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Australian houses, from architectural masterpieces to suburban family homes, Victorian terraces, mid-century marvels, coastal shacks, city apartments, and everything in between.
Award-winning Australian architecture, inspiring homes, and interviews with Australia’s top architects.
Award-winning Australian interior design, inspiring homes, and interviews with Australia’s top designers.
In depth features on Australia’s most beautiful gardens and landscape design.
Studio visits with Australia’s most talented creatives, from artists to architects, ceramicists to stylists, furniture makers to lighting designers.
Studio visits with Australia’s top artists, and unmissable art exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and beyond.
Weekly recipes and meal ideas from our favourite cooks, authors and foodies.
Unique travel destinations, design-led accomodation and day trip ideas in Australia and New Zealand.
Yep. This ice cream is made from avocado. You will need to open your mind. Just as a few sneaky frozen bananas provide the perfect base for a dairy-free chocolate ice cream, avocado is the perfect creamy vehicle for matcha ice cream. And I swear to you that you won’t even taste the avo. I have done multiple experiments on friends and only one of them, with hesitation, guessed avocado as an ingredient.
Matcha. Matcha. Matcha. I can’t help but to say it three times with a Brady Bunch-esque tempo. Matcha is not quite the same as green tea but it does come from the tea tree. Matcha is an incredible green-coloured powder made from air dried young buds of tea plants that are slowly ground between two granite rocks.
For almost 900 years the Japanese have been whisking (using a special bamboo whisk) matcha to make ceremonial Japanese green tea. Buddhist monks even drink it to keep them alert and focused during long days of meditation. Matcha is chock full of antioxidants as well as being rich in chlorophyll. Monks know best. If you’re in Melbourne you can pick up some Matcha at Mr Kitly in Brunswick or Minh Phat in Richmond.
For the popsicles
2 large avocados or 3 small avocados
1 can coconut milk
2 tbsp matcha powder
2 tbsp of honey (adjust to taste but you don’t want the mixture super sweet)
1 tsp of pure vanilla extract
For the white chocolate dip*
200g good quality fair trade white chocolate
4 tbsp raw organic cacao butter
½ tsp ground vanilla powder (unless your chocolate already contains this)
*So the addition of white chocolate is where things get kinda lazy and totally indulgent. If you’d rather veer on the side of wholesome then by all means skip this step and your popsicles will still be delicious. Or if you want to make a dairy free white chocolate from scratch this is totally doable too. However if you do want to add white chocolate then I have a confession to make. I actually dip the ENTIRE popsicle in chocolate, but for the sake of food photography cuteness I’ve only dipped the tip of these ones. The addition of cacao butter will thin the chocolate and make it easier to work with.
Add ice cream ingredients to a blender and blend at high speed until silky smooth. Then pour mixture into popsicle moulds, insert sticks and put into the freezer for five or so hours.
When your pops are frozen hard you are ready to melt your white chocolate. Place chopped up chocolate along with cacao butter into a double boiler (the narrower the chocolate vessel the better). Over medium heat, and with your full undivided attention, gently stir until there are no lumps. Heat just enough so that you can stick your finger in without it burning.
To release the pops from their moulds, quickly run them under warm water. I like to do this one at a time so they don’t melt. Now working quickly dip each pop into the white chocolate. Use a spatula to fill in any spots that you miss. Hold the stick and let it drip for a few seconds as the chocolate hardens.
Place the pop on non-stick baking paper until the chocolate sets completely. Repeat until you cover all the popsicles. Wrap each popsicle in baking paper and store in a container in the freezer until ready to eat.
Massive thanks to Kirra Jamison for joining us this month with her inspired Japanese canteen treats! For more delicious recipes from Kirra be sure to check out her food blog, Keke!
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