Cherry slice

Hello everyone, being such a warm day today I decided to pop over to Glace, an icecream shop in Leichhardt. I can buy their products locally, but thought it would be good to go to the actual shop and view all the possibilities. It certainly is an icecream lover's delight - you can buy single or double scoops to eat on the spot (yes, I indulged, a scoop of Belgian chocolate), tubs in all sorts of luscious flavours and a range of other interesting icecream treats, like the snowball, which is a ball of coconut flavoured icecream enrobed in a coat of chocolate and sprinkled with coconut!

This week's recipe is a sweet treat which caught my eye every time I saw it in my scrapbook of cut out recipes. It's exactly like cherry ripe and so easy to make - a nice treat. Do be very careful with the food colouring - I was a little careless and my cherry slice was very brightly coloured!

Have a happy week. Love from Jane xx

Cherry slice

What you need:

• 600g dark cooking chocolate, chopped
• 500g desiccated coconut (buy a good quality one, not the no name version, as you want a nice, moist coconut)
• 100g copha, melted
• 395g can condensed milk
• 150g glace cherries, very finely chopped
• A few drops of pink food colouring

What you do:

1. Prepare a 30cm x 20cm cake tin by lining with foil.
2. Melt half the chocolate and spread evenly over the foil lined tin.
3. Rest, covered, in the fridge, until set.
4. Place coconut, melted copha, condensed milk and cherries in a large bowl and stir together to mix. There will be a moment when you think there is far too much coconut and it will never combine, but it does.
5. Very carefully add a few drops of food colouring and stir through (do it drop by drop).
6. Spoon the coconut mixture over the chocolate base and use the back of a spoon to press evenly.
7. Refrigerate until set.
8. Melt the remaining chocolate and spread evenly over the coconut mix.
9. Return to the fridge until set.
10. Cut into bars with a warm knife. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.