This is a play on Smitten Kitchen's Peach Melba popsicles! Here I have simply swapped the peach for nectarine and the raspberry for blackberries. This was just what was available to me at the market that week, though I do have a strong preference for nectarines. The resulting pairing was truly divine, as I have no doubt the original recipe is. This reminded me immediately of a popsicle I had years ago while walking on the High Line, which was just "french cream" and whole raspberries. The pairing of icy fruit and sweet vanilla cream was so wonderful, I've been trying to find the vendor ever since, although here I think I actually stumbled upon the magic of that first popsicle's flavor pairing.
As the original recipe states, I had left over fruit pulp from this recipe and I ended up using that to make a blackberry/nectarine popsicle that turned out incredibly. So feel free to skip the ice cream, though I think it's really wonderful here. I also see no reason not to swap in lightly sweetened (perhaps with maple syrup?) yogurt for the ice cream. Smitten Kitchen also has a recipe for breakfast popsicles, which let's be honest, on these hot steamy summer days we could all use.
All I can say is give this one a go, it's a really great way to use up the best of this gorgeous summer produce!
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 cup whole blackberries
- 2 nectarines, sliced
- 1 1/2 cups vanilla ice cream, frozen yogurt or non-dairy vanilla ice cream of your choice, slightly softened (think: soft-serve consistency)
Combine sugar and water in a small-medium saucepan (intentionally larger than it requires) and bring to a simmer; stir until sugar dissolves. Pour 1/4 cup syrup (just eyeball it — it’s 1/3 of mixture) over blackberries in a bowl. Add nectarine chunks to remaining syrup in saucepan and bring back to a simmer, cook for 1 to 2 minute, until they soften. Let both blackberries and nectarines cool in syrup. In a blender or food processor, puree nectarines and their syrup first, then scrape into a measuring cup with a spout, then puree blackberries and place in a smaller spouted cup.
Pour a tiny splash of blackberry (you’ll only want to use half of your total sauce) in the bottom of each popsicle mold or small glass that you’re using as a mold, following by a larger splash of nectarines (again, using about half the puree) and dolloping in a little softened ice cream. Repeat with remaining blackberries, nectarines, 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 popsicles according to manufacturer’s instructions. That's it!