It’s sweet. Some (including yours truly) would say sickly sweet. But White Christmas has remained a favourite confection, not necessarily reserved for the festive season. And it’s all-Australian, thanks to a key ingredient: Copha. This vegetable shortening, essentially solidified coconut oil, is melted and poured over a mix of dried fruit, desiccated coconut, powdered milk, Rice Bubbles and icing sugar. The mixture, packed into a tray, is left to set in the fridge. On hot days, too long a wait out of its chilly environment can see White Christmas becoming unpleasantly greasy. Not something to pass around at the barbecue.
It’s hard to say when White Christmas was invented. Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, Ben Groundwater speculated that it emerged in the 1940s or ’50s, and there are reports that the recipe may once have featured on the Copha pack. I would put the date towards the end of the 1950s. A 1950 recipe book from the Copha manufacturers did not include White Christmas – a notable omission if it had been around in the 1940s – although the book did have a recipe for that other legendary treat, Chocolate Crackles. And the earliest published recipe that I can find was in an Adelaide newspaper in 1959.
Copha had been around since 1916 when the trade mark was registered by Lever Brothers, the forerunner of Unilever. The coconut oil was extracted from copra, imported from the Pacific islands and processed in Balmain, Sydney. Sydney was an important hub for the copra trade, with much of the resulting oil used for soap manufacture. The brand is currently owned by Peerless Foods and is unique to Australia and New Zealand. In New Zealand it is called Kremelta.
There are more modern versions of White Christmas made with white chocolate and omitting the Copha. However, the official recipe is as follows:
Ingredients
250g copha; 3 cups Kellogg’s Rice Bubbles®; 1 cup desiccated coconut; ¾ cup icing sugar, sifted; 1 cup powdered milk; 1 cup packaged, dried mixed fruit; Glace cherries for topping
Method
Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.
Melt copha slowly over low heat. Cool slightly, pour onto dry ingredients. Mix well.
Working quickly, spoon into paper patty cases or press into a lamington tin. Freeze until set (about 15 minutes), then store in the refrigerator.
Cut into squares and serve.