Nanaimo Bars

Recipe by: SatoshiMiwa Uploaded by Drimble Wedge

So today I decided to make Nanaimo Bars for a staff get together and gift exchange. Others are coming with cheap and tacky gifts, I'm coming with home made dessert squares. Decided to document the process and share it with GWS so you too can make the square that made Nanaimo semi-famous in Canada and is Canada's favourite dessert square.

First some background info - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanaimo_bar

And the page on the city website - http://www.nanaimo.ca/EN/main/visitors/NanaimoBars.html . Yes the city is proud of it, it's one of two things we are famous for. The other is for racing bathtubs in water!

Don't forget to line the pan with a parchment or foil sling. It makes depanning the bars so much easier.

Bottom Layer

• ½ cup unsalted butter
• ¼ cup sugar
• 5 tbsp. cocoa
• 1 egg beaten
• 1 ¼ cups graham wafer crumbs
• ½ c. finely chopped almonds
• 1 cup coconut

First mix together the crumbs, almonds, coconut in a bowl. The city's web site says to melt the butter with the egg and cocoa in a double boiler, but I'm lazy so I melted the butter in a microwave and mixed it together with the egg and the crumb mixture. I than baked it at 350 for 10 minutes in the oven.

Thus you get -

Let it cool for a bit and than we get to work on layer 2

Second Layer

• ½ cup unsalted butter
• 2 Tbsp. and 2 Tsp. cream
• 2 Tbsp. vanilla custard powder
• 2 cups icing sugar

Most Nanaimo bar recipes use Bird's custard powder here. But this step allows for plenty of customization. Some use mint instead of the custard powder, some use peanut butter. I decided to use 2 Tbsp of Espresso powder to make Mocha Nanaimo bars.

Thankfully I had a stand mixer which makes making icing either. Combine the butter and powder in the bowl of a stand mixer and cream. Next add in the icing sugar and cream in batches and mix together on low medium speed. If it's a bit too stiff add some more cream.

Spread it out over the top of the bars so they look like -

Looking good! Now sadly we have to let it chill for a bit, at least a half hour in the fridge or longer so the topping becomes solid. Now we move onto the ganache...

Third Layer

• 4 squares semi-sweet chocolate (1 oz. each)
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter

Chop the chocolate fine, add in the butter and melt in a double boiler (or in a mixing bowl over warm water like I did for a cheap double boiler . Again you can adapt the recipe here and use any kind of chocolate. I used Callebault dark, but you can use any baking chocolate or even other bars. Add in flavorings as well to get really wild!

Anyway, once melted pour on top of the bars so they look like -

Let cool for 30 minutes in the fridge, remove from the pan and cut

Consume and enjoy a slice of Canada! Warning, they taste awesome and are completely non healthy, but you can't stop at 1.