Chocolate Cherry Slice
You'll fall madly in love with this irresistible Chocolate Cherry Slice. A cookie base, cherry & coconut filling topped with dark chocolate
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.
Notes
(NOTE 1) Chocolate biscuit (cookies) - I used Arnott's Choc Ripple, which is a plain crunchy chocolate biscuit. Any plain chocolate biscuit/cookies would work.
(NOTE 2) 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.
(NOTE 3) 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.
(NOTE 4) 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.
(NOTE 5) 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.
Leftovers - Transfer the slices into a sealed container and refrigerate, it'll be good for up to a week.
Cooking measurements are in Australian standard spoon and cup measurements.
A Third-Party Application calculated the calories and nutritional information. Please use this as an approximate guide only.
Nutrition
Serving: 1sliceCalories: 387kcalCarbohydrates: 40gProtein: 4gFat: 24gSaturated Fat: 16gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 20mgSodium: 185mgPotassium: 276mgFiber: 4gSugar: 24gVitamin A: 213IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 68mgIron: 3mg