Plum, Cream Popsicles with Strawberry and Thyme

Summer fruits are in full swing! My farmer’s market is overflowing with all varieties of stone fruit and tiny red strawberries with the stems still on. Between the bounty at the farmer’s market and the mini-heat wave we had last weekend, it was time to make popsicles. YES!

These popsicles have two parts: 1. A sweetened plum mixture and 2. Heavy cream that has been infused with Teahaus’ Strawberry Cream Tea.

While real strawberries in popsicles are amazing, I love the combo of plums and thyme too much not to give the plums the starring role. Seriously. Have you ever had plums and thyme together? It’s completely wonderful. Plus, I love that the plums give these popsicles a slight tartness.

The plum mixture is made by roasting the plums with thyme in the oven. Roasting the plums softens them and releases their juices and flavor. After they’re roasted all you have to do is add maple syrup and vanilla bean, pulse in your food processor and BOOM — plum mixture ready. Try not to eat too much while you prepare the rest of the popsicles. I know, it’s hard. I have faith in you.

Okay — let’s talk about the cream. Oooh creamy cream. This cream is infused with Teahaus’ Strawberry Cream Tea. (Sound good? Read my review for Strawberry Cream Tea.) This is actually a black tea, not a fruit tea although there are little pieces of strawberry in it. Regardless, when you open the bag and take a sniff, all you smell is creamy strawberry goodness. I don’t know how they do it. So good. As soon as I opened the package, I knew this tea would be the perfect fruit accent for these plum popsicles.

One way to use tea in food is to infuse cream or butter with it. To infuse the cream with tea, we simply bring the cream to a low boil, add the tea, let it steep and then strain the tea out of the cream. It’s essentially just like making tea with water except you’re using cream. Because we’re using a black tea it’s super important to make sure you don’t over steep your tea because it will become bitter if left in too long. If you got this far and had bitter popsicles I would be sad.

Once you have both the plum mixture and the infused cream, you simply layer them into your popsicle molds and VOILA — a fruity yet rich summer treat. I have to say, I seriously love these popsicles. I have to stop myself from open the freezer repeatedly to eat them. Plus, they wowed Chris (boyfriend) and that’s high praise, so they’re most definitely worth the effort in my book.

Also! I used Norpro’s Ice Pop Maker as the mold for these popsicles, but this recipe will make 30oz of popsicles so adjust as needed based on whatever mold you have on hand.

Recipe inspired by Fork Knife Swoon’s Roasted Strawberry and Cream Popsicles.

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Plum, Cream Popsicles with Strawberry and Thyme

Makes 10 3oz popsicles.

INGREDIENTS

1 lb plums

1.5 cups heavy cream

5oz Teahaus' Strawberry Cream Tea (about 1.5 tbs)

1/4 cup + 3 tbs maple syrup

4-5 sprigs of thyme

Seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375. Cut the plums in half and remove pits. Place skin-side down on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Drizzle 1 tbs maple syrup over the plums. Pull the leaves off the sprigs of thyme and sprinkle over the plums. Roast for 20 minutes.

2. Let plums cool for 10-15 minutes, then transfer to a food processor. Add ¼ cup maple syrup and vanilla bean seeds (or vanilla extract). Pulse 3 or 4 times. Plums should still be somewhat chunky.

3. Prepare a bowl with a cheesecloth over it. You can use a rubber band to hold the cheesecloth in place. If you don’t have a cheesecloth, a fine mesh strainer works well too.

4. In a small saucepan, bring the cream to a low boil over medium heat.

5. Once the cream has reached a low boil, immediately remove from heat, add the loose leaf tea and stir. Steep the tea in the cream for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Set a timer — you don’t want the tea to oversteep and become bitter since we’re using a black tea.

6. Pour the cream mixture over the prepared bowl with cheesecloth or mesh strainer until all tea pieces have been removed. Add 2 tbs maple syrup to the cream mixture and a pinch of salt.

7. Begin creating your popsicles. Layer fruit mixture and cream mixture until popsicle molds are filled. Freeze for 30 minutes, then add popsicle sticks. Continue to freeze popsicles an additional 4 hours or until solid.

8. To remove popsicles from molds, run the bottom of the mold under warm water for a few seconds. If the popsicles don’t come out easily, warm the outside of each popsicle with your hands until they come loose.

Note: If you prefer blended popsicles over layered popsicles, simply add the strained cream mixture to the fruit mixture in your food processor and blend until smooth.

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Lovely little things

• Love these new mint colored linen napkins I got at CB2. So perfect for Spring and Summer.
• Think Dirty is an app that gives your personal care products a rating based on their potentially toxic ingredients. I'm using it to start upgrading my bathroom products.

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Currently reading

• Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal