I reckon many of you’d call this flavour combination “Black forest”. However, since I am Swedish and I think dark chocolate and cherry is better explaining the recipe, I’ll go with this name instead.
Okay, we all know of delicious cherry and chocolate combined is. However, I think it’s gotten a slightly bad reputation as an old people’s flavour combination, which couldn’t be more wrong. If you’ve never tried this combination, then you’re in for a treat! Firstly, who doesn’t like dark chocolate (well, a lot of people but they are crazy). Secondly, cherries are soooo underestimated as a berry. Seriously, they’re one of my absolute favourite berries/fruit. Thirdly, combine the two in any dessert and you have pure heaven! I used fresh cherries, but you can totally use thawed frozen and either make a jammy filling like in this recipe or just follow this recipe.
Aren’t you convinced yet? No? Okay then! What if I tell you the actual pie and crumble are super duper ultra delicious too? Honestly though, I loooove making crumble bars. They’re so much easier to bring with you regardless of where you’re going compared to a classic pie or crumble. Also, they’re a magical combination of gooey and jammy filling with crumbly, delicious, not too messy crumble pie. What is there not to love about that?
Hopefully I’ve now successfully convinced you and you’re already on your way to the pantry to get all the ingredients. Enjoy!
The cherries I used were suuuuper dark and deep purple, which was gorgeous.
Dark Chocolate Cherry Crumble Bars
Softly baked yet firm luscious cherries combined with gooey dark chocolate and a crispy, sweet, nutty crumble bottom and topping.
- Yield: 9 medium bars 1x
Ingredients
Bottom and topping
- 100g / 3,5 oz rolled oats
- 125g / 4,4 oz flour (I used 35g almond- and 90g oat flour)
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- A pinch of salt
- 4 tbsp nut or seed butter of choice
- 6 tbsp liquid sweetener of choice
- 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
Filling
- 200g / 7 oz pitted and quartered fresh or defrosted from frozen cherries*
- 50g / 1,75 oz roughly chocolate, chopped dark
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 150ºC / 300ºF and prepare a square pan by greasing and lining it with parchment paper. My pan was 18×18 cm / 7×7 inches.
- In a medium bowl, put the rolled oats, flour, baking soda, and salt. Using a large wooden spoon or such, give the dry ingredients a mix.
- In a separate small bowl, combine the nut butter, liquid sweetener, and vanilla. Add the wet mixture to the dry, and using your hands crumble it together. If too dry, add a splash of water.
- Transfer 2/3 of the crumble to the prepared pan. Press and spread out the crumble evenly to all corner. Prick it all over with a fork and bake for 20 minutes or until golden.
- Transfer and evenly scatter the cherries and dark chocolate chunks onto the baked bottom. Top with the remaining crumble and bake for another 35-45 minutes. Take out, let cool and set slightly, cut up and enjoy.
Notes
*If you use frozen cherries, preferably defrost them on paper towels to absorb the extra liquid. Also, once defrosted place in a bowl along with with 1/2 tbsp corn starch and mix with a wooden spoon until coated.
Keywords: Dark chocolate, black forest, cherry, crumble bars, squares, healthy, gluten free, oil free, refined sugar free