Pop-tastic Paletas

There’s nothing better than an ice pop when it’s hot outside. Check out these colorful, fruity ice pops. Kids in Latin America call them “paletas.” Research your sponsored child’s country flag on the World Map page. Then make paletas that look like that flag!

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Vanantha Rani, a CSP mother, adult woman, stands outside her home holding her young child, son, Imesh with one hand at his shoulder and carrying a tray with popsicles, ice pops, snacks, in the other hand.

This boy and his mom are in Compassion’s program in Sri Lanka. His mom just made some ice pops as a snack!

Paletas

Yields10 Servings

Adult help needed.

Fruits or juices in the colors of your chosen country's flag

1 tbsp sugar per fruit

1 tbsp liquid: water, milk or plain yogurt

1 tsp extra flavor (optional): lime or lemon juice, honey

10 small paper cups or ice pop molds

ice pop sticks or craft sticks

Pick your fruit. The top color of your flag goes in the cup first. We’ll make the Mexican flag as an example, so we need GREEN. For green, we’ll use 6 kiwis.

Blend the fruit together with the sugar and the liquid of your choice until it’s smooth and sweet. Add extra flavor with fruit zest, juice or honey if you’d like.

Pour the mixture into the bottom third of your cups. Put in the freezer until the mixture is mostly frozen, about 2-3 hours. (Set reminders to check on them.) Don’t add the next layer until the previous one is mostly frozen.

Repeat this process for the rest of your flag’s colors. For Mexico, we will blend 1 tbsp. lime juice, 2 tbsp. sugar and 1 c. plain yogurt to make WHITE. Then we’ll blend 1 c. strawberries, ½ c. sugar and 1 c. water to make RED. Then we will pour the white mixture into each cup on top of the green layer and wait until it’s mostly frozen before adding the red layer and a stick.

Insert the stick between the final layer and the one before it. After you add the final layer and stick, freeze the paletas for 4 hours.

Ingredients

Fruits or juices in the colors of your chosen country's flag

1 tbsp sugar per fruit

1 tbsp liquid: water, milk or plain yogurt

1 tsp extra flavor (optional): lime or lemon juice, honey

10 small paper cups or ice pop molds

ice pop sticks or craft sticks

Directions

Pick your fruit. The top color of your flag goes in the cup first. We’ll make the Mexican flag as an example, so we need GREEN. For green, we’ll use 6 kiwis.

Blend the fruit together with the sugar and the liquid of your choice until it’s smooth and sweet. Add extra flavor with fruit zest, juice or honey if you’d like.

Insert the stick between the final layer and the one before it. After you add the final layer and stick, freeze the paletas for 4 hours.

Paletas

Ingredients Directions

Colorful Examples

Red: strawberries, raspberries, watermelon

Blue: blueberries

Yellow: lemon juice, pineapple, mango, banana

Green: kiwi, honeydew melon, avocado

White: coconut milk, plain yogurt

Black: blackberries

Orange: oranges, mango

Paletas Pro Tips:

Use dry beans or rice to help prop up your cups in the freezer. You want your layers to freeze flat.
Use plastic wrap over an entire pan of cups or molds, poking the pop sticks through and into the liquid so they stand up straight when frozen.
Use your imagination for other ingredients that look like the flag. We added a lemon drop in the first layer of the Rwanda paleta to symbolize the yellow dot in Rwanda’s flag.