It was a first for me to be inspired to bake something, purely because my sons have become obsessed with George Ezra! Of course Paradise Slice has been around a lot longer than the song Paradise.
This wasn’t a bake I was really familiar with other than by name but when I seen the recipe in Granny’s blue book, I knew it could be one that would be a hit with both me and you lovely readers of Baking with Granny.
Paradise Slice is a tray bake which seems to have Scottish origins and follows a similar kind of idea to Almond Slice but with the addition of currants and glace cherries. Think pastry base, layer of jam and cake-y, currant-y, cherry goodness, all topped with a sprinkling of sugar.
Perfect accompaniment for a cup of tea or a welcome addition to any bake sale.
Love this? Try this:
Paradise Slice
PRINT RECIPEINGREDIENTS
For the Pastry Base
- 225g Plain Flour
- 115g Butter or Margarine
- 30g Caster Sugar
- 1 Free-range Egg lightly beaten
For the Filling
- 3-4 tbsp Raspberry Jam
- 115g Butter or Margarine softened
- 115g Caster Sugar
- 1 Free-range Egg lightly beaten
- 80g Glace Cherries quartered
- 120g Currants
- 150g Ground Almonds
INSTRUCTIONS
For the Pastry Base:
- Pre-heat your oven to 190°c (or 170° for a fan assisted oven) and grease a tray bake tin generously with some butter. A 20cmx20cm tin (or equivalent) is ideal.
- In a large bowl, using your fingers, rub the flour and butter/margarine together until it resembles bread crumbs. Stir through the sugar before adding the egg. Mix until combined into a soft pastry.
- Roll the pastry to roughly the size of your pre-greased tin. Transfer to your tin, pushing the pastry into the edges. Trim the excess, prick the pastry all over with a fork and line with some greaseproof paper, before filling with baking beans. Blind bake the pastry for 5 minutes to give the base a head start and avoid a soggy pastry.
- Following the blind bake, remove the baking beans and top the pastry with the Raspberry Jam, evenly spreading over the pastry. Set aside while you prepare the filling.
For the Filling:
- In a large bowl, cream the butter/margarine and sugar until it's light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix until combined.
- To the mixture, add the cherries, currants and ground almonds and mix until combined. Spoon the mixture onto the jam-covered pastry bake and spread around to an even finish, from edge-to-edge.
- Bake for 30 minutes in your pre-heated oven. Once baked, sprinkle the Paradise Slice with some sugar and allow to cool in the tin. Once cool, remove and cut into your desired size.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
All my recipes are developed using a digital scale and the metric system (grams and millilitres). Cup measurements are available as a conversion but these, unfortunately, won't always be as accurate. For best results, I always recommend baking with a digital scale.
39 responses
Amazing recipe – tried it today and they are delish. 10/10 x
It looks like there’s a pastry layer on top it it doesn’t say to put anything over the fruit. How does that happen?
Hi Julieanne. There is no pastry layer on top, simply the filling as the recipe states. This filling includes butter, sugar and ground almonds, which as it bakes creates the cake like texture around and on top of the fruit.
I was going to ask the same question. In Dcotland we know this as fly cemetery
I remember fly cemeteries – they were grim!
These are wonderful ❤️❤️
I agree, Fly Cemeteries weren’t very nice. Paradise slices are amazing. They are quite different.
Love this recipe as close to my grans so even better, but fly’s cemetery is pastry top and bottom and no ground almonds, just currants and butter in the middle.
(Scotland)
what about the top layer pastry ?
I made the recipe using 140g rice flour and 10g vegetable oil instead of the ground almonds (due to a nut allergy) plus a teaspoon of vanilla extract. The result worked really well. Thanks for the recipe.
Just love this recipe alway works for me
What a brilliant recipe. Thank you so much. My daughter said they tasted like ‘something from Tebay (services on the M6) and you don’t get much higher praise than that
How can I convert the measurements to those we use USA?
Just search for an imperial/metric conversion page on the internet.
I was just talking about these.and so pleased to have the recipe
This recipe has now been made in 4 households within my family and we all loved it!! Thank you – absolutely delicious and fairly simple to make.
I made this and instead of sprinkling with sugar I iced the top, delicious.
We found these in a local garden centre and were determined to find a recipe. This is ace. All I would fast is add all the ground almonds even if it’s hard to mix, otherwise the top is a bit wet!
Excellent. The pastry needed another 5 minutes for the blind bake. You can also vary the filling with an apricot, date, coconut mixture. Maybe a savory biscuit with caraway in the pastry, or a dill goat cheese filling. Thank you for posting.
Hello from the Boston MA
I couldn’t wait to make these but had a few “hmm” moments as I did. Your photos seem to show a thinish bar. As I prepared mine this morning, the pastry seemed like too much for the pan size and was quite thick. Also my filling batter was super thick and not at all spoonable. There’s really no equivalent to this recipe in the US so I’ve got nothing to compare it to.
Its out of the oven, looks delicious so we shall see.
just a quick follow up. they are absolutely delicious but double the thickness of yours. the recipe is a keeper and next time I will simply use a larger pan.
I am late for the party but oh my world this is fabulous. It took me just 30 seconds to get to the kitchen once I saw the recipe. As a fan of frangipane and dried fruits, this is indeed Paradise.
Thank you!
My husbands new fave! I sprinkle slivered almonds over the top before baking instead of the sugar after baking. I also do 1.5 times topping and make in a larger pan – more deliciousness to enjoy
Could I use sweet mince in this recipe?
Great recipe, enjoyed by all my family.
Just tried this recipe. Absolutely delicious! There are only two of us in the household, can I freeze half of it?
Can you suggest a substitute fof the ground almonds due to nut intolerance, thank you
I use semolina
Made it, ate it, loved it! As did all the folk I share it with. Keep these lovely recipes coming please. Any plans for a book?
Fran x
Hi I really want to try this. Would I need to double it for a 9×13 tin?
Thank you, thank you so so much, My Mum used to make this 50+ years ago and she passed in 2001, the Recipe was in a church book and I have not been able to find it. I am going to make this as soon as I can.
The outer sides of the traybake are
almost burnt by the time it’s baked??
I have just made The Paradise Slice Amazing !
I used to make this in the local bakery always a big hit with everyone
Thankyou
made this for the 1st time 2 weeks ago was a huge hit in New Zealand :) just one question can you freeze this as wanted to make a bigger one for afternoon tea but want to freeze.
Great recipe
Easy recipe, works well every time.
I baked this last week for a fundraiser for Cancer Research UK. It looked rich, moist and sumptuous and once word got round how gorgeous it was it disappeared like magic. Luckily I had made two tarts! I managed to salvage a couple of pieces for us to try and it was absolutely lipsmackingly delicious. So rich you only need a small slice. I shall certainly be repeating this for our next coffee morning. Thank you for this recipe, it’s a keeper.
The recipe doesn’t say how long to cook the pastry except for the first five minutes!
I made this traybake but felt that the 20cm by 20cm tin was too small as the pastry was very thick, and it too a lot longer to cook the topping than it stated.
I made this exactly like the recipe stated but after 30 mins the top was raw and it took 1 hour and fifteen minutes to bake, now I have a burnt pastry bottom and half burnt top. I am very annoyed indeed!!
I made this last week to take to our quilting group to go with our cup of coffee. Not only did it disappear rather fast, this week several ladies asked for the recipe and repeated how much they enjoyed it.
Like Lily (commenter) we love frangipane and dried fruits, so it was particularly inviting to try the recipe.
I didn’t have any raspberry jam, but I used Compost Heap Jelly instead (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-jwQnlKSxQI)
Also I didn’t have enough ground almonds, so half of the weight was self-raising flour. It was still delicious, but I must remember to ensure I have plenty of ground almonds in stock.
OK I’m confused here.
Is it meant to have flour in the topping along with the ground almonds as its quite wet.?
All other recipes for paradise slice have S.R flour in the topping with the ground almonds.
Is it a mis-print as Its not good to waste time and ingredients if its wrong.
Can you answer please?
Thanks