Pumpkin Pie popsicles [creamy summer time treat]

If you love pumpkin flavor and can’t wait for the fall you don’t have to! Make these pumpkin pie popsicles for a healthy, natural sweet treat to enjoy the hot summer days.

Popsicles are the ultimate summer treat, wouldn’t you agree? Did you know they were invented by accident? Yep it’s true. Kids love popsicles. I mean, have you seen a neighborhood when the ice cream truck comes through? The kids flock to it to get a popsicle, creamsicle or some variation of this cold treat on a hot a summer day.

The popsicle was invented by an 11 year old named Frank Epperson. He accidentally left his cup of soda with it’s stirring stick inside. It froze overnight and when he woke up the next morning he found it frozen. It was a hit at school and after he had kids they called them “Pop’s-sicle” because their dad made them. Cool, huh?

 

 

Ingredients for these creamy, delicious popsicle sticks 

 (makes 6-8)

1. 3 cups chopped fresh pumpkin (or 1 cup pumpkin purée)
2. 1 ½ cups Greek yogurt
3. 6 tbsp honey (divided)
4. 1tsp pumpkin pie spice
5. 1 tsp vanilla essence
6. 4 tbsp melted dark chocolate (about 45g)
7. 6 gingersnap cookies
8. ¼ cup chopped walnuts
9. 2 tbsp melted butter (25g)
10. 1 cup water (if using fresh pumpkin)

Method

Pumpkin Purée

• Put 3 cups of chopped pumpkin and 1 cup water into a medium saucepan and bring to the boil, then reduce heat to simmer and cover the saucepan.
• Cook until pumpkin is soft and will be easy to mash. By then, most of the water would have dried up.
• Mash pumpkin with a potato masher to get the purée.
• Measure 1 cup of the pumpkin purée and set side.

Pumpkin Pie Spice base

• In a medium bowl combine the reserved 1 cup pumpkin purée, ½ cup yoghurt and 2 tbsp honey (add more honey if you would like it sweeter). Mix well and set aside.

Chocolate base for pumpkin popsicles

• Melt the dark chocolate via short 15secs burst in the microwave, mixing after each burst (or over a pot of boiling water). Leave to cool for 10 minutes.
• In a medium bowl, combine melted chocolate, 1 cup yoghurt and 4 tbsp honey (add more honey if you would like it sweeter).

Cookie Walnut mixture for the pumpkin pie popsicles 

• Put the cookies and chopped walnuts in a small zip lock bag, crush with a rolling pin
• In a small bowl, mix the crushed cookies-walnut mixture with the melted butter

How to assemble your pumpkin pie popsicles

• Layer the popsicles molds with the pumpkin base and chocolate base until the molds are almost full. Then top with the cookie-walnut mixture.
• Add in the popsicle sticks and pop into the freezer.
• Freeze for at least 6 hours (preferably overnight)
• To serve, run warm water over the popsicle mold to make it easier to remove popsicles. Eat frozen.

 

Notes

1. If using store bought pumpkin purée to make the pumpkin base, check the sweetness before adding honey to your liking
2. When layering the popsicles, you can make 2 or more layers, depending on how you want the popsicles to look. I did 3 or 4 layers.
3. If you would like the cheesecake mix to be more or less sweet, add or reduce the honey, 1 tbsp at a time, to your liking.
4. You can use graham crackers or digestive cookies instead of ginger snaps
5. You can use pecans or cashews instead of walnuts, or leave out the nuts all together and just add 3 extra cookies.
6. Use a teaspoon for layering the different mixtures into the popsicle molds to makes it easy (not messy)

If you love pumpkin spice and just can’t wait for fall, indulge in these creamy, delicious pumpkin pie popsicles to cool off on a hot summer day.