Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Daring Bakers: Nanaimo Bars


Nanaimo (Nah-nye-moh) Bars are a 3 layer dessert created in Nanaimo, Canada. The base layer consists of cocoa, graham crackers, coconut, and almonds. The middle is a custard layer and the whole thing is topped off with a layer of chocolate.

You may be thinking that this doesn't seem like it would a Daring Baker challenge by itself so that is why the hosts have challenged us to make our own graham crackers for the base layer.

It was a fun task to make graham crackers. I never would have thought to make my own but these were simple and delicious! They spread a lot in the oven so they weren't perfect looking, but they tasted great!

The Nanaimo Bars were easy to put together. The only difficult part was all the dishes from the 3 different layers! :)


Overall, the Nanaimo Bars were good, but too rich for me. Nathan and the kids loved them and didn't think they were too rich, so I guess it just depends on your tastes.


The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.


Nanaimo Bars
Ingredients:

For Nanaimo Bars — Bottom Layer
1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
1/4 cup (50 g) (1.8 ounces) Granulated Sugar
5 tablespoons (75 mL) Unsweetened Cocoa
1 Large Egg, Beaten
1 1/4 cups (300 mL) (160 g) (5.6 ounces) Gluten Free Graham Wafer Crumbs (See previous recipe)
1/2 cup (55 g) (1.9 ounces) Almonds (Any type, Finely chopped)
1 cup (130 g) (4.5 ounces) Coconut (Shredded, sweetened or unsweetened)

For Nanaimo Bars — Middle Layer
1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons (40 mL) Heavy Cream
2 tablespoons (30 mL) Vanilla Custard Powder (Such as Bird’s. Vanilla pudding mix may be substituted.)
2 cups (254 g) (8.9 ounces) Icing Sugar

For Nanaimo Bars — Top Layer
4 ounces (115 g) Semi-sweet chocolate
2 tablespoons (28 g) (1 ounce) Unsalted Butter

Directions:
1. For bottom Layer: Melt unsalted butter, sugar and cocoa in top of a double boiler. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in crumbs, nuts and coconut. Press firmly into an ungreased 8 by 8 inch pan.
2. For Middle Layer: Cream butter, cream, custard powder, and icing sugar together well. Beat until light in colour. Spread over bottom layer.
3. For Top Layer: Melt chocolate and unsalted butter over low heat. Cool. Once cool, pour over middle layer and chill.

13 comments:

The McBride Family said...

Right I wasn't missing you enough you just keep posting yummy treats you made to miss you more. Thanks a lot!:) LOVE YOU!

Ingrid_3Bs said...

I've not had one but they look and sound interesting. I love the look of layered desserts.
~ingrid

The Grows said...

I don't even like coconut and I still want to try these. I'm with Monica, this just amkes me miss you more. Can you come to GA too?

Natalie said...

I've had versions of these bars and absolutely love them, though I've never tried making my own crackers! I'm impressed!

Leslie said...

I have never heard of these..but they do look amazing

Diana's Cocina said...

I had never heard of these. They sound and look delish. Thanks for sharing.

Susan @ SGCC said...

Both your bars and your graham crackers look great! Well done! I wasn't crazy about the bars either, although I loved the graham crackers. This was certainly an interesting challenge!

Megan said...

Your bars turned out great. I wish I would have had time to make my own grahams but it's nice to know they are easy. I want to try them in the summer when we go camping!

Megan said...

Your bars turned out great. I wish I would have had time to make my own grahams but it's nice to know they are easy. I want to try them in the summer when we go camping!

Chele said...

Never heard of these before but they looks so great that I know I'm going to have to give this recipe a try .. and soon!

Eliana said...

I have been loving reading about these bars on different blogs. Yours look wonderful Cristine.

♥Sugar♥Plum♥Fairy♥ said...

Oh Christine,u have so so sweet ablog dear-really sweet....loved ur layout and all those cuppy cakes and ur nana's rock dear....really cute...
Have a lovey dovey filled week......

Lulu the Baker said...

I chose to just make the graham crackers and thought they were fantastic! I've made Nanaimo Bars before and they were super rich. We ended up cutting them into squares about the size of a piece of fudge.

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