This Plum Ice Cream Popsicles recipe uses beautiful in-season plums and maximizes their flavour by roasting them. The result is a 6-ingredient ice cream frozen in individual popsicles that are packed with sweet fruity deliciousness.
As much as I love traditional gelato, making easy ice cream is always a win-win. My Mascarpone Ice Cream, Lemonade Popsicles, Peach Popsicles, and Easy Chocolate Popsicles are firm favourites at this time of year.
Today's recipe uses the juiciest in-season plums that are bursting with flavour. To maximise their flavour, we roast them with brown sugar which elevates that sweet juiciness. When blitzed, the roasted plums form the most intense fruit puree.
To keep things simple, we combine the puree with whipped cream and icing sugar and freeze it in popsicle molds for individual satisfaction! This plum ice cream is flavourful, fruity and creamy. It's utterly divine!
🌟 Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Uses basic ingredients. All you need is six-ingredients to make this ice cream.
- Freeze in a tub. Don't want to make individual popsicles? No problem! Just spoon the ice cream mixture into a freezer-safe container and freeze away. Scoop and enjoy to your hearts content!
- Simple to make. Making these plum ice cream popsicles is super simple. Roasting the fruit is an easy process of baking then blending, then the puree gets mixed with whipped cream. That's it!
- Summer favourite. Veer away from traditional vanilla and chocolate flavoured ice cream and wow your family and friends with these roasted plum popsicles. They'll be impressed for sure.
🧾 Ingredients Needed
- Plums - Any variety of plums will work here. There are so many types with different coloured skins or flash and different sizes. Just choose what is local to you. All I say is pick ripe and juicy ones. They'll be at their sweetest.
- Brown sugar - The sugar helps sweeten and intensify the roasted plum flavour. But use regular sugar or light brown sugar as an option.
- Vanilla and salt - Two ingredients that layer flavour to the plum puree.
- Cream - Double cream or heavy cream needs to be used. We need the high-fat content in the cream to create a creaminess. If you use a skim or half-half cream, the popsicles will be more icy and hard.
- Icing sugar - just a little is added to the cream when it's whipped to sweeten it.
📖 Variations
My favourite ways to change up this recipe would be as follows:
- White chocolate plum ice cream: Add 100g melted white chocolate to the whipped cream and fold though. It works beautifully with the fruity plum flavour.
- Mixed stone fruit popsicles: Don't just stick with plums. Combine some apricots or peaches into the roasting pan. Let's use the best Summer has to provide!
- Spiced plum popsicles: Add a tablespoon of ground cinnamon powder and ½ teaspoon of ground ginger to the roasted plums. The warming spices make this a perfect transitional dessert at the end of Summer/start of Autumn.
- Plum and hazelnut pops: I've always loved the combination of plums and nuts. Sprinkle some chopped hazelnuts into the cold before filling in with the ice cream for some extra crunch.
- Plum Caramel Popsicles: Caramel and plums are a dreamy combination. Swirl through Salted Caramel Sauce into the ice cream before freezing.
👩🏻🍳 How to Make
*Be sure to see the recipe card below for the full ingredients list & instructions!*
STEP 1. Roast the plums. Add the plums, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt into a baking tray and toss until fully coated (Images 1 & 2).
Spread the fruit out on the tray and bake for 20-25 minutes until soft and juicy. Set aside to cool for 10-15 minutes.
STEP 2. Blend the plums. Add the roasted plums and all the juice in the pan into a blender and blitz till smooth (Images 3 & 4). Option: You can pass the puree through a fine mesh sieve if you prefer but I personally find that the skin on the fruit disappears into the puree.
STEP 3. Whip cream and sugar. Add the cream to a mixing bowl and sift in the powdered icing sugar. Whip until firm peaks form (Images 5 & 6)
STEP 4. Add the puree to the cream. Pour ¾ of the puree into the cream and fold through until combined (Images 7 & 8). It may look like a lot of puree to add, but the cream will stay fluffy and the puree incorporates through. Let's just take stock of the incredible colour!
Option: pour in the remaining puree and don't fully mix it in but swirl it through so you get ribbons of the puree (Images 9 & 10). It looks super pretty!
NOTE: If you choose not to have a swirl through the ice cream- just add all the puree in at once and mix through.
STEP 5: Add to molds and freeze. Pour or spoon the plum ice cream into your favourite popsicle molds (Image 11). I found these 80ml volume silicon molds on Amazon and I love them! Add in the popsicle stick, cover with plastic wrap to prevent ice crystals from forming, and freeze until hard.
NOTE: If you have too much mixture for your popsicles, then pour the remainder into a freezer-safe container, cover and freeze.
When ready to serve, pop the ice cream out of the molds and enjoy! That's it! This is such an easy plum ice cream recipe. Minimum effort for maximum flavour makes for the best Summer frozen dessert!
💭 Recipe Pro Tips
- Roast the fruit for enough time. The fruit needs to go super soft and release all its juices. This is where all the flavour is at, in the juice and the bakes plum flesh.
- Sift the icing sugar. It can clump in the cream and sifting the sugar into the cream ensures even distribution.
- Whip the cream to firm peaks. The creamy, light texture of the ice cream depends on how much aeration is on the cream.
📋 Recipe FAQs
If your plums are at their ripest and soft and juicy, then no, you don't need to roast them, you can blend them right away. I will say though that roasting them draws out the sweetness and adds heaps of flavour to the puree. If you don't want to turn on your oven, then add the plums, sugar, vanilla and salt to a saucepan and cook on medium heat for 10-15 minutes.
Try my Plum Jam recipe, Plum Frangipane Tart, and Italian Plum Yogurt Cake for other delicious ways to use plums.
No problem. Use mini paper cups instead! Pour the ice cream mixture into paper cups, cover each one with aluminium foil then push a popsicle stick through the foil into the cup. Freeze. Once ready to serve, peel the paper cup from the ice cream and enjoy!
❄️ Storage and Freezer Instructions
To freeze: If you just leave the popsicles in the cold, over time they can take on odors from the freezer and get freezer burn on the bottom.
I recommend taking out each plum popsicle and individually wrapping them in plastic wrap or parchment paper before putting the wrapped popsicles into a freezer-safe container or ziplock back. Freeze for up to 3 months.
🍦 More Ice Cream Recipes
If you tried this Plum Ice Cream Popsicles Recipe or any other recipe on my website, please please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how you go in the 📝 comments below. I love hearing from you!
📖 Recipe
Roasted Plum Ice Cream Popsicles
Ingredients
For the Roasted Plums
- 400 g halved, de-stoned and sliced, approx 13 plums,
- 55 g brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
- ¼ teaspoon of salt
For the Ice Cream Base
- 600 ml double cream (heavy cream)
- 125 g powdered icing sugar (confectioners’ sugar)
Instructions
- Roast the plums. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. In a medium baking pan, add the plums, brown sugar, vanilla extract and salt and toss together until the plums are coated. Spread out evenly on the baking sheet and roast for 20 minutes until softened and juicy. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes.
- Blend the plums. In a blender, add your roasted plums and the juice and whizz until fully pureed. Option: Push puree through a sieve and discard the skin.
- Whip cream and sugar. In a medium bowl, add the cream and sift in the icing sugar. Using electric beaters, whip the cream until firm peaks form.
- Add the puree to the cream. Pour in ¾ of the puree into the cream and fold through until combined. It may look like a lot of puree to add, but the cream will stay fluffy and the puree incorporates through. Option: pour in the remaining puree and don't fully mix it in but swirl it through so you get ribbons of the puree. NOTE: If you choose not to have a swirl through the ice cream- just add all the puree in at once and mix through.
- Add to popsicle moods and freeze. Pour or scoop ice cream mix into your popsicle moulds or a freezer safe container and freeze for a minimum of 4 hours, or until fully set. De-mold and enjoy!
All recipes are developed and tested in Metric grams. I strongly recommend that you bake using digital scales for a more accurate result. I have provided a conversion to US customary in the recipe but please note that I haven’t tested using this method.
Notes
Nutrition
This post was originally published in August 2019 but has been updated with new photos, new content, and a revised recipe.
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