Red Baron Root Beer

As a child I loved the Peanuts comic strip. Still do. Even though its creator, Charles Schultz, passed away a few years ago it’s still in syndication and I still enjoy reading, and re-reading the collected comics.

When I was young, and on my way to becoming a Foodie, I had a cookbook that featured characters from the strip. One recipe I remember (and mentioned to you before) was called ‘Red Baron Root Beer.’ It’s a very simple recipe, but it’s fun for kids to make themselves, and a great treat for a hot summer afternoon.

Here’s what I remember about how to make it.

Red Baron Root Beer

Ingredients

Whole Maraschino Cherries
Your Favorite Root Beer

Put the maraschino cherries in an ice cube tray, one or two per cube. Pour your favorite root beer into the trays, along with the cherries, and freeze. Put a few of the frozen root beer cubes into a tall glass, pour in more root beer, and serve.

To be perfectly honest, I prefer making this with cola, or lemon-lime soda. You could try stirring in some of the juice from the packages cherries to the soda for added cherry flavor, if you want. The original recipe included toothpicks in the cherries (I think), but that just makes it dangerous to drink.

Cherry-Root Beer Popsicles

If you want to try a simple variation, you could make small cherry-root beer popsicles. Cover the ice cube tray with plastic wrap, and then sticking toothpicks through the wrap and into the cubes before your put it in the freezer. There are various commercial popsicle molds available, if you want to go that route.