roasted strawberry, orange + pink peppercorn popsicles

I know it’s winter and no I’m no completely mad… but I did just write a guest post for my lovely friend Sarah over at The Vanilla Bean Blog (she’s from the states… where it’s summer. So see I’m not mad after all eh?). You can read the full post for these awesome popsicles (aka ice-blocks/icy-poles) here and/or grab the recipe below. And if you are from NZ/Australia you might want to bookmark this recipe for when our summer finally rolls around 🙂 xx.

roasted strawberry, orange + pink peppercorn popsicles
Unrefined raw sugar, brown rice syrup or honey can be used in place of the maple syrup if preferred. I used 1 teaspoon of pink peppercorns because I didn’t want to freak my kids out, but had I been making them all for myself I’d go the full 2 teaspoons. If you can’t find pink peppercorns sold separately, you should be able to find them in a pack of mixed peppercorns and just pick them out.  
Makes 4

500g (just over 1 lb) strawberries, hulled
3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
the finely grated zest of 1 orange
1-2 teaspoons pink peppercorns, finely ground
a good pinch fine sea salt

Preheat oven to 200C/400F. Combine ingredients in a medium bowl, transfer to a lipped baking tray or oven-proof dish and roast for 25 minutes or until strawberries are tender and their juices have been released. Remove from the oven and cool.
Transfer berries and their juices to a blender and blend until smooth. Spoon into popsicle moulds, snap on the lids and freeze. If using wooden sticks freeze popsicles for an hour until partially frozen before inserting sticks. Freeze 4 hours or overnight.
Run moulds briefly under warm water to help release the popsicles.