Healthy Sugar Free, Trans Fat Free White Christmas

There’s nothing more reminiscent of Christmas to me than White Christmas.  I remember as a child my grandma would always have some on hand during the festive season, along with rum balls and short bread.  But it was always the White Christmas that would get me.  I think it was the richness of the copha in addition to the hyper sweetness of the fruit and all that sugar.

Unfortunately this delicious and festive treat is about as bad as you can get.  Not only do most recipes contain icing sugar, powdered milk and rice bubbles but the whole treat is based around Copha.  Copha is basically a form of vegetable shortening that is made from hydrogenated coconut oil – yes hydrogenated oil = trans fats. We all know that trans fats need to be avoided in fact structurally they resemble plastic more than they do fat.  Trans fats are now known to be associated with all of the things we once blamed on saturated fat such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure and many other ailments. So I decided to experiment with some of my favourite ingredients to see if I could recreate this delicious treat the healthy way. Ta Dah! Here is my version of White Christmas – sugar, grain, dairy AND trans fat free!!  Enjoy!

Ingredients

300g organic coconut butter

100g organic coconut oil

100g slivered almonds

100g organic dried cranberries

100g organic dried apricots, finely diced.*

100g organic shredded coconut*

Melt coconut oil and butter over a low heat (I didn’t have to do anything to mine in the summer heat).  Mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl. Pour over coconut butter/oil combination and stir until thoroughly mixed. Pour mixture into a tray lined with baking paper and refrigerate until hard.  Cut to size once refrigerated. **These quantities are guides only and make for a chunky white christmas, if you prefer you can reduce the quantity slightly.

You can experiment with quantities and varieties of nuts and fruits.  You could even add some organic puffed rice if you wanted a little more crunch.  Glace cherries would add a more festive element however they do contain sugar.