Cherry Ripe Slice

Cherry Ripes are probably my all time favourite chocolate bar and an Australian institution. If I had a ready and easy supply of the real thing I'm not sure I would make this, however, as they are hard to come by over here in the UK I thought I would look for a way to make them myself. If you have no idea what I am talking about, let me explain, Cherry Ripes are a dark chocolate dipped bar, filled with chopped glacé cherries and coconut filling. I'm not a great fan of glacé cherries, but in this, they are perfect and you simply can't substitute for fresh cherries.

There are a few variations to this recipe online, so I had a look through them all to find one that suited me. Most have a chocolate slice base, and look really nice, but I wanted to have no base so I could make some dipped in chocolate (see below), like the proper bar, and some in a slice form like this above.

This is a no bake recipe, super easy and totally delicious!

What will I change? I'll add more cherries next time, and less condensed milk. The original recipe called for copher (a uniquely Australian product), but I substituted with coconut oil. It was fine with that, and I would say much healthier.

Without further ado, here is the recipe (with adjustments to suit my changes):

Cherry Ripe Slice

Ingredients:

150-200g glacé cherries, chopped (depends on how full of cherries you would like the slice)

250g desiccated coconut

300g sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

115g coconut oil, melted (or copher if available)

few drops pink food colouring until desired colouring

200g dark chocolate, melted

Method:

Line a large 20 x 30cm tray with aluminium foil.

Put condensed milk, vanilla, coconut oil and food colouring into a large bowl. Mix to combine. The oil will stay separate at this stage but will change soon.

Add cherries and coconut, mix well and if desired, add a few more drops of food colouring.

Spoon mixture into the tray and spread out evenly and carefully. I put just under half into a smaller tray to make into the dipped bars, but if you'd prefer the slice, put it all in the tray, it will just be thicker than mine.

Smooth the top with an offset spatula and chill in the fridge for an hour or freezer for 30 mins.

For the slice, once chilled, pour the chocolate over the top, smooth it out and chill in the fridge for a couple of hours or overnight. To slice it up, bring it out of the fridge for about 20 mins before cutting to avoid the chocolate cracking.

For the dipped bars, slice the coconut and cherry mixture into 4cm x 4cm squares, and dip into the melted chocolate, coating all sides. Tap off excess chocolate and then place on to a tray lined with baking paper. Allow to set and harden.

Best kept in the fridge.

Makes 20+ pieces.