Ingredients
Peaches (I used organic yellow peaches from Ferraro Farms)
Trader Joe's French Vanilla ice cream
Fat Toad Farm goat's milk caramel
Trader Joe's Speculoos cookies
Brown sugar
Sea salt
Directions
When I first started thinking about what kind of popsicles to make for our summer party, I looked through so many delicious recipes and ideas (and pinned some to my Summer board on Pinterest) and eventually decided on a peach and caramel popsicle. I knew I wanted to use Fat Toad Farm's caramel, but couldn't find an exact recipe for the popsicle. I eventually found this apricot salted caramel popsicle from Johnny's Pops in Vancouver and later received this recipe in an email newsletter from Fat Toad Farm. After doing some more reading about other people's experiences with homemade peach ice cream, I went on to experiment.
I sliced the peaches, sprinkled them generously with brown sugar and roasted them in the oven for 30-40 minutes at about 350 degrees. Also, based on some friends' advice, I sprinkled the peaches with some sea salt, which enhanced their flavor. While waiting for the peaches to roast, I set out the ice cream to let it soften a bit and also smashed the Speculoos cookies into crumbs in a ziploc bag using a heavy ice cream scooper. After the peaches were done, I peeled and chopped them and put them in a small bowl. I poured some Fat Toad caramel sauce into a sandwich-sized ziploc bag and snipped off a corner to get it ready for piping. I found this great tip for filling a ziploc bag for piping using a glass--I don't remember the original website, but here is another reference.
WIth all the ingredients ready, I scooped a thin layer of softened ice cream into a big bowl, mixed in some chopped peaches and drizzled the caramel sauce over all that. Then I spooned the mixture into 3 oz. Dixie cups, sprinkled Speculoos cookie crumbs over the top, packed the crumbs in a bit and inserted a wooden ice cream spoon halfway into each cup. I repeated the process a few times until I had enough popsicles for the party. I let them freeze overnight, but depending on how cold your freezer is, at least 24 hours might be best to give the popsicles enough time to solidify.
A few notes: I read somewhere that fruit tends to lose its sweetness after being frozen and definitely found this to be the case. Next time, I will probably use more brown sugar while roasting the peaches. I chose Trader Joe's ice cream to use as a base for the popsicles because it is dense and doesn't have a lot of air in it (compared to some other brands), kind of like gelato--that was the kind of texture I wanted the popsicles to have.
