To make popsicles in bulk, write the base by weight as percentages, blend and chill it before it goes into the molds, fill every mold by weight, and freeze in a brine tank, which freezes a tray of pops in about 20 minutes instead of hours. Fast freezing makes smaller ice crystals and a smoother pop, and it's what lets one person make a thousand in a day. Done this way, a paleta maker that froze 10 at a time makes about 1,500 in a day, and the cost of a paleta falls from $2.05 to $0.46. Below is the recipe at three sizes, the steps, the loss, what a paleta costs at each size, and a free scaling calculator.
The short version
- Write the base as percentages of the weight.
- Chill the base to about 40°F before filling.
- Fill molds by weight: same weight, same freeze.
- Freeze in a brine tank; sticks go in at the slush stage.
- Unmold with a quick warm dip, then sleeve and seal.
- Store at about −10°F, and keep the lot on every sleeve.
- TaroStack keeps the recipe by weight, takes each batch's ingredients off stock and checks its yield. More below.
The recipe, by percentage
Mission Reach Paletas, the made-up paleta maker in San Antonio, Texas, I use in these examples, froze 10 paletas at a time in home molds before buying a brine tank machine. Its mango-chile paleta, weighed:
| Ingredient | % of the mix | Kitchen batch, 2.3 lb | One batch, 60 lb | The run, 340 lb | Cost a lb, bought in bulk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mango, peeled | 60% | 1.38 lb | 36.0 lb | 204.0 lb | $1.20 |
| Water | 22% | 0.51 lb | 13.2 lb | 74.8 lb | $0.00 |
| Sugar | 15% | 0.34 lb | 9.00 lb | 51.0 lb | $0.60 |
| Lime juice | 2.5% | 0.06 lb | 1.50 lb | 8.50 lb | $2.50 |
| Chile powder | 0.3% | 0.01 lb | 0.18 lb | 1.02 lb | $6.00 |
| Salt | 0.2% | 0.00 lb | 0.12 lb | 0.68 lb | $0.40 |
| The whole mix | 100% | 2.3 lb | 60 lb | 340 lb |
The 340 pounds cost $303.04 in ingredients, most of it mango. Sugar at 15% keeps the pops from freezing rock-hard; less sugar makes an icier pop. The year around the cart is in popsicle business plan.
The steps, at 340 pounds
- Blend the base by the batch. Mango, water, sugar, lime, chile and salt, about 60 pounds a batch, weighed.
- Chill the base. To about 40°F in the cooler before filling; a warm base freezes slower and icier.
- Fill by weight. 3.5 ounces a mold, by depositor or pitcher, checked on a scale.
- Freeze in the brine tank. About 20 minutes a freeze; sticks in when the pops are slushy.
- Unmold. A few seconds in warm water, then the pops pulled out by the sticks.
- Sleeve and seal. Into clear sleeves, heat-sealed, then straight into the freezer.
- Label with a lot code. Every sleeve carries the run's lot.
The run takes one person about 12 hours, filling the next tray while one freezes.
What a paleta costs at each size
| Per paleta | Kitchen batch, 2.3 lb | Bulk run, 340 lb |
|---|---|---|
| Ingredients | $0.40 (grocery prices) | $0.20 (bought in bulk) |
| Packaging | $0.15 | $0.10 |
| Labor at $20 an hour | $1.50 (4.5 min a paleta) | $0.16 (0.5 min a paleta) |
| Cost of a paleta | $2.05 | $0.46 |
Mango by the case cuts the ingredients by half, and the labor falls from 4.5 minutes a pop to about half a minute. The sleeves are in how to package popsicles for sale.
Cream paletas and the license
Fruit pops are fruit, sugar and water; cream paletas add milk or cream, which is a dairy ingredient, and in many states a frozen dessert with dairy needs its own license on top of the food license. The license is in license to sell frozen food.
Get the calculator
Download the popsicle scaling calculator. Two sheets: scale the recipe, where you type each ingredient's percentage and cost a pound and the raw mix you want, and each ingredient's weight for the run fills in, with the mold trays, freezes, what comes out after the unmolding loss, the paletas it fills and the cost of each paleta; and weigh the loss, where what went in and came out over a few batches gives your average unmolding loss. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
Mango, strawberry, lime and three cream flavors, a run three days a week, fruit from two suppliers, and a freezer full of sleeves from different days. A sheet can say how much mango a run needs, but not which mango went into which pop, or which sleeves are oldest.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps the recipe by weight, takes each batch's ingredients off stock and checks its yield.
The recipe in the units you use. A recipe holds each ingredient by weight, with mango bought by the case and used by the pound, and the cost of every paleta comes from what you paid. "What could I make right now" says how many runs the mango, sugar and sleeves on the shelf allow.
Each run a batch. A run takes its ingredients off stock, records the lots of mango it used, and gets a lot of its own for the paletas, with how much came out good, how much was rejected and the labor minutes.
Yield checked from history. From your own batch history, TaroStack says whether a recipe yields what it claims and which ingredient's quantity is off, so a unmolding loss that creeps up shows in the numbers. A case of mango that bruised is an adjustment with its reason, spoiled, and shows in the waste report.
| The job | Spreadsheet | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Ingredients for Tuesday's run | Multiply, then check the shelf | What could I make right now |
| Which mango went into a run | Not written down | Lots recorded on the batch |
| The real unmolding loss | Weighed now and then | Good and rejected on every batch |
| Bruised mango | Thrown out, forgotten | Adjustment with a reason |
Recipes, batches, lots and yield are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.