cherry orange slice

Cherry Orange Festive Slice

So this slice started out as something a little different and morphed into the delicious Cherry Orange Festive Slice!

I had just whacked together a few things in my pantry and fridge and was expecting to work miracles again without too much effort. Unfortunately this time… not so lucky.

My taste testers said “yeah it’s ok, but a bit bland.” And I had to agree. Not sweet enough or flavoursome at all really. It was kind of like my White Christmas Slice but no where near as good.

So luckily with these melt and mix type creations, you can melt it down again and add more things. So that’s what I did.

I wanted it to be more fruit and nutty rich with all the coconut butter/ oils playing a minor role, just holding it all together. At the same time, we were also talking about other Christmas treats and so it inspired me to add the cherries and orange to make it a bit zesty and festive. Then bazinga! It exceeded all expectations. That’s more like it!

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Cherries

Just a note about the cherries. Ideally I would be putting dried cherries in here, however most dried fruits are coated with sunflower oil – see why PUFA oils are not a good idea here – and also dried cherries are quite difficult to find. I want people to be able to find the ingredients for my recipes in either their local supermarket or health food store and so I opted for frozen cherries.

Now one more step too for the cherries – making it into a jam – I do this because adding anything fresh or defrosted from frozen into a slice just as is, adds ‘water’ which decreases the shelf life of your treat. It will go off in just a day or two just like fresh fruit would, where as using non-water based ingredients like oil etc keeps for much longer.

Making the cherries into a jam with honey or sugar, preserves it a little longer too and so your treats are good for a few weeks at least – if they last that long before being gobbled up!

So let’s get festive!

Cherry Orange Festive Slice

Now I’ve divided up the ingredients to show the parts that go together.

Dry-ish ingredients…

1 cup prunes

1 cup toasted macadamia nuts

1 cup shredded coconut

½ cup goji berries

zest of an orange

Wet ingredients…

¼ cup coconut oil

½ cup coconut butter

½ cup cacao butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 TBS raw honey

Cherry jam…

1 cup frozen cherries

2 TBS raw honey

Glaze…

Grated rind of 2 oranges

1 TBS raw honey

How you do it….

First up Cherry Jam

In a saucepan over medium heat add the cherries and honey. Heat to a boil stirring occasionally and squashing the cherries. Boil for approximately 15 mins until the mixture starts to look thick and syrupy. Set aside to cool a little.

Prepare the dry ingredients so they are ready to go. Toast your macadamias until golden brown, then chop when cooler and set aside. Grate the zest of an orange. Pit your prunes and chop them up into small pieces.

In a double boiler melt the cacao butter, coconut butter and oil, honey and vanilla extract. Stir occasionally.

Once melted, take off the heat and add all dry ingredients and stir through. Add orange zest and cherry jam and stir through.

Press into a parchment lined tin.

To make the glaze, pop the grated peel & honey in a saucepan, heat until boiling stirring continuously. Boil for about a minute then spoon over slice.

Chill overnight in fridge, then slice to serve.

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Transformed into a heavenly mouthful.

As the base is still the white chocolate, it’s best to serve it straight from the fridge.

Enjoy and happy festivus!

Kristy x

Beautiful image by Adrian Alford Photography. Adrian is a very talented landscape and nature photographer who is multi-skilled and can also do food and portrait photography. Check out his website here and YouTube channel here for photographic tips, tutorials and travel adventures.

Note: For more delicious sweet recipes check out my book Sweet Treats.