Healthy ice blocks

[bhsimon]

My active little nephew has a thing for ice blocks. Sugary lemonade-flavoured treats on a stick which his mother, my sister, allows him to consume by the dozens. It has me concerned about the health implications of so much sugar for a five-year-old.

I've started to wonder whether it would be possible to do home-made versions which were somewhat more healthy in terms of sugar content. My current thinking is to use natural lemon juice with a bit of ascorbic acid (flavour), xanthan gum (texture) and stevia (sweetness), but after that I'm at a loss; especially when it comes to proportions.

When I try to simply freeze lemon juice the result is rock hard, as should be expected. I have guessed that the xanthan gum would help to reduce this effect and make it more like commercial product which manages to be slightly softer, even when completely frozen.

I'd love to hear if anyone has any insights to help me work out a formula for a child-friendly frozen treat.

[Mjx]

One of the best ways to not have to over-sweeten would be to skip the citric acid, since making something [even] more sour increases the need for sweetness to balance that out, and lemon juice has plenty of flavour of its own (limes are even better). You could age the juice briefly with a strip of bruised citrus peel, to increase the aroma. I'd definitely add a tiny pinch of salt, which has a substantial effect on enhancing the flavour.

[bhsimon]

One of the best ways to not have to over-sweeten would be to skip the citric acid, since making something [even] more sour increases the need for sweetness to balance that out, and lemon juice has plenty of flavour of its own (limes are even better). You could age the juice briefly with a strip of bruised citrus peel, to increase the aroma. I'd definitely add a tiny pinch of salt, which has a substantial effect on enhancing the flavour.

Awesome ideas. Thank you.

[Mjx]

Any time! By the way, there's an interesting discussion of the effects of salt (including that of tiny amounts) going on in the Salt in cocktails topic.

[Lisa Shock]

I'd leave the sweeteners out all together and make lightly lemon water flavored cubes. You can use other fruit as well. I'd just make a puree of real fruits and freeze it.

Younger kids are able to regulate their caloric intake on their own, for most fake sweeteners are not recommended. (A lot of the stevia out there is far more processed than people realize -the fresh, green herb normally has a bitter aftertaste. Some of the powdered stevia sweeteners contain MSG.)

Sweeteners give people a 'taste' for foods that are sweeter than produced in nature, and then they overeat naturally sweet items that contain real sugars. http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/09/research-artificial-sweetners-no-silver-bullet-for-losing-weight/

If it were my child, I'd rather have him acclimated to the sweetness levels of real foods like peaches and apples and pears and grapes. Or, try giving him actual real, unprocessed fruit.

Ultimately, kids will be drawn to sweets whether those sweets are candies, ice creams, soda pop, or real fruits. The trick to setting them on a good path for the future is acclimating them to eating a sensible diet which should include real, unadulterated fruits and vegetables. If all they ever get is sweetened fruits, they won't ever think that it has a good/normal flavor.

I knew an adult whose benchmark for 'good' fruit was cherry Kool-Aid. He hated real cherries and most fruit because it never tasted 'right.'

[DianaM]

First thing, I would buy some popsicle moulds that are about half the size of the ice-blocks. Smaller portions of whatever you make at home will be better for him.

For the lemon-flavoured treats, I would make some simple syrup with equal parts water and organic cane sugar (or some other, minimally processed sugar) AND steep lemon peel in the simple syrup while heating it. Be generous with the peel, it supplies the characteristic "lemony" flavour, the juice is just acid basically. Then I would dilute the syrup with lemon juice, and add grated lemon zest - this will give you a very strongly flavoured base. I know it seems counter-intuitive to start with simple syrup, but you can dilute this base with as much water as you want to reduce the sugar content, but still keep it palatable for a 5-yr old.

You could try to sweeten treats with honey, but since it has a flavour of its own, your nephew might not like it. Honey is sweeter than sugar, you can use less of it (by weight). Some varieties, like acacia, are quite mild and could be "masked" by assertive fruit flavours.

As for getting a rock-hard popsicle. Sugar keeps frozen desserts from becoming rock hard. Therefore, the less you have in the recipe, the harder the popsicle.

[bhsimon]

First thing, I would buy some popsicle moulds that are about half the size of the ice-blocks. Smaller portions of whatever you make at home will be better for him.

For the lemon-flavoured treats, I would make some simple syrup with equal parts water and organic cane sugar (or some other, minimally processed sugar) AND steep lemon peel in the simple syrup while heating it. Be generous with the peel, it supplies the characteristic "lemony" flavour, the juice is just acid basically. Then I would dilute the syrup with lemon juice, and add grated lemon zest - this will give you a very strongly flavoured base. I know it seems counter-intuitive to start with simple syrup, but you can dilute this base with as much water as you want to reduce the sugar content, but still keep it palatable for a 5-yr old.

You could try to sweeten treats with honey, but since it has a flavour of its own, your nephew might not like it. Honey is sweeter than sugar, you can use less of it (by weight). Some varieties, like acacia, are quite mild and could be "masked" by assertive fruit flavours.

As for getting a rock-hard popsicle. Sugar keeps frozen desserts from becoming rock hard. Therefore, the less you have in the recipe, the harder the popsicle.

Wow, that is really helpful. Thank you. Combined with Mjx’s ideas, I have a much clearer vision of how to get started. I’ll post my progress.

[CacaoC]

A long time ago, I used to prepare lemon popsicles with lemon juice, lemon rinds, a bit of maple syrup, a bit of salt and I would add few pieces frozen soft bananas in the Vitamix blender for the softer texture. Granted, the lemon flavor was not as strong then those commercial ones, but it was good and the kids in our familiy were mainly happy to have something cold to enjoy during the summer.

[Ozcook]

Why not just buy some sugar free soda (sweetened with something other than aspartame) and use that?