Quick And Easy Fruity Cereal Popsicles Recipe

Sugary cereals have been around for decades, but it wasn't until the 20-tweens that breakfast-for-dessert really became trendy thanks to celebrity chef Christina Tosi and her bakery Milk Bar. Fruity Pebbles was a particularly popular flavor, and by the early 2020s, you could buy such products as Fruity Pebbles ice cream, Fruity Pebbles syrup, and even Fruity Pebble macarons. Developer Patterson Watkins says she's all-in on the trend. "My culinary ethos entirely. I love the technicolor, saccharine-sweet cereals. The eye appeal, the sugar rush, the fact that no one is telling me I can't have 'em. (Hahaha! I'm an adult now, ma!)"

Watkins says she's been experimenting with cereal-flavored popsicles for a long while, and this recipe is the fruit(y pebble) of her labor of love. "This trio of melty vanilla ice cream, flavored milk, and Fruity Pebbles works super well. Here's why: creaminess, not iciness. We need a popsicle with smooth unctuousness, which comes from cream and sugar (hence, vanilla ice cream). Cereal just steeped in milk doesn't cut it either, the flavor, once frozen, mellows a lot. To boost that fruitiness, strawberry-flavored milk comes in handy. You want a little bit of texture (and cuteness), a little chew and pop. That's where the Fruity Pebbles come in, and they also supercharge the milk with max cereal flavor." With just 3 ingredients and very little effort, you can whip up a batch of cute and tasty cereal milk popsicles for a sweet anytime snack.

The base of these popsicles is strawberry-flavored milk and vanilla ice cream. You'll also need some fruity cereal (Fruity Pebbles or similar) for color and texture.

Place the vanilla ice cream on the counter to soften at room temperature for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, place 1 cup of the cereal in a medium bowl, add the strawberry milk, and stir to combine.

Set the cereal and milk aside to steep for 15 minutes.

Once steeped, strain through a fine mesh strainer, reserve the milk, and discard the soggy cereal.

Add the softened ice cream to the bowl with the milk and whisk to combine.

Add the remaining 1 cup of cereal to the bowl and stir to combine.

Divide the mixture between popsicle molds.

Cover the molds and insert popsicle sticks. Place in the freezer and chill for 8 hours or until the popsicles are solid.

Carefully remove the popsicles from their molds and serve.

While these particular popsicles may mark the pinnacle of Patterson Watkins' experimentation, that doesn't mean you can't still tweak the recipe to suit your own personal preferences. For one thing, you can swap out the cereal. Froot Loops, Trix, or Lucky Charms would all work, as would a similar store brand of fruit-flavored cereal. If the cereal pieces are large, however, you may want to smash them up a bit since smaller cereals break down more quickly and infuse the milk with more flavor. They also take up less space in the popsicle mold, resulting in fewer unwanted air pockets and prettier popsicles.

You could even change up the flavor by using chocolate cereal with chocolate milk and/or ice cream, while another option is to double down on the fruit flavor by using strawberry ice cream as well as milk. Speaking of strawberry milk, if you can't find this in the store, you can always DIY it by mixing strawberry syrup or powdered drink mix into plain milk. If you don't have either of these on hand, you can also melt strawberry jelly and stir that into milk.

No popsicle molds? No problem. They are pretty cheap to buy — even dollar stores sell them for, you guessed it, about a buck — but can be hard to come by out of season. If you have cake pop molds, you can always use these, but if not, you can use a muffin pan instead, as long as it fits in the freezer. (An ice cube tray would also work if you want bite-sized mini popsicles.) Divide the mixture between each indention, then wrap the pan in several layers of plastic wrap. Poke the sticks through the top of the plastic, cutting a small slit if necessary. Freeze the popsicles, then let them thaw for a minute or two until they slip out of the molds.

If you would prefer to thaw just a single popsicle at a time, you may be better off using paper cups as molds. Wrap each individual cup with plastic and poke in the stick, then freeze. These paper cupsicles can be unmolded on an as-needed basis by peeling off the paper, which should be pretty easy since most cups are lined with a slick substance such as wax or plastic to allow them to hold liquid without leaking.