Melbourne’s best desserts: 11 sweet treats you need to try
GOT a sweet tooth that just won’t quit? Get a lick of some house-brewed beer icecream or perhaps some gelato with nutella on tap. We’ve found the best desserts across our great state you just can’t miss.
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GOT a sweet tooth that just won’t quit? Get a lick of some house-brewed beer icecream or perhaps some gelato with nutella on tap.
We’ve found the best desserts across our great state that you just can’t miss.
BEER ICE CREAM
Combining two of the best things in life — beer and ice cream — and squishing them between two chewy sour cherry chocolate cookies might be just one of the many very clever ideas at Collingwood’s Stomping Ground brewery, but it’s a pretty sweet one indeed. Cult ice cream food truck Billy Van Creamy (which also has a new pop up store on Gertrude St until May) has transformed the house-brewed milk stout into ice cream form, two big scoops of which become the chocolate sauce-drizzled filling for the sour cherry choc sandwich. It’s a 10 buck dessert that, if the great pizzas, beaut burger and better beers didn’t get you through the door, is one very good reason to pay the family friendly beer hall a visit. DS
NUTELLA ON TAP
There’s no doubt Johnny di Francesco knows his pizza (there’s that world’s best trophy taking pride of place in his good room) but who knew he knows his ice cream just as well? At Zero Gradi, the Neapolitan-style gelato is churned daily — the pistachio and baci are standout flavours — and served in cup or choc dipped-and-sprinkled cone. That can then come adorned with whipped cream and — here’s the kicker — drizzled under a tap from which molten Nutella or dark chocolate flows, the latter hardening into a posh Ice Magic for childhood memories written in adult pleasure. DS
93 Lygon St, Brunswick East
MONTAGUE SUNSET PLUMS
Round, red and crunchy, Montague Sunset Plums are ripening beautifully.
So autumn is the right time to savour them, straight off the branch or as part of three delectable desserts at Fitzroy’s Town Hall Hotel.
Owner-chef Sean Donovan — a self described “stone fruit fan” — is simmering Montague’s red-purple Sunsets for a frangipane tart, poaching them for a tarte tatin with vanilla ice cream, and even folding them into a pistachio and polenta cake.
“These firm, sweet fleshed plums were easy to work with and delicious to eat,’’ Donovan told us. See for yourself. SP
montague.com.au, fitzroytownhallhotel.com.au
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BLACK STAR PASTRY
Sydney’s cult pastry purveyors Black Star has just popped up in Carlton, peddling their perfectly pretty — and highly addictive — pic-tastic cakes. Their strawberry watermelon cake is a signature for good reason; its fragrant mix of rose-scented cream, juicy watermelon, strawberries and chewy almond dacquoise is a layered delight, afternoon or night. Along with eclairs, flans and brownies, the full range of cakes will be offered, including the equally alluring black sesame torte topped with yuzu jelly, and the lemon myrtle chiffon. On the hunt for a permanent store, get a Black Star fix first at their temporary Carlton pop up at 55 University St until May. DS
DELICE DE BOURGONE BLANCMANGE AT RAMBLR
The dudes behind cheeseburger-slinging party palace Leonard’s House of Love have set up shop around the corner on Chapel St and, with Ramblr, are showing that good times now come in three courses with chef Nick Stanton cooking up a storm. With so much on the menu worth ordering it’s easy to get swept up in the excitement, but the blancmange to end is a non-negotiable full stop to a meal. Turning the triple cream French cheese delice de Bourgogne into a thick, faintly funky cream that’s set and topped with a drizzle of balanced strawberry syrup, then finished with a crack of pink pepper. It’s cheese, it’s dessert. It’s delicious and completely inspired. Run, don’t walk. DS
CARAMELICIOUS SALTED CARAMEL
There’s salted caramel, then there’s Caramelicious. Made in Carrum Downs and exported to the world, the artisan spread comes in five flavours to a family recipe. Jockey Rémi Tremsal and his wife Breena hand-make each small batch in the traditional French method in copper bowls before shipping to gourmet shops in Oz, Dubai, Hong Kong, Japan and New Zealand. Get it by the jar and also in La Sirene beer, Melbourne Martini cocktails in a jar, Gelatissimo ice creams and doughnuts from the Lukumades food truck. Say bonjour to the Tremsals at Fed in French, a celebration of French fare at Federation Square that’s part of MFWF’s River Graze weekend (March 31-April 2). MM
PEACH TART AT CAMUS
Fans of Pierre Khodja (and there are many) will rejoice that not only is he back in the kitchen cooking his refined French-Algerian fare at Camus, but that his signature Turkish delight souffle has also made a return. But save a spoon (and a little room) for his baked-to-order peach tart that’s an equally sublime full stop to a meal. Thick cheeks of sweet peach come snuggled into a pasty tart at once buttery and light. A drizzle of star-anise spiced caramel adds fragrant sweetness and combines with blueberry ice cream that quickly melts into a sweet saucy pool of happy. DS
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PROM COAST ICE CREAM
From serving scoops of their house-made ice cream from the Walkerville kiosk to now being stocked around the state, it’s been a wild ride for Daniel Encel and Hilary Skelton who chucked in their jobs as a journo and interior designer respectively to make ice cream. And what ice cream Prom Coast Ice Cream is. Using Gippsland milk in an egg-free base, and local fruits and juices, the duo has created award-winning flavours including crème brulee, chai latte, while blood orange sorbet and passionfruit coconut cream are vegan-friendly South Gippsland sensations. DS
GIRLS AND BOYS
Vegetarian pioneers Laki Papadopoulos and Mark Price of Vegie Bar and Transformer Fitzroy, have just opened Girls and Boys, a vegan dessert bar on Brunswick St. Soft serve and gelati, mylk shakes and smoothies so delicious and dairy free. DS
MORK CHOCOLATE MILK
Mörk Chocolate Brewhouse has partnered with local dairy St. David to create a Melbourne-made, 300ml bottled drinking chocolate that’s both a step back in time — and a taste of the future. Gippsland milk that’s processed in the only inner-city micro-dairy is blended with Mork’s 60 per cent pure dark chocolate and a touch of organic coconut blossom sugar. No hidden nasties, just thick, rich, decadent choc milk. Available through autumn at the Mork Chocolate Brewhouse (150 Errol St, North Melbourne) and St David Dairy (16 St. David St, Fitzroy). DS
AUSSIE AFTERNOON TEA AT THE WINDSOR
Anyone for an Anzac sandwich? A lamb and turnip pastie? A strawberry lamington?
They are all for the eating at The Hotel Windsor as part of an Australian Celebration Afternoon Tea (until March 21).
Executive chef Joel Alderson is giving this signature offering an Aussie twist to “commemorate the hotel’s bountiful heritage’’ (circa 1883) but in true Windsor style, every Lucky Country morsel is presented on a classic three-tiered stand ... with silver spoon service. SP
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