

If you don't have a dedicated popsicle mold, you can still make these strawberry banana popsicles. It's easy to make DIY popsicle molds at home with items you may already have in your kitchen.

Those small 3-ounce Dixie cups that may be sitting in your pantry or bathroom counter are actually perfect for pops. Place the cups on a freezer-safe dish or tray and then fill them with your popsicle mixture, leaving a little space at the top for expansion, just like you would when using molds. Unlike store-bought molds, DIY molds don't come with lids featuring built-in sticks. Wooden popsicle sticks will save the day, but they won't stand up straight in the unfrozen mixture.

Get around this by covering the cups with aluminum foil. Be sure to stretch the foil tightly. Then, make a small hole in the center of the foil over each cup with the tip of a sharp knife, and insert a popsicle stick through it without enlarging the opening. The foil will keep the sticks standing straight. Alternatively, you can partially freeze the pops and insert the sticks when the mixture is firm enough to support them but not yet frozen solid. For smaller popsicles, follow the same procedure but use an ice cube tray instead.

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