Peanut Butter Cup Yogurt Popsicles Recipe

There are plenty of great store-bought popsicles that you can buy for easy summertime snacking, but if you own a popsicle mold, you can also make popsicles at home, anytime, with any ingredient. When I say any ingredient, I really mean it: You can even create creamy, ice-cream-like peanut butter and yogurt popsicles that are coated in dark chocolate, for a totally different kind of treat, and one that is even a little bit nutritious.

Peanut butter popsicles aren't anything like the fruity and juicy flavors we typically associate with popsicles. Salty, nutty, and almost savory, the peanut butter flavor combined with rich yogurt and maple syrup becomes a creamy treat perfect for those who prefer rich and chocolatey desserts. The chocolate coating makes these delightfully decadent and the perfect summertime dessert for lovers of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Filled with protein, these peanut butter cup yogurt popsicles are a good way to cool off while hitting your macros — and also hitting the beach.

These easy popsicles are made with just a few ingredients. You'll first need Greek yogurt — you can use low-fat or whole milk, the result will be about the same. You'll also need almost an entire jar of peanut butter. To sweeten the popsicles, grab maple syrup, then grab two packs of chocolate chips for melting and coating the bars. If dark chocolate is too rich for your tastes, just swap it for semi-sweet.

In a bowl, combine the Greek yogurt, peanut butter, and maple syrup.

Stir vigorously until well combined.

Transfer the yogurt to a piping bag.

Pipe it into popsicle molds. Shake the molds to distribute the yogurt mixture deeper into the molds. Fill again, leaving ½-inch from the top.

Insert a popsicle stick into each mold, then freeze until set, for 8 hours.

When ready to finish, melt the chocolate chips. Bring 1 inch of water to a boil in a small saucepan.

Add the chocolate chips to a heat-proof bowl and place it over the water. Stir constantly until the chocolate is melted.

Transfer the chocolate to a jar or glass just wide enough to fit the popsicles.

Prepare a baking sheet with wax paper.

Remove the popsicles from the freezer and dip them into the chocolate. Place the dipped popsicles on the wax paper.

Freeze again to set, about 30 minutes, then serve. Keep frozen until ready to serve.

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Popsicle molds are easiest to use with liquids like fruit juice, which is often how popsicles are made. In this recipe, which uses thick ingredients like Greek yogurt and peanut butter, the molds are a little hard to fill. The best way to fill the molds is to use a piping bag or wide-mouthed squeeze bottle to squeeze the mixture directly into the mold, filling from the very bottom upwards. Even with this method, you will need to ensure the peanut butter mixture settles into the shape of the mold, filling the air pockets left by the thick mixture.

You'll begin to notice the mixture sinking deeper into the molds as you work. This is good, and means the mixture is filling the empty parts of the mold. To speed this process up, firmly shake the mold and hit the bottom against the counter to force the peanut butter into any gaps. Then, fill again and repeat the shaking process until the molds are full and no longer sinking.

If you've ever worked with melted chocolate before, then you know it can be a little (or a lot) finicky. This is because chocolate doesn't like to change temperature quickly, and doing so can cause it to seize and clump — which is why, when melting chocolate, it is so important to melt it slowly and gently, using residual heat as much as possible. It's also why, once the chocolate is melted, it is important not to introduce it to cold too quickly either — which can be a challenge when you're trying to coat popsicles.

The best way to prevent the chocolate from seizing in this recipe is to keep the volume of chocolate larger than the popsicles, which keeps the chocolate warm with its own residual heat. Think of it like tempering eggs into a pastry cream, where whisking a smaller volume of hot milk with the eggs before adding it to the full batch helps bring the eggs to the temperature of the full batch slowly. By melting a large batch of chocolate and keeping it in a smaller, contained space, you can quickly add the cold popsicles without changing the temperature of the whole batch. As the chocolate volume decreases, you'll notice more clumping caused by seized chocolate — if it becomes unmanageable, try reheating the chocolate or switch to drizzling the chocolate over the popsicles instead.

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