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Cherrific!

Hi everyone and welcome to this week’s ‘Kitchen Extra…’. Special hi to our new subscribers, the community is growing and that is so exciting.

This week I thought we would break down and build back up, one of the most popular chocolate bars in Australia…. The Cherry Ripe. I’ll show you how to make your own version (loosely) based on this classic confection. So much fun and remember these recipes are a guide for you to create your own foodie adventures and to build your repertoire of recipes. So although this total project is BIG and LENGTHY, you can pick and choose which components to make and how you put them together.

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Chocolate Bars

Confession… it’s not actually my favourite bar - in fact I don’t eat a lot of confectionary these days (well a snake or two on a road trip or a Mintie perhaps) but, I did eat a few as a younger person. Back in the UK (where the chocolate tastes different) I loved Snickers (back then called Marathon), Lion Bars and Choc Aero (all flavours) - there were more but I reckon that’s a good top three.*

I also loved a Crunchie, in fact there was not a lot I didn’t like and I used to spend my pocket money on junk food while my sister somehow saved hers.

Anyway although the chocolate back then was pretty rubbish, in terms of quality of ingredients - I am sure I would still enjoy a trip down memory lane as nothing tastes as good as nostalgia.

By the time I had moved here to Australia I was past eating chocolate bars but I did pay attention to the snack isle when I shopped to see what sort of stuff was available here. I did notice a few exact matches with what I was used to in the UK - think Mars Bar and Snickers, I guess you will find anywhere in the world? I also noticed some products that were called a different name but were the same product - looking at you 👀 Violet Crumble and Crunchie and Tim Tam / Penguin.

I noticed that Cadbury had lots of products that were the same as back home but when I tried them they tasted different, must be local ingredients I guess and you get used to a particular taste as a child.

Anyway I am going off on one now but I guess the point of all this was the Cherry Ripe, we didn’t have those in the UK. We had Bounty bars (coconut & chocolate) but I don’t remember a cherry flavoured chocolate bar. I may be wrong here, if you lived in the UK in the 70’s, 80’s or 90’s and had a cherry flavoured chocolate bar then let me know.

Why didn’t we have them? I was blown away by the Cherry Ripe and the fact that Cadbury made stuff for other peoples and not the UK peoples. So I tried one and loved it. The combination of coconut and cherry with dark chocolate does work so well and a look on Wikipedia mentions it is one of the oldest bars in Australia. Amazing….

Anyway let’s have a look at making our own.

*Forgot about Twix, loved a Twix, used to freeze it and then eat the biscuit off before the choccie caramelly bit.

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Cherry Ripe

What’s in a cherry ripe? Well it’s pretty simple really, as the packet says… “Luscious Cherries and Coconut in Old Gold Dark Chocolate.”

I cut one open and saw a textured coconut filling, coloured and flavoured with chocolate. Although there was no biscuit it was a little bit crunchy (probably the toasted coconut).

The whole thing was dipped in dark chocolate - it’s an adult flavour for sure, don’t think many kids would like the bitterness. Also because it has been around for years I guess you would have adults buy this as a treat for themselves as they had this as a kid? Let’s go through the components…

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Crispy Chocolate Biscuit

Ok even though there was no biscuit in a Cherry Ripe, there was texture and I thought we would make a biscuit which would make it easier to construct a sort of coconut and cherry bar/biscuit sandwich. The biscuit here is totally delicious and super crunchy. It’s easy to make too and some of the crunch comes from the addition of feuilletine.

Feuilletine… the secret crunch you didn’t know you needed and far easier to make than it is to pronounce! "Pailleté Feuilletine" (Pah-YEH-tay FOY-uh-teen) is the secret weapon of pastry chefs everywhere. This delicate, crispy ingredient adds an unexpected and irresistible crunch to desserts, transforming textures with a touch of magic. This ingredient can be bought from specialist food ingredient stores or you can make it easily by following our recipe on Studio Kitchen Paillete Feuilletine (pic above by Cath Claringbold).

I have added coffee grounds into the recipe to just lift the biscuit flavour, I used my dehydrated Used Coffee Grounds to do this.

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Bounty Mix

I call this a bounty mix without really know what is actually in a Bounty Bar, also this is slightly softer in consistency, is better flavoured with the coconut being toasted. This also gives it a golden colour which contrasts the white Bounty.

This recipe is great on its own, you could make a batch and set it in a square tray lined with paper. Freeze it and then cut into bars using a knife, place back into a fridge and temper some chocolate before dipping the bars. Alternatively you could line a bar mould with chocolate and pipe the bounty mix in, before topping with chocolate. I use to make something similar years ago at B&P when we made a Lamington chocolate bar (pictured below).

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Cherry Pate de Fruit

I love Pate de Fruit, it is a French term for fruit jelly! And these jellies use only sugar and pectin to set to they are totally vegan and fun to make. I might dedicate a Substack to Pate de Fruit in the future as it is fascinating with different fruits having more or less setting capabilities depending on their natural pectin levels. The colours and flavours are amazing enhanced by a little citric acid. If you don’t have time to make all of the components for the biscuits you could just make these and serve them after dinner or gift them.

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Chocolate Work

Super fun to make these awesome chocolate garnishes for the top of our biscuit sandwiches. I have oil soluble food colours that work well with the chocolate (fat based liquid) - the colours are usually in powder form so as not to dilute the chocolate too much but you can buy them pre mixed with cocoa butter for an easier application. Anyway these took a bit of time but they really set off the presentation of the biscuits.

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Recipe

(Arnie voice) Come on!!! Let’s do it - for motivation. I made these over two days as I knew it would take me a bit of time, plus I was managing the camera at the same time so 🤷🏼‍♂️

This will take you more than a few hours if making from start to finish so you could do it in stages or components at a time over a couple of days? As always choose a schedule that suits you, read the recipe through from start to finish before attempting it and it will be easier to manage.

Components

Crispy Chocolate Sable

Bounty Mix

Cherry Jelly

Dark Chocolate

White Chocolate Cherry Tile

Crispy Chocolate Sable

300 g salted butter

240 g brown sugar

240 g ground almond

240 g cake flour

40 g cocoa powder

10 g dehydrated coffee grounds

80 g feuilletine