Cherry "Ripe-Off" Candy Bars

Cherry preserves, chopped sour cherries and coconut formed into bars and covered in chocolate: our spin-off of the Australian candy bar Cherry Ripe.

Butchie is back! It's about time. In case you have no clue who Butchie is, or your memory doesn't the span the last, oh, say......two months.....Butchie is one of my best friends....who coincidentally fell off the face of the planet when she got herself a wonderful boyfriend. I want to blame her but I can't. He's a good man, and a good man can really outweigh baked goods.....well.....now and then. *wink* [Sorry, guys. It's all his fault. Then again, there was also Christmas in there, and various trips to Arizona, London and Oregon on the part of both J. and I, so we can't blame it ALL on the poor manly soul. --B.]

So, I had to lure her back. I was thinking candy bars might do the trick, so I posted a call to my Facebook fan page: "brainstorming candy bar ideas. :) what would you do if you made your own?" One comment from Felice at All That's Left Are The Crumbs and we had a fool-proof way to lure Butchie away from her man for a night and back to baking with me. [And who said social media couldn't solve real-world problems? --B.]

Felice recommended the Australian Cherry Ripe, a Cadbury confection complete with cherries, which dear Butchie loves. [More than men. More than Sichuan. More than my hypothetical first-born child. --B.] Especially sour cherries.

Disclaimer: We had no clue what we were doing. We don't live in Australia, have never been to Australia, and have no access to the actual Cherry Ripe bar. So....I can in no way vouch that this recipe will give you anything tasting like the original 7-inch "plank" of dark chocolate, coconut and glace cherries. To the best of our guess, it's a reasonable approximation of the flavors you'd find in the Cadbury bar. [Note that we made ours small, about two bites' worth, and instead of a Bounty-like cooked coconut filling, ours is raw, very finely shredded coconut held together with cherry preserves. --B.]

Cherry "Ripe-Off" Candy Bars

1 cup shredded coconut (we used unsweetened)

3/4 cup cherry preserves, pureed
1/4 cup finely chopped dried cherries (sour if you have them)

1 cup dark chocolate chips

Mix coconut, cherry preserves, and dried cherries together. Adjust dry to wet ratio as needed until you have a paste that can be molded into candy bars. Mold into a quarter inch thick rectangle. Place in freezer for half an hour, then cut into bars.

Melt chocolate chips and pour over bars to cover. Place back in the freezer for five minutes until chocolate is fully set. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Lavender Honey Caramel Candy Bars

Honey, lavender and caramel flavors gently combine to add a little something extra to this homemade gourmet candy bar. 

What a night we had making these. It’s so tiring to laud one’s own genius for that long. [Too true. –B.] I want to have some humility but this is definitely on my short list of favorites. I’ve been eating then practically nonstop since. Butchie and I both took some into work and got some great reviews back on them, but it was hard to share. Extremely hard to share. [Fine, if you must know we only got like two reviews from anyone other than ourselves. –B.]

Talk about a process, though! The caramel took far longer than we’d imagined, the shortbread dough has to refrigerate twice, and so on and so on. I’m fairly certain it was four hours after we started that I was finally covering the last bar with chocolate! Butchie thought she was so sly chopping the caramel. She made me think I was getting the easy job. Ha. She finished long, long before me, the brute. [In my defense, it was sticky work—just less finicky than the chocolate, apparently. –B.]

But we promise they are worth it. I have eaten two just while typing! It’s my own fault. I really shouldn’t have brought them into work with me. What was I thinking? Oh, right. Sharing. Silly me I should have known I’d end up eating them all myself.

Better go running! 

Lavender Honey Caramel Candy Bars

For the lavender honey caramel

1 cup milk
1 ½ cups heavy cream
2 teaspoons dried lavender buds
¾ cup unsalted butter
¾ cup honey
1 ¾ cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ teaspoon salt

For the cookie base:

1 large egg, at room temperature

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

10 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/4 sticks), cold and cut into small pieces

For the chocolate coating:

Dark chocolate

Prepare your pan by greasing it with butter then lining the bottom with parchment paper. Do not use wax paper the caramel will stick.

Place the milk, heavy cream and lavender buds in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and allow to sit for 30 minutes. Strain out and discard the lavender. Measure 2 cups of the liquid. Discard the excess.

Combine all of the ingredients except the vanilla and salt in a deep saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring. Using a pastry brush dipped in water, brush down any sugar that has crept up the sides of the pan.   When the mixture reads 240 immediately remove from heat, stir in the vanilla and the salt, and pour into the prepared baking pan. Cool the mixture completely until it is firm, at least 1-2 hours in the refrigerator.

To begin to make the shortbread, in a small bowl beat together egg and vanilla extract until yolk is broken up and evenly combined; set aside.

Combine flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add butter and mix until mixture looks like sand. Add egg mixture and mix just until dough comes together. Form into a flat, rectangular disk, wrap in plastic, and chill at least 1 hour.

Heat oven to 375°F. Place dough on a 14-inch piece of parchment paper, lightly flour, and roll into a 13-by-8-inch oval, about 1/8 inch thick. Transfer parchment paper with dough to a baking sheet, cover in plastic wrap, and refrigerate again for 15 minutes.

Cut each cookien into a 3x.75 inch cookie. Pierce each cookie four or five times with a chopstick or the base of a thermometer.

Place on a baking sheet and cook until golden brown, about 8 minutes. Remove to a wire rack and let cool.

Invert the caramel onto a cutting board and turn glossy side up. Cut into bars to place on top of the shortbread.  Set aside and temper the chocolate.

Place two thirds of the chocolate in a double boiler.  Melt slowly to 107 degrees. Remove from heat and stir until it reaches 110 degrees.  Add in remaining third of chocolate and stir to combine until the mixture reaches 90-93 degrees. Use immediately. 

Place a candy bar on a fork and proceed to spoon the tempered chocolate over it, covering completely. Line a cookie sheet with wax paper. Set completed candy bar on the sheet. Repeat with the remaining candy bars.  Set the cookie sheet in the refrigerator to set the chocolate.

Enjoy!