Thursday, December 23, 2010

White Christmas - Vegan

Since this is the first year in a long time that I have actually had some time off work at Christmas (with the exception of last year when I was in Sweden for Christmas) I have actually had the time to make some Christmas gifts this year. Not a lot of time to blog about them, but time to cook at least.

The first I will post about was the simplest. This White Christmas only took me 10 minutes to make, then only a couple of hours to set. The White Christmas I remember my Nan making when I was little was always super sickly sweet, made with copha, heaps of icing sugar, milk powder and those nasty red green and yellow fake cherry things. I figured it would taste way better using white chocolate instead of the sugar and milk, and with dried sour cherries instead to counter the sweetness in the white chocolate. A more adult version of a white christmas perhaps.

I made this using all vegan and gluten free ingredients so I could give this to my friends at In the Mood for Noodles in the christmas gift box I put together.

Ingredients:


500g Vegan White Chocolate (I used 3 blocks of Sweet William and 2 block of Bonvita rice milk white chocolate) If that seems like too much chocolate, you can substitute 200 grams of the chocolate for 200g Copha (solid coconut oil) instead.

1  1/2 cups rice bubbles 
100 grams dried sour cherries
100 grams dried apricots, chopped
100g sultanas
50 grams of dried citrus peel chopped
2 cups desiccated coconut
  • Line a small slice tin with baking paper. 
  • Sit a heat proof mixing bowl over a pan of boiled water. Melt the chocolate in this bowl.
  • Mix in fruits, coconut and rice bubbles. Stir well to combine and ensure all dry ingredients get a good coating and the coconut is evenly distributed.
  • Pour the mix into the lined pan, and press it down with the back of a spoon.
  • Refrigerate till set, then cut into squares. 

Glace cherries look more traditional than the sour cherries I used, but if you want to use glace cherries just be careful of the red colouring they use. A couple of the brands I saw in the supermarket used colour 120 :(
The dried fruit you use doesn't really matter, you could use pineapple, figs, apple, what ever you like really. 
As long as it has white chocolate, coconut and rice bubbles it still looks like the White Christmas we all remember from child hood. It just tastes 387% better!

3 comments:

  1. sounds delicious - never thought of white christmas with white chocolate - always just think of copha but it is a great nostalgia trip and a great gift

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  2. I definitely applaud the idea of using sour cherries to cut through the (what can be unbearable) sweetness of traditional White Christmas! I have some Sweet William lying around myself at the moment. Think I know what's going to happen to it! :D

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  3. The only problem with using the white chocolate instead of the standard copha/sugar/milk powder combo has been that people seem to be able to eat more of it so it doesn't last. We have none left for Christmas at home now... :)

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