Frozen treats on a stick are the most nostalgic of foods. Just the word Creamsicle can conjure the jingle of an ice cream truck coming down the street on a hot summer day.
Teresa Finney’s love for paletas, essentially a fresher version of an ice pop, was born from a similar childhood nostalgia. She grew up in the Bay Area, where family trips to the Mexican grocery store for pan dulce and cookies were a highlight of the weekend. “They had these creamy paletas that had big pieces of fruit,” she recalls. “They didn’t look like Popsicles at the grocery store. That was so cool to me.”
A recipe developer by trade, Finney moved to Atlanta in 2015 and six years later started At Heart Panaderia, her microbakery and pan dulce pop-up. Coming from a family that loved to eat but didn’t cook much, she taught herself from books and blogs and videos. “I realized I got so much joy from cooking, from being at the stove, from stirring things,” she says. “Baking was always just a hobby. This was never supposed to become my job.”
Although she dreams of opening a brick-and-mortar bakery, her Instagram-based pastry business has taken over her life, earning her a strong local fan base dedicated to creations like piloncillo pear cake frosted with hibiscus-stained Swiss buttercream, and confetti cake made with olive oil and seasonal jam.
Her recipe for strawberry and chile-coconut paletas is as rewarding as it is easy. A good paleta requires a smooth texture, traditionally achieved with high-fat dairy like Mexican crema, heavy cream, or sweetened condensed milk. Instead, Finney relies on full-fat coconut milk, which also makes the treats vegan. “Popsicles are vegan, and they should stay vegan,” she says.
She leaves her simple strawberry compote a little chunky and adds flakes of coconut for texture. What takes her paletas over the top, though, is a sweet-salty mix of lime zest, chile powder, and cinnamon that gets stirred into the base and can be sprinkled on the pops just before eating. The recipe makes plenty, so save what’s left to give freshly cut fruit or vanilla ice cream some zip.
This recipe uses standard, inexpensive ice-pop molds, but you could also get by with small disposable cups (to hold the sticks upright while the pops freeze, cover each cup with plastic wrap or foil, then insert the sticks). Either way, you’ll have a treat that hits all the right nostalgia notes but punches above its weight.
“It looks pretty and is a little bit fancy, but it doesn’t require a lot of proactive steps,” Finney says. “I love that kind of recipe.”
Meet the Chef: Teresa Finney
Hometown: San Jose, California
What she would make for a new love (although she is happily married): Pistachio tiramisu.
The thing she’d grab if her kitchen were on fire: “My collection of offset spatulas. I can’t do my job unless I have that offset.”
What she fell for when she moved to Georgia from California: Biscuits. “A good biscuit is just heaven on earth.”
