Samantha Heathwood's White Christmas

Nine Local News Regional Queensland presenter Samantha Heathwood's White Christmas recipe

White Christmas slice has always been synonymous with my family. Last year my boys and I created the ultimate kid-friendly recipe packed full of lollie snakes, malt balls, white chocolate and the fluffiest of marshmallows. This year we are doing things a little more traditionally and embracing a family favourite traditional-style White Christmas recipe. The below is inspired by my mother's recipe with a few tweaks to make it my own. Enjoy!

Makes 24 small bites
Takes around 15 minutes to make
Cool in the fridge for four hours

Ingredients
1 cup (100g) sultanas
1/2 cup (100g) red glace cherries, quartered or Turkish delight (my preferred substitute)
1/2 cup (80g) chopped pistachios
3 cups (110g) crispy rice cereal
2 cups (170g) desiccated coconut
500g white chocolate melts
¾ cup full-cream milk powder or 395g can of sweetened condensed milk
100g copha chopped coarsely
1/4 cup (25g) goji berries (for topping)

Method
Line a 30cm x 20cm (base) baking pan with baking paper – I like to stick the baking paper down with some melted butter
Melt the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (try to not let the bowl touch water).
Fold in the remaining dry ingredients to the melted white chocolate.
Pour mixture into the prepared baking pan, pressing down with a large spoon.
Sprinkle goji berries on top of the slice
Refrigerate until set – usually around four hours
Cut the White Christmas into squares and serve.

Tips: bite-sized pieces go down a treat with a cup of tea or coffee (my newsroom loves them as a mid-morning snack)

About the Bulletins: At 6.00pm each week night, Nine Local News Regional Queensland presenter, Samantha Heathwood, presents local news to Nine News Far North QLD, Nine News North QLD, Nine News Mackay, Nine News Central QLD, Nine News Wide Bay, Nine News Darling Downs, Nine News Sunshine Coast and Nine News Darwin.