I have a confession to make. This recipe for Cherry Chocolate Jelly Slice was supposed to be something entirely different. It was supposed to be ice-cream!

With cherry season here I had visions in my head of this deliciously creamy ice-cream with chunks of cherry and chocolate through it and a bit of a crunch of macadamia nuts – heavenly, dreamy and yum.

So I did my usual research to see if anyone else had created something similar. I read one recipe where they used gelatin that was supposed to make the ice cream stabilise as it freezes. The desired result was this creamy scoop-ability right out of the freezer.

It’s what we all dream of right, when we make our own? We hope it will be as soft as the chemical laden ice creams we remember, but it never is – not even if you have an ice cream machine. Once it hits that freezer, it ends up rock solid.

So I was creating away, tasted great going in and the true test after freezing it all night – I pulled it out to scoop and…rock solid. Doh!

No creaminess there.

So I waited ‘til it thawed a little to see if that helped, but no – the gelatin had made it jelly solid, so I sliced it up!

I took some to my taste testers and they gave it the resounding super yum thumbs up. So it becomes it’s own accidental masterpiece. And a great way to get some gut healthy gelatin in your dessert.

Cherry Chocolate Jelly Slice

1 cup full fat coconut cream

½ cup coconut oil

¼ cup honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 TBS grass fed gelatin (the one that gels – CollagenX

½ cup chopped roasted macadamia nuts

2 cups frozen cherries

1 cup Homemade Chocolate chopped (Recipe here.)

Method

Make your Homemade Chocolate mix (see recipe above) and spread on foil on a tray and put in the freezer to harden.

Pull the frozen cherries out of the freezer and leave them on the bench to thaw a little.

In a saucepan over low heat add the coconut cream and oil, the rice malt syrup and vanilla and sprinkle the gelatin over the top stirring as it warms to avoid clumps. Bring to barely a simmer then take off heat and leave it to the side.

Roast your macadamias and leave to cool before you chop them.

Cut your cherries in half.

Pull your pre-made chocolate tweets mix out of the freezer and roughly chop.

Assemble your cherries, macadamia nuts and chocolate bits into a shallow tray and pour the coconut mixture over the top.

Chill in the fridge.

When firm, slice and serve.

They will love it so much they won’t even care it was a fluke!

Kristy x

PS: for more great recipes, grab a copy of the Zen Beach Diet!