from Smitten Kitchen Every Day SERVINGS: 10
TIME: 30 MINUTES + FREEZING TIME
½ cup (120 ml) water ½ cup (100 grams) granulated sugar 1 cup (120 grams) fresh raspberries 2 cups (340 grams) peeled chopped peaches in small/medium chunks 1/8 teaspoon almond extract (optional) 1½ cups (305 grams) vanilla ice cream, frozen yogurt, or nondairy vanilla ice cream of your choice, slightly softened (think: soft-serve consistency) Combine the water and sugar in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer; stir until sugar dissolves. Pour ¼ cup syrup (just eyeball it—it’s about a third of the mixture) over the raspberries in a bowl. Add the peach chunks to the remaining syrup in the saucepan, bring back to a simmer, and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, until the peaches soften. Let both raspberries and peaches cool in syrup. The raspberries will cool quickly, but you can hasten the peaches along by setting them in a larger bowl of ice water for 10 to 15 minutes. In a blender or food processor, purée the peaches and their syrup first, then scrape the mixture into a measuring cup with a spout and stir in the almond extract, if using. Purée the raspberries and place in a smaller spouted cup. (The raspberry color will muddle the peach purée much more than vice versa, so blend the peaches first.) Pour a tiny splash of raspberry (you’ll only want to use half of your total sauce) into the bottom of each Popsicle mold or small glass that you’re using as a mold (I like champagne flutes, for this and really everything), followed by a larger splash of peach (again, using about half the purée), and dollop in a little softened ice cream. Repeat with the remaining raspberry, peach, and ice cream. Use a skewer to lightly marble the mixtures together—I get the best swirls by swiping the skewer right along the inside of each mold. Freeze the Popsicles according to manufacturer’s instructions. NOTE You can use either fresh or frozen peaches and berries here. For the berries, use a little less than 1 cup as they’re more collapsed from the freezer. For the peaches, if yours are a little overripe and soft, you can probably get away without cooking them and just purée them. The same goes for frozen peaches, which will no longer be firm once defrosted. The cooking is just to ensure a smoother purée. I learned about using simple syrup as a sweetener in Popsicles from Fany Gerson’s fantastic Paletas book; it freezes to a better texture than just sugar alone.
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