Monday, December 14, 2009

On the ninth day of Christmas (White Christmas)

Okay my Internet connection is ridiculously slow at the moment so this blog post has been a pain in the butt to put together. Just imagine waiting for 5 minutes for each web page to load up - yes it really is that bad right now. Hopefully this will only be a small glitch and then we will have "lightning" speeds again tomorrow. Well we better.

Anyway onto the baking - it seems Better Homes and Gardens has let me down again! This time the White Christmas recipe (a classic Christmas treat in Australia) was close to a diaster. The recipe calls for 250g of Copha (vegetable shortening) however I found that it was nowhere near enough to make the slice stick together. So my White Christmas quickly became slightly yellow Christmas because I needed to add some unsalted butter (since I didn't have any extra Copha) to make it all stick together. But in the end it tastes pretty good - if you don't mind Copha. It really is a love or hate kind of ingredient. I don't mind it, but Mat thinks it is like eating wax - yummo. So if you can handle Copha then this is another treat that is great to package up and give us a gift or to eat yourself. It was last up to 3 weeks in an airtight container in the fridge.


White Christmas (from Better Homes and Gardens - December 2009)

250g Copha (vegetable shortening), chopped (I would have 2 packs on hand just in case you need more to bind it together)
3 cups puffed-rice cereal
1 cup desiccated coconut
1 cup icing sugar
1 cup powdered milk
300g rose-flavoured Turkish delight, chopped (I used red glace cherries instead)
1/2 cup toasted almond flakes
  1. Line base and sides of a lamington tin with baking paper.
  2. Put Copha in a small heavy-based pan over a low heat and melt. Remove from heat and stand until lukewarm.
  3. Combine cereal, coconut, icing sugar, powdered milk, turkish delight and almonds and stir to combine.
  4. Make a well in the centre, add Copha and stir until mixture is uniformly moist and coated in Copha. Spoon into prepared tin and pack down with the back of a spoon. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for 2-3 hours or until firm.
  5. Remove White Christmas from the tin and cut into bars or squares.

Rating?
3 out of 5 reindeers!

13 comments:

Paris Pastry said...

Too bad it didn't work out they way you wanted to. Still looks delicious in the pictures!

Rose said...

What a shame the recipe was wrong, I hate when that happens. it still looks great in the photos though.

Rose

cookies and cups said...

They look pretty! I haven't heard of so many of those ingredients :) It's good that it wasn't the best because I wouldn't know where to get Turkish Delight if I tried!!!

oneordinaryday said...

They look very pretty and festive. Too bad they weren't what you expected.

Gala said...

Oh man, not again!
I wouldn't know if I'd like these, I never worked with veg. shortening or tasted it, but the rest sounds goood!

Chelsea Talks Smack said...

OOO this looks like pERFECTION

drollgirl said...

copha. hmm. i wonder if that is like crisco in the u.s. crisco is white and weird. my mom gave me a recipe for an apple cake and it calls for crisco. it has sort of a weird effect -- it makes things moist, but kind of strange. i am not explaining it well. i think it is creepy hydrogenated oils and such and that it keeps for DAYS. MONTHS. WEIRD.

sorry -- i am babbling like mad today!

Anonymous said...

drollgirl - yes i am pretty sure that copha=crisco = weird stuff. :P

Elissa said...

I agree about the copha, you either love it or hate it, I can only really handle it in small doses.

Can I ask why you sub the turkish delight for cherries? I know "normally" it would have cherries in it, but the fact they used turkish delight is different (and I love the stuff).

Anonymous said...

Elissa - I used cherries instead of Turkish delight mainly for the cost factor :)

Miss Dot said...

Haha -- am I the only one here who uses Crisco/Copha on a regular basis? Hehe. I guess I just am used to it or something. I don't really use it in my cooking but definitely in my baking. Ah well.

As for your recipe -- sorry it didn't work out the way you wanted it to. Doesn't it just blow when a trusted source doesn't come through for you? Between BHG for you and Bon Appetit for me, we're just S.O.L.!

Patricia Scarpin said...

Low Internet connexion is the worst! :S

I saw a recipe for White Xmas on one of my Donna Hay recipes and was dying to try it - even more now, after seeing how pretty yours turned out!

Xiaolu @ 6 Bittersweets said...

I have enough trouble making sure to get all the ingredients listed that I'd be super lost if my recipe gave the wrong amount. Sorry you hit a few bumps, but they look so great and I'm excited to discover a new treat.