Orange Popsicles / Orange Creamsicles

Orange Popsicles! Oh! yeah! Summer Screams frozen desserts! This frozen orange popsicles are creamy and orangey and so easy to make....a summer treat for kids! No cooking is needed to make these pops, just squeeze out juice from fresh orange and blend all the ingredients....So easy and quick!!
Summer is at its might and frozen desserts are the best thing to cool down, and how I wish mangoes hit the market, cant wait to make mango ice cubes for my kids. My son, Namit (its his pet name, and I call him Nami, and so does everyone) is at home for his study hols and he needs to have some thing on and off and always ransack my refrigerator......all on the pretext of studying for exams! ha! and when I got some fresh oranges.....I thought why not make orange popsicle for him.....I first thought of adding full fat milk or condensed milk........but later changed my mind and thought of adding curd/yogurt as Nami does not like curd/yogurt, he has formed a distaste towards it right from the time he was a toddler.....though Nidhi is just the opposite and cant live without curd and Lassi is her idea of cooling down in summer.

A few weeks back, our Milk vendor, introduced to a toned milk curd and I started loving it because it is not at all sour and very apt to make lassi for Nidhi.....I know, you would want to know more about toned milk, so, this is what Wikipedia says about it,

"Toned milk is a method, developed in India of treating buffalo milk by adding skim milk, powdered skim milk and water to buffalo milk. This process decreases the fat content, increases the quantity of available milk, and 'tones up' the nonfat solids level to the original amount. The cost of the milk is reduced, making it more widely available and not a luxury purchase".

Though for daily use, I make homemade curd like most Indians, but somehow, I have started liking this packet curd after I got introduced to it.......so when I made these popsicles, I had a feeling that I should reduce the tangy taste of curd/yogurt (so that Nami, does not find out that there is curd in it) and so I decided to a tsp of vanilla essence/extract.....and I am so glad that I did....these popsicles turned out perfect with the right amount of orange flavor, so very natural and healthy.....the pops did not have a very deep orange color as the pops I used to have during my childhood, but yes the flavor was amazing! So I guess the color we see in the commercial pops (ice cream vendors pops etc) must be artificial....because I used one whole cup of fresh orange juice.....and the pops just had a faint orange color to it. If you are adamant that you like your popsicle to have that deep orange color, I guess you will have to add one or two drops of orange color while mixing.

So lets make these really easy, no cook pops to ease the summer boredom of kids!! Include your kids when you make these pops, they just will love squeezing out the oranges (and dirty the kitchen too)

Author: Nisa Homey.
Yield: 3 popsicle cups.
Ingredients:
Fresh Orange Juice: 1 cup (200 ml)
Curd/plain yogurt: 1 cup.
Sugar: 1/2 cup.
Vanilla essence: 1 tsp.
Paper cups: 3
Ice cream sticks: 3
Some aluminum foil or cling film.

Method:
This is the toned milk curd, I was raving about.....if you live in Kerala, you can give it a shot (this curd is not sour at all) and this is not a paid post nor I have been asked to write about it, I just love this product and simply wanted to share it with you.
That's the fresh strained orange juice ready to be blended.

Into a blender, add in one cup orange juice.

Add in the one cup curd or plain yogurt.

Add in half cup sugar.

And lastly 1 tsp of vanilla extract/ essence.

Blend it for 1 minute.

You can pour into popsicle moulds and freeze, but here I used simple paper cups (which was a leftover from Nami's Birthday Party)

Pour into paper cups, I got three cups full (you can ofcourse double the ingredients if you need more).
Cover the cups with aluminum foil or cling film.

Lightly pierce the center....then insert the stick...this way the stick will be positioned in the center. 

Freeze for 4-5 hours or preferably overnight. To remove the paper cups, snap the top side with a scissor and peel off.

Serve immediately.

Enjoy the Summer :)