Where in the world have I been? I had no idea you could purchase these cute little paper straws! When I saw them I was immediately reminded of my childhood. It brought me right back to the red stained lips and tongue that was caused by those yummy, sugary and often soggy pixie sticks we used to eat as kids. With Valentines Day quickly approaching and having nothing yet in mind for my girl’s Valentine swap with friends, I grabbed a few straws – okay, I grabbed 140 straws but I will put them to good use, I promise!
Now I could make things easy on myself and purchase some powdered kool aid to place into the sticks but what fun would that be? Plus, I think these are a little bit healthier! 😉
Let’s make some healthier pixie sticks, what do ya say?
I placed freeze dried strawberries into my food processor. Gave it a whirl for about 20 to 30 seconds. I learned not to process for too long or the super fine powder clumped in the paper straws.
Add sugar, citric acid and cornstarch and stir to combine.
Pinch and fold up the bottom of the paper straw. You can either make a small paper funnel or simply put the straw down in the pixie powder and scoop it right into the straw. Once filled, pinch and fold the top. Easy!
Jessica at Printables Shoppe has allowed me to include her pixie stick holders for our readers! You can download the chevron pattern and the polka dot pattern to print on card stock. I love her pixie stick holders – for the price of a box of Valentines, you can print as many of these as you need. Just print them out, fold them and write to and from on the backside.
Wishing you a Happy and Healthy Valentines Day!
Homemade Pixie Sticks
Ingredients
- 1 cup freeze dried strawberries
- 1/4 cup sugar or stevia to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon citric acid
- 1 teaspoon corn starch
Instructions
- Place strawberries in a food processor and give it a whirl for about 20 to 30 seconds.
- Add sugar (or stevia), citric acid and corn starch and stir to combine.
- Pinch and fold one end of paper straw.
- Scoop or make a paper funnel to pour pixie powder into paper straws.
- Pinch other end of paper straw.
A couple of questions—I am curious as to what purpose the corn starch plays? Just to keep everything from clumping together? Stevia is a hundred times stronger than regular sugar, so I don’t think you would need to use as much to replace the sugar.
Hi Theresa,
I definitely should have added “stevia to taste”. I found when I initially made the powder that within hours it had collected moisture and was a solid rock at the bottom of the bowl. I added just a little bit of corn starch in my next batch and it solved that problem! I let the new batch sit on the counter for a few days with no moisture build up.
Thank you for pointing out the stevia issue! 😉