Peach-Vanilla Cream Pops

Hello summer! Finally. We totally skipped spring up here in the mountains and are facing a horrible flooding of the rivers, but hooray, there is still reason to celebrate because warm weather is here! Finally. Since I have been home I have already gotten the chance to grill on our deck with friends, get to the park, make a run to Ciao Gelato with the kids, and make these peach popsicles. Sunny weather activities. FINALLY! I have been waiting for warm weather for months and months. There's no holding me back now.

These pops are in a word, ridiculous. Peaches and cream are a perfect combination already, but add vanilla bean sugar and a slight tang from some yogurt and dang. If you add the optional amaretto, which is not optional in my book (unless kids will be eating them) it creates the perfect deck dessert for a hot summer night. I'll be making these time and time again, that's for sure.

Peach-Vanilla Cream Pops

adapted from Bon Appetit, June 2011

makes 8 pops

1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp. sugar

1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise

4 cups sliced peeled ripe peaches (about 4-5 medium), or 16 oz. frozen sliced peaches, thawed

1/2 cup chilled heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup Greek-style yogurt

1 to 2 Tbsp. amaretto (optional)

Place sugar and 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan. Scrape in seeds from Vanilla bean; add bean. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Transfer syrup to a small bowl; chill. Discard vanilla bean.

Puree syrup and peaches in a food processor or blender until smooth. Set a fine-mesh strainer over a medium pitcher; strain, pressing on solids to extract the puree (If you use a powerful blender such as the Vita-mix, like I did, you can skip this step because everything will be blended thoroughly without lumps). Whisk in remaining ingredients. Divide among molds. Cover; insert ice-pop sticks. Freeze until firm. Dip bottoms of molds into hot water for 20-30 seconds to loosen pops. Remove pops from molds and serve.

*This blog post was featured on Bon Appetites web page.

Summertime and the livin's easy! Okay, so technically I know "summer" doesn't actually begin until June 21st. However, school is out and so is the sun, so it's all the same to me!