On hot days, few things are as satisfying as reaching into your freezer for a homemade ice pop—but only if you can extract that ice pop in one piece. Having a popsicle mold that’s easy to fill, store, and remove treats from makes all the difference. After researching dozens of popsicle molds, testing 31, and making almost 200 ice pops over the years (as well as eating enough of them to give a whole army a brain freeze), we’ve found that the Tovolo Classic Pop Molds make the most consistent and easy-to-eat pops of all the molds we’ve tried.
These plastic molds make a traditionally shaped ice pop that comes out smoothly. The individually removable molds fit in a narrow tray, taking up minimal freezer space. And the whole set is dishwasher safe.
Cute and fun, this set offers unusual shapes and an easily peelable silicone mold. The medium size is great for big kids (we have an even smaller pick for younger ones).
These clever under-the-sea molds make even-smaller-than-average pops, so they’re more manageable for younger kids to finish. The silicone molds release easily, but they’re also easier to overfill than our main pick.
Each fruity silicone mold in this set is a separate piece, allowing you to easily stack them in the freezer. These fun shapes are simple to extract pops from and are fully dishwasher safe.
These plastic molds make a traditionally shaped ice pop that comes out smoothly. The individually removable molds fit in a narrow tray, taking up minimal freezer space. And the whole set is dishwasher safe.
The Tovolo Classic Pop Molds consistently produced the most easy-to-remove 4-ounce pops in a classic shape (rectangular, with a rounded top) thats enjoyable to eat. With the assistance of a little warm water, our pops came out of their plastic mold smoothly, never breaking during any of our recipe tests. The drip catcher is the most effective of any we’ve come across, requiring a full 90-degree tilt to spill some melted pop on yourself. On top of that, the molds, reusable sticks, and tray are all dishwasher safe and durable.
Cute and fun, this set offers unusual shapes and an easily peelable silicone mold. The medium size is great for big kids (we have an even smaller pick for younger ones).
The Tovolo Penguin Pop Molds are great for kids thanks to their slightly-smaller size and cute shapes. This set includes four silicone molds that rest on a sturdy plastic tray. Each mold makes a slightly different-shaped penguin, with a different hat or accessory, giving your kids a little surprise to look forward to or the chance to pick their favorite pop. The molds hold only about 2 ounces of liquid, making the pops just small enough for kids to enjoy without being overwhelmed. They’re a little fussy to fill, but the silicone is easy to peel off your frozen pops, not requiring any presoaking or rinsing in warm water. And this set is a breeze to clean, as the entire thing is dishwasher safe. Tovolo offers similar molds in other shapes, too, such as dinosaurs or monsters; these molds would probably work about the same as the penguin molds, but we haven’t tested them ourselves.
These clever under-the-sea molds make even-smaller-than-average pops, so they’re more manageable for younger kids to finish. The silicone molds release easily, but they’re also easier to overfill than our main pick.
If you’re looking for impressive visuals in an even smaller size than the Tovolo Penguin Pop Molds offer, we recommend the Zoku Fish Pop Molds. The adorable aquatic figurines will delight little ones, and ours looked crisp and professional regardless of the pop recipe. It’s easy to pull the fish pops from their silicone molds, each of which holds about 1.5 ounces depending on the shape—a great size for toddlers. The molds are easy to overfill, though, and this is the only set we recommend that isn’t dishwasher safe. It also has a fairly large freezer footprint, although the wide, stable base does help prevent spills. The pops from these molds were the easiest to remove of any of the kid-specific molds we tried. If aquatic animals aren’t your thing, Zoku also offers similar molds in other shapes, such as dinosaurs or polar animals, that are likely to perform well, too.
Each fruity silicone mold in this set is a separate piece, allowing you to easily stack them in the freezer. These fun shapes are simple to extract pops from and are fully dishwasher safe.
For something fun but not too childish, we recommend the 3.2-ounce Lékué Tropical Fruit Ice Pop Molds. These pricier molds come in the shapes of watermelon slices and whole pineapples, making cute yet sophisticated pops that would be great for a party. They don’t have a tray to rest in and must lie horizontally as a result, but the molds are lidded and stackable, allowing you to arrange them in your freezer as you see fit. The silicone is easy to peel off, and each piece is dishwasher safe. The reusable stick has no drip catcher, so dole these pops out to kids with caution—messes may ensue.
Choosing between plastic, silicone, or stainless steel
Pop molds generally come in one of three different materials: plastic, silicone, or stainless steel. Each has its own pros and cons, but generally we recommend plastic or silicone.
Plastic molds are cheap and readily available, and overall the plastic molds we’ve tested over the years have performed well (our current top pick is plastic). The biggest downsides to plastic are that it’s prone to breaking if you drop it while it’s frozen, and that it sticks to frozen pops more than silicone—plastic molds need to be run under warm water until they release their precious icy cargo. Plastic molds work best for making smooth, simple shapes that can slide out easily.
Silicone is a great material for ice pop molds since it’s flexible, doesn’t become brittle at freezing temperatures, and simply peels away from frozen matter, making pop removal a cinch even when you’re dealing with complex shapes. As food scientist Douglas Goff told us, “Plastic under a microscope is very rough, with lots of nooks and crannies, so ice can easily adhere to it and that makes withdrawal of a frozen novelty out of a plastic mold difficult. Silicone repels water, so the lack of stick is mostly due to the lack of interaction between water/ice and silicone at the surface of the mold.” Durability can be an issue—accidentally puncture these molds with a sharp object in the dishwasher, cabinet, or sink, and they’re permanently out of commission. Plus, silicone can emit a not-too-pleasant smell and is more likely than plastic to hold on to the odors of pops past (or anything else in your freezer). But overall, the benefits of silicone (and the fun shapes it can produce) make it a good alternative to plastic.
Stainless steel molds are the most difficult to find and can cost more than a novice pop maker may be willing to spend. Steel is durable and doesn’t retain any off scents, but it’s not flexible, so you have to run the mold under warm water to remove your pops. Ultimately, we haven’t found any stainless steel molds we’d recommend.
Shape: The shape of a mold can affect how pleasant your pop is to eat, as well as which recipes might freeze and release successfully. Pops that have a roundish shape and mostly fit in the mouth are easier to eat; if they’re too big or bottom-heavy, the bottom half might become a drippy mess before you get to it. Generally, smooth molds are the most versatile for a variety of recipes. “Molds that have a lot of elaborate detail to the shape will work best with mixtures that are going to freeze really solid, like fruit juice,” said Charity Ferreira, author of Perfect Pops. “Anything creamy or boozy or with chunks is not going to show much definition when you freeze it in a mold with a lot of detail.” She also told us that pops involving ice cream “or anything else that will freeze on the softer side” may be harder to extract from detailed molds. (In our own tests, we found that creamier pudding pops worked fine in the more elaborate molds we recommend but tended to lose detail faster than juice pops once they started melting.)
Size: For adults we preferred molds that held between 3 and 4 ounces of liquid. Larger pops can become tiring and messy to eat, and less than 3 ounces just isn’t enough unless you’re exclusively feeding toddlers. But if you are feeding toddlers or kids, we’ve found that the ideal size ranges between 1.25 and 2 ounces.
Easy-to-use design: A tray helps prevent pops from falling over and keeps your freezer organized. Even better is a tray from which you can easily remove individual pop molds; when all the molds are connected, it can be quite difficult to remove just one pop without disturbing the rest—particularly if the mold is made of plastic and requires some running under hot water to release the icy treat. Another helpful feature that some sets (including our main pick) have is a built-in drip guard on each stick to collect sticky drops before they hit your shirt.
Reusable sticks: We prefer molds that come with reusable sticks, since buying wooden sticks and inserting them in pops can be a hassle, especially if you run out of them and can’t make pops spontaneously. In our tests we looked for reusable sticks that felt smooth and not too pointy in the mouth during the final stages of eating so that they didn’t present a hazard to children.
All of our picks come with reusable plastic sticks, but if you, like Ferreira, prefer the look and feel of old-fashioned wooden sticks, you can still use those with most molds. Ferreira taught us a hack she uses to modify molds that aren’t originally designed for wooden sticks: “You can cover the top of the mold with foil, make a slit in the foil, and insert the stick. That holds the stick in place while the mixture freezes.”
Easy to clean: We looked for molds that were easy to clean. If a mold has a lot of little pieces and crevices, cleaning them by hand can be time consuming and complicated. We did pick some silicone molds that were more detailed, but none of them were too cumbersome to clean, possibly because it’s easier to get at crevices when they’re made of flexible silicone. It’s also nice if you can just toss a mold in the dishwasher, but we didn’t rule out any molds that weren’t dishwasher safe.
Durability: In our tests, we looked for molds that were sturdily built, with sticks that weren’t likely to snap in half and molds that wouldn’t shatter when dropped.
For our 2021 update, we researched the ice pop molds available and tested five new ones against our previous picks. During our last round of testing, we made three different types of ice pops: a version with just mango juice, fudge pops, and mixed-fruit pops (video). We used these recipes in order to understand how the molds would perform with different consistencies—simple, smooth pops, creamy pops, and chunky ones, respectively. We followed the molds’ specific cleaning and care instructions during testing, but we also put those that weren’t dishwasher safe through one final wash in the dishwasher to see how they would hold up to the occasional cycle.
For our original review in 2013, we tested 16 molds, making approximately 60 pops. In 2015, we chose 10 additional molds for an updated round of testing, with a focus on silicone push-up pops, classic pops, and cute kid-friendly styles. We tested those molds against our five original winners and made about 80 pops. For those earlier tests, we used four different recipes in each mold: pure orange juice, Creamsicle-like yogurt pops, mixed fruit, and fudge. We did two rounds of pop testing in each mold, and then we hand-washed all the molds to assess how difficult they were to clean and care for.
Tovolo Penguin Pop Molds
The Tovolo Penguin molds hold about 2 ounces per pop, making an icy treat that’s small enough not to be overwhelming for kids. And they come in unique, cute shapes—each penguin has its own look—that are fairly easily removable from their individual silicone molds. The sticks are reusable, and each piece of this set is dishwasher safe.
Like the Tovolo Classic molds, these molds are designed to let you remove them individually from the tray. When filling the Tovolo Penguin molds, you must first place each individual silicone penguin in a cylindrical slot on the tray. But be aware that there’s nothing to secure each silicone mold in place on the tray aside from the slots themselves: You need to fill the molds carefully so that the edge of the silicone mold doesn’t tilt off-balance and slip through the slot in the tray, causing a spill. Once you’ve filled all the molds, you top each one off with a playful stick that looks like a little iceberg. Take care not to overfill the molds before placing the sticks; if the molds are too full, the pops will freeze over the drip guard, leaving no barrier between your fingers and a melting pop. It’s a good rule of thumb to fill the mold to right before it widens at the top, so the stick can fit snugly.
Although the penguin pops don’t come out instantly with a simple tug like the Zoku-mold fish pops do, all you have to do to remove each penguin is peel off the silicone gently to ensure nothing gets stuck in the mold—no warm-water dip required. Still, the details in the penguins mean they aren’t ideal for a pop recipe that includes big chunks of fruit or other solid ingredients. In our mixed-fruit pop (video) tests, the whole grapes and blackberries made it difficult for us to fill the molds and remove the pops, while smaller pieces of fruit such as raspberries, blueberries, and sliced strawberries were much easier to work with.
The penguin shape itself is simple to eat, and the reusable sticks have flat drip guards at the base of each pop. These drip guards aren’t as effective as the cup-shaped drip catcher on the Tovolo Classic molds, but they do protect fingers from coming into direct contact with the pop.
The Tovolo Penguin Pop Molds and their tray are bigger and a little clunkier than our top pick, even though they make just four pops instead of five. The tray is about 10½ inches long, 4 inches wide, and 5 inches tall. It’s also bigger than the Zoku Fish Pop Molds tray, which makes six pops, albeit smaller ones. But unlike with the Fish Pop Molds set, you can throw this whole thing—penguin molds, reusable sticks, and all—straight into the dishwasher.
Tovolo also makes these molds in other shapes. Although we don’t recommend the tiki-shaped molds based on our tests (the grooves in each mold made it too difficult for us to release the pops), we imagine that some other, similarly shaped molds (such as the monster, sword, and zombie sets) would likely perform akin to the Penguin Pop Molds, as they don’t have too many grooves for the pop to get caught up in.
Video Review: Silicone Popsicle Molds
FAQ
Are silicone or plastic popsicle molds better?
Can you use silicone molds for popsicles?
How do you get popsicles out of plastic molds?
Are silicone Popsicle molds better than plastic?
The best material for popsicle molds depends on your preferences. For a flexible, dishwasher-safe, and reusable option, silicone is a popular pick. On the other hand, plastic is a lightweight alternative that is often less expensive and just as easy to use.
What is a popsicle mold?
Most popsicle molds, like sphere ice molds, for example, come in a variety of materials. These include plastic, silicone, or stainless steel. Plastic and silicone are typically easier to unmold than stainless steel, but both can retain the flavor of previously made popsicles.
Do Popsicle molds make a difference?
Having a popsicle mold that’s easy to fill, store, and remove treats from makes all the difference.
Are Popsicle molds BPA-free?
Though plastic, the mold is entirely BPA-free. If you’re hesitant to use plastic or silicone (even if it is made of BPA-free material), a metal popsicle mold is a great option. This six-cavity option is crafted from 18/8 stainless steel, which is not only food-safe but also extremely durable and long-lasting.