This afternoon Aja and Bianca of Liana Raine are back with a very 'grown up' popsicle recipe!  Today's minty green refreshing pop is made to be dunked in your favourite summertime drink -  Aja and Bianca suggest a fruity glass of Pimms, or perhaps Gin & Tonic if you prefer something with a little more kick! - Lucy

Cucumber, Apple, Mint & Lime Pop with Pimms recipe by Liana Raine.  Photo – Phu Tang.  Styling – Gemma Lush.

If a sweet cucumber frozen dessert doesn’t sound like your thing, bear with us for a moment.

Cucumber is known for being super refreshing.  We’ve all heard the phrase before - 'cool as a cucumber', and women the world over have layered their eyes with little discs of this crisp, watery vegetable, hoping for a fresh ‘pick me up’, or to erase the dark circles that are inevitable at this time of year!  Its refreshing flavour has also made the cucumber popular in beverages, and it can add a subtle but fabulous addition to jug of water, iced tea or cocktail.

Inspired by its refreshing reputation, and its regular role in a jug of Pimms, we came up with this cucumber, apple, mint and lime pop.

Impress your guests by adding your pop to a glass of Pimms, or gin if you prefer the harder variety.  Enjoy it as it slowly melts!

We were awarded a gold medal for this pop from the 2012 Delicious Magazine Produce Awards.  It’s good – we promise.

Cucumber, Apple, Mint & Lime Pop recipes by Liana Raine.  Photo – Phu Tang.  Styling – Gemma Lush.

Ingredients

(This recipe assumes you will use a domestic pop mold with 10 individual molds at 85ml each).

170g Lebanese cucumber
350ml apple juice (fresh if possible)
300ml sugar syrup* (see bottom of this post)
Juice of 1 lime
Handful of mint leaves

Peel the cucumbers and roughly dice. Put into a blender with the apple juice, sugar syrup and lime juice and blend until smooth. Add the mint leaves and blend until the mint is coarsely chopped, but you can still see small pieces.

Pour the mixture into the popsicle molds and freeze overnight or until rock solid.

To remove the pops, quickly immerse the molds into a bowl of warm water to help release the pops.

Serve pops on their own, or, for the grown ups, dunked into a glass of Pimms (or gin) for that extra bite!

*Sugar syrup

For all our popsicle recipes this month, please refer to the simple sugar syrup recipe below.

Boil 1 cup of raw sugar in 2 cups of water until the sugar dissolves, and leave to cool. This will make more than you need for any one recipe - store additional syrup in the fridge for your next popsicle-making session!

Liana Raine pops can be found at various stockists across Sydney, and their sweet little pop cart can be found everyday over summer at The Sydney Opera House!  They also cater weddings and events - for more info visit the Liana Raine website.

Cucumber, Apple, Mint & Lime Pop with Pimms recipe by Liana Raine.  Photo – Phu Tang.  Styling – Gemma Lush.