October has been unseasonably warm in my part of the world. So, in honor of the warmish weather and the upcoming Halloween holiday, I whipped together some fun candy corn-inspired popsicles:
Now, this is a really simple recipe to toss together … especially when you actually have the food coloring called for below. I, however, have a young daughter at home and she loves pink, so we often have pink frosting, pink cake, pink cookies … you get the idea. So when I got around to putting these together, I had all of the basic food colors except red! I started looking around my cupboards and refrigerator for something I could use in its place that wouldn't leave chunks of stuff (like strawberry jam) and still help me achieve a great orange color for these treats.
Maraschino cherries to the rescue. I have them on hand for mixing drinks and a couple of teaspoons of the juice (without any cherries or cherry pieces) did just what I needed. Of course, if you happen to have red food coloring on hand, that is probably easier. Still, it did give them a subtle fruitiness that I really liked. Of course, the whole fiasco had me flustered enough to get the ordering of the colors for the popsicles wrong. Oh well. You get the idea and they were fantastic, even if the yellow and orange layers were swapped this time around. Enjoy and Happy Halloween!
Candy Corn Popsicles
- 4 cups skim milk
- 1 package (3.3 oz) instant pudding mix – white chocolate flavor for white layer
- 3 tsp. honey - divided
- Red and Yellow food coloring *
- 1 package (5.1 oz) instant pudding mix - vanilla flavor for yellow and orange layers
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine 1 1/2 cups of skim milk and the white chocolate instant pudding mix. Using the whisk attachment, mix well until it thickens (1-2 minutes). Add 1 teaspoon of honey and whisk again to incorporate it. Using a spatula, scrape the pudding into a resealable plastic bag. Press the pudding to one of the bottom corners of the bag and, using a sharp pair of scissors, cut a small corner of the bag off. Squeeze a little of the pudding into the bottom of each of 12 popsicle molds, gentle tapping the molds on the counter to settle the pudding and remove bubbles that form.
In the same bowl that you made the first batch of pudding, prepare the second batch of pudding by mixing the vanilla instant pudding mix and 2 1/2 cups of skim milk (if you have any of the white chocolate pudding left, remove it from the bowl before making the second batch of pudding). After the pudding has thickened, add 2 teaspoons of honey and whisk again to incorporate it. Add a few drops of yellow food color and whisk again to make the pudding a vibrant yellow color. Using a spatula, scrape half of the pudding into a resealable plastic bag.
Add a drop or two of red food coloring to the other half of the pudding still in the bowl. Whisk gently until the pudding is a pale orange color. Follow the same method you used for the first pudding layer to add orange and yellow layers of pudding to the popsicle molds. Carefully insert the popsicle sticks and place the popsicles on an even surface in the freezer. Freeze for at least 2 hours or overnight. To release the popsicles, slightly warm the molds using your hands and pull the popsicle sticks gently out of the mold, releasing some festive popsicles to be enjoyed!
* If you find yourself without red food coloring like I did (this is what I get for having a daughter who insists on having pink frosting on all her cupcakes!), you can get a great orange layer by adding 2-3 teaspoons of maraschino cherry juice. It will work beautifully and give a little fruitiness to the final treats!
- Yields: About 12 popsicles
- Preparation Time: 10 minutes, plus freezing time