Chocolate Orange Sherbet Slice Recipe

My navel orange tree was laden with fruit this year so I was searching for as many different orange recipes as I could find and this Chocolate Orange Sherbet Slice recipe grabbed my attention. Chocolate and orange go so wonderfully together and sherbet is the stuff of childhood memories so I had to give it a try.

I stupidly didn’t read the ingredients carefully and assumed that 500g dark chocolate was the amount in a packet of chocolate melts – it wasn’t! The packet only had 400g so my topping was a lot runnier than anticipated and I couldn’t use it how I had intended in mixed treat bags for gifts. But it was still delicious and I kept it in the freezer to bring out for dessert or a decadent afternoon tea treat. The sherbet was also as delicious as I’d remembered it to be and it was great to have extra to sprinkle on other things as well.

Base
250g malt biscuits
100g butter, very soft
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
zest of 1 orange
1/4 tsp salt

Crumble the biscuits into a food processor and process to a fine crumb.

Add the remaining base ingredients and process to combine.

Press the crumb mix firmly into a lined slice tin and set aside.

Topping
500g dark chocolate, chopped
250ml cream
zest of 3-4 oranges
100g butter, cubed
1 tsp natural orange essence
1/2 tsp salt

Put the chocolate, cream and orange zest in a glass mixing bowl and microwave on high for 1 minute 30 seconds. Stir to melt the chocolate. If required microwave in further 30 second bursts.

Add butter and stir briskly, then stir through the orange essence and salt.

Spread the topping over the base.

Sherbet
zest of 2 oranges, plus extra to sprinkle
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/2 tsp tartaric acid
1/4 tsp citric acid
1/4 tsp salt

Blitz sherbet ingredients together in a mini-food processor.

Sprinkle over the chocolate topping, cover and refrigerate for several hours until firm.

This recipe makes extra sherbet so you can add more when you serve the slice or sprinkle it onto icecream and other treats.