henever Mr Smaggle and I are shopping for an after dinner treat I get terrified by how much he loves the same flavours that my father likes. Coconut, cherries and fruit in any form – fresh, dried, or in chocolate or cake. They also both like air crash investigation shows and Nigella Lawson. I think I’m going to need therapy in the next few years.
So anyway I recently learned to temper chocolate (it was a WHOLE thing and I feel like a very accomplished grown up now that I can do it) so I’ve been wanting to try a home made chocolate bar recipe. Mr Smags is off for a boys trip for the next few days so I made some cherry ripe bars for him to take for treats. This is a mix of a few no bake cherry slice recipes I’ve used over the years and when you temper your chocolate it makes them look super professional.
- 250gms of plain biscuits crumbled or food processed (I used gluten free arrowroots)
- 110gms of melted butter
- 4 cups of desiccated coconut
- 395gm can of sweetened condensed milk
- 200gms of glace cherries, finely chopped
- 125gms copha, melted
- Rose pink food colouring
- 1 packet of dark chocolate melts
- Grease and line a slice tin with butter and baking paper. Leave baking paper extending over the sides of the tin so you can easily lift it out when it’s finished.
- Place crumbled biscuits in a large bowl. You can food process biscuits or use a mortar and pestle. Add butter and stir in with a wooden spoon. Press mixture into the base of the pan (packed very tightly to stop it from crumbling later) and then refrigerate for 30 mins.
- Mix coconut, condensed milk, melted copha and cherries into a bowl. Mix well. Add a few drops of food colouring (like a teeny tiny amount or otherwise it looks like unicorn vomit) and mix well. Spoon mixture into the tin and press down firmly with the back of the spoon. Refrigerate for 15 minutes. Cut slice into bite sized squares or bars.
- Temper your chocolate using this method and coat your bars in chocolate. Dip the bars in the chocolate and scoop them out with a fork and tap it on the edge of the bowl to get rid of excess chocolate. Place your bars on a tray with baking paper and refridgerate until you're ready to eat them!
For my non-Australian readers… you don’t have copha do you? I read somewhere that it’s only available in Australia but apparently it’s similar to vegetable shortening. I was fascinated when I learned you can only get copha in Australia. It’s such an Aussie primary school flavour for me and it tastes like chocolate crackles and coconut ice at school fetes.
[divider type=”standard” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”]
What was your favourite school fete treat? I loved toffees and big jars of tombola lollies!
[divider type=”standard” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”]
Don’t forget to follow Smaggle on Facebook, Twitter, Bloglovin, Instagram and if you’re really a keen bean you can sign up to the Smaggle weekly newsletter. No pressure of course but you should probably know that all the cool kids are doing it.