Strawberry and banana yoghurt lollies
Keep your little ones entertained, preserve over-ripe fruit and fill your freezer with bribe-tastic treats!
My kids love any sort of iced treat; not just big elaborate ice creams either, even the littlest lolly will deliver a disproportionate amount of happiness. They also love getting involved in the kitchen and this recipe is simple enough that they can make it themselves with minimal involvement from me. In fact, I’d say it’s probably the best place to start if you’ve always meant to cook with your kids, but haven’t quite gotten round to it yet. It’s safe, as there’s no heat or knives involved; they don’t have to be precise, so there’s nothing they can get ‘wrong’; and the end result is a bribe-worthy treat. It also tidies away the last couple of bananas before they get too spotty and finds a home for the final few squashy strawberries.
The first thing to do is to work out the capacity of your ice lolly mould. Simply fill it with water, then tip the water into a measuring jug. If you still have the ice lolly mould box, write it on the outside so you know for next time. If you don’t have proper lolly moulds, you can use old yoghurt pots or juice boxes (just cut the tops off). You could use teaspoons, straws or chopsticks instead of lolly sticks. My lolly mould has a total volume of 600 ml, so that’s how I’ve written the recipe, but you can vary the amount of yoghurt to suit yours. I’ve written the recipe as an info graphic to make it easy to refer to and given an indepth method below with some (hopefully!) handy hints. Enjoy!
Strawberry and banana yoghurt lollies
Makes 8
- 2 ripe bananas
- 6 – 10 ripe strawberries, hulled
- 2 tsp strawberry jam (optional)
- 400 ml Greek yoghurt (approx.)
- Give each helper a plastic bowl and a fork. Let the children peel the bananas (I make a little horizontal slash with a sharp knife near the top to make sure it peels successfully every time).
- Break the bananas into chunks and divide equally between the bowls. You can challenge older kids to mash theirs super smooth, but it doesn’t matter if the end result is still lumpy.
- Divide the strawberries between the bowls and mash to a pulp.
- Each child can then pour their mixture into the measuring jug – use a flexible spatula to squeegee as much out as possible.
- I like to add a bit of strawberry jam at this stage, as it sweetens it a bit and gives an extra depth of strawberry flavour, but you can leave it out if you prefer.
- Show the children on the side of the jug how full you want it to be and let them take turns spooning in the yoghurt.
- Take it in turns to stir the mixture until well combined. It can be tricky for toddlers to reach, even if they’re on a step stool, so be prepared to hold the jug at a comfortable height for them and accept the fact that you might lose a bit on the floor. You can always top up with more yoghurt!
- I decided that filling the moulds was a mummy job, but you can gauge your own child’s competence! They can still get involved adding the lids and inserting the sticks (remind them not to push them in too far). If you’re improvising with yoghurt pots or drinks boxes, try covering each one with foil and make a hole in the middle for the sticks to keep them upright.
- Freeze for at least 6 hours. If you remember in time, leave the mould out for 5 minutes to make them easier to remove. If not, dip the mould in warm water for a few seconds. To avoid lots of defrosting and refreezing, you can just unmould all of them in one go and store in a zip-lock freezer bag.
- I usually wash up and reuse the lolly sticks so they don’t run out, but if you prefer not to, try reusing them as plant labels instead.