You’ll fall madly in love with this irresistible Chocolate Cherry Slice. A cookie base, cherry & coconut filling topped with dark chocolate
Cherry ripe anyone?
Are you a fan of Cadbury’s Cherry Ripe chocolate bar? If so, you’re going to go wacko over these slices!
People usually either love or hate Cherry Ripe, there’s not really any in-between! Unless they’re like my sister, Nara, who told me recently ‘It’s okay, I can eat Cherry Ripe, but it’s nothing special’.
I adore Cherry Ripe, even as a young child. The rich and indulgent combination of coconut and glacé cherries covered in dark chocolate is a match made in heaven. When we were gifted boxes of Roses or Cadbury favourites chocolates, I would always go for Cherry Ripe and Turkish Delight.
This irresistible homemade slice tastes quite similar to Cadbury’s Cherry Ripe chocolate bar. However, this slice has a buttery crumbly chocolate biscuit base. The filling is a mixture of glacé cherries, desiccated coconut, sweetened condensed milk with a splash of Cherry brandy. The top layer is a generous amount of good quality dark chocolate.
These Chocolate Cherry Slices are simple to make because there’s no baking involved. The filling takes a few minutes to heat over the stove and I melted the chocolate in the microwave. Don’t you just love taking shortcuts in the kitchen? Especially when it results in amazing slices like this! Seriously, the hardest part is waiting for the slices to set!
Once set and sliced into serving squares, it looks beautiful and impressive. The pinkish-red cherry filling looks exquisite between the base and the dark chocolate. This recipe makes 24 generous slices, with plenty to share as gifts. However, if you decide to keep them all, I won’t judge because that’s something I could totally see myself doing!
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Glacé Cherries has got me going crazy
I have a confession to make…… I hate glacé cherries and I’m not even joking for once! If they’re used as a garnish for my dessert or cocktail, I would never eat them. If I was with someone, I would offer it to them with a large fake smile, hoping that they would take it. My husband, Tomasi, loves glacé cherries, so he is always happy to take mine.
So how is it, that a glacé cherries hating person like me, loves Cherry Ripe and these Chocolate Cherry Slices? Well, I dunno and probably don’t want to think about it too much as I’ll hurt my brain.
What’s even more strange is that I’ve made these slices many times and felt there weren’t enough glacé cherries in the filling. This actually surprised me as glacé cherries, to me, are quite strong in taste. So, I thought that using only a small amount of cherries was enough to flavour the entire slice. This wasn’t the case, the filling was dominant in coconut flavour.
After experimenting with a few batches, I was happy with the results after I used two bags of glacé cherries. I found that blitzing half of the cherries into a paste and chopping the remaining worked the best. The paste distributed the cherry flavour into the coconut nicely and the chopped cherries added texture as well as adding bursts of cherry goodness. I also added cherry brandy into the filling mixture for extra that extra yummy cherry kick.
So there you have it. I hate glacé cherries, bust I love it with coconut and chocolate! Ah, the magic and mystery of cooking.
Why not indulge a little more?
After-Dinner Mints
Rum Raisin Brownies
Passionfruit Slice
Chocolate Guinness Cake
Road to freedom?
We often ask our friends and family, ‘what would be the first thing you would do once lockdown ends?‘ It’s a little amusing because Tomasi and I previously asked each other what would we first do if we won the lottery. So the revelation for us is that having our freedom and flexibility in life to do what we want is equivalent to winning the lottery!
Our first answer would obviously be to visit our family and friends, but besides that, the three of us have different answers.
Tomasi dreams about walking around freely with not having to wear a mask. They’re uncomfortable and it’s difficult to breathe in. Also, communicating with masks is challenging because half of the time, I don’t know what people are saying. I also hate wearing masks but would prefer that our household wear masks until there are very few or no COVID cases remaining. Even when restrictions eased and we’re fully vaccinated.
Nara would spend all day dining out at the most popular restaurants and cafes. She made a list of places she wants to hit and most of these places have gone viral. That’s how my sister rolls because she’s trendy, Y’all!
I miss being able to shop at my favourite places for the best produce to cook with. Most of these places are further than our 5km allowance, so I haven’t been able to visit these places. I can’t tell you enough how over I am with seeing limp veggies or imperfect fruits delivered to us. I’ve also been struggling with having a small selection of fresh seafood to choose from.
However, one thing we all agree on is not looking forward to returning to the office. Who wants to wake up early in the morning to travel on a crowded train for an hour to get to the city? Work from home should become a permanent thing!
Ingredients for Chocolate Cherry Slice
You’ll also need vegetable oil or any neutral-tasting oil. I forgot to add it to the above photo.
Glacé Cherries (candied cherries) – We’ll be using lots of glace cherries to flavour the entire slice. We will blend and chop equal amounts of cherries. Doing this distributes the cherry flavour through the coconut nicely. The chopped cherries provide texture and give a yummy burst of cherries with every bite, and it also looks pretty too.
Chocolate biscuit (cookies) – I used Arnott’s Choc Ripple, which is a plain crunchy chocolate biscuit. Any plain chocolate biscuit/cookies would work.
Unsweetened Desiccated coconut flakes are finer than shredded coconut. Using shredded coconut would cause the filling to be coarse and dry so it’s not interchangeable with this recipe.
Dark chocolate – I prefer using cooking chocolate as they usually have a higher percentage of cocoa butter, which makes it easier to melt and work with. However, any dark or milk (eating) chocolate would work too.
Cherry brandy (optional) – Splashing a small amount of brandy adds more depth and flavour to the slice. If preferred, leave out the alcohol or swap with cherry essence, just use equal amounts called for in the recipe.
How to make Chocolate Cherry Slice
Step-by-step guide with photos
For the base – Grease and line the base of a 23x33cm (9x13in) tin with non-stick baking (parchment) paper. Place the biscuit in a food processor or blender and blitz until it resembles fine crumbs. Pour in the melted butter and pulse until the crumbs are moist and coated. Place the crumbs in the tin, use an offset spatula or an object with a flat base to flatten the crumbs evenly inside the tin. Chill the base with the tin in the fridge whilst working on the filling.
For the filling of the chocolate cherry slice
Roughly chop half of the cherries into quarters. Blitz the remaining cherries in a food processor until it resembles a thick paste. In a saucepan, melt the butter over low to medium heat, add in the coconut, condensed milk, brandy and cook for 3 minutes, stirring regularly. Add in the cherry paste, vanilla essence and salt, stir to cook for another 2 minutes. Remove saucepan from heat. Place a few drops of food colouring into the filling mixture and stir until you get a nice shade of pinkish-red colour. You may need to add a few more drops. Then stir in the chopped cherries. Place the filling mixture over the biscuit base and press down firmly.
For the chocolate topping – Place the chopped chocolate and oil into a dry and clean microwave-safe bowl. Melt the chocolate by zapping it in the microwave in 40-second bursts, stirring well after each burst. Pour the chocolate over the top of the filling and tilt the tin so that the chocolate coats the filling layer evenly. Refrigerate the slice for 2 hours before cutting it into serving slices.
Leftovers – Transfer the slices into a sealed container and refrigerate, it’ll be good for up to a week.
I’ve used a third-party application to calculate the calories and nutritional information, so please use this as an approximate guide only.
Cooking measurements are in Australian standard spoon and cup measurements. For specific details and conversions, visit our Australian Cooking Measurements page.
I would love your feedback and support if you made this recipe. To do this, please rate this recipe and provide a comment by scrolling down this page or by clicking that green circle on the bottom left. An email address is required (for spam), but it won’t be published. I would also love to see your dish, so don’t forget to tag me on my Instagram account ‘3catsfoodie’
Cheers – Cat T
Watch my Easy Strawberry Compote Video
Chocolate Cherry Slice
Ingredients
For the base
- 300 gm plain chocolate biscuits (cookies) (NOTE 1)
- 125 gm butter (melted & extra to grease)
For the filling
- 30 gm butter
- 3½ cup unsweetened desiccated coconut (NOTE 2)
- 395 gm tin of sweetened condensed milk
- 1 tbsp cherry brandy (NOTE 3)
- 350 gm red glace cherries (NOTE 4)
- 1-4 drops red food colouring (or pink)
- 2 tsp vanilla essence
- ¼ tsp salt
For the topping
- 400 gm dark cooking chocolate (chopped roughly) (NOTE 5)
- 3 tsp vegetable oil (or any neutral tasting oil)
Instructions
- For the base – Grease and line the base of a 23x33cm (9x13in) tin with non-stick baking (parchment) paper. Place the biscuit in a food processor or blender and blitz until it resembles fine crumbs. Pour in the melted butter and pulse until the crumbs are moist and coated. Place the crumbs in the tin, use an offset spatula or an object with a flat base to flatten the crumbs evenly inside the tin. Chill the base with the tin in the fridge whilst working on the filling.
- For the filling – Roughly chop half of the cherries into quarters. Blitz the remaining cherries in a food processor until it resembles a thick paste. In a saucepan, melt the butter over low to medium heat, add in the coconut, condensed milk, brandy and cook for 3 minutes, stirring regularly. Add in the cherry paste, vanilla essence and salt, stir to cook for another 2 minutes. Remove saucepan from heat. Place a few drops of food colouring into the filling mixture and stir until you get a nice shade of pinkish red colour, a few more drops may be needed. Then stir in the chopped cherries. Place the filling mixture over the biscuit base and press down firmly.
- For the chocolate topping – Place the chopped chocolate and oil into a dry and clean microwave-safe bowl. Melt the chocolate by zapping it in the microwave in 40-second bursts, stirring well after each burst. Pour the chocolate over the top of the filling and tilt the tin so that the chocolate coats the filling layer evenly. Refrigerate the slice for 2 hours before cutting it into serving slices.
