Blogmas Day 8: Homemade Nanaimo Bars

Good morning all!!!

For anyone who might not know, Nanaimo bars are a three layer dessert featuring a crumb-based layer, a butter icing layer, and to top it off, a melted chocolate layer. A super cool fact is that these delicious no-baking-required treats are named after a west coast city very close to my own home: Nanaimo, British Columbia!

Way back in 1986, the Mayor of Nanaimo, Graeme Roberts, started up a contest to find the best Nanaimo Bar recipe. The contest lasted a month, and almost 100 different recipes were submitted, but the winner was Joyce Hardcastle.

Now I don’t know if my family Nanaimo Bar recipe is the same as Joyce Hardcastle’s, and it hasn’t been recognized by any mayor, but it is the most delicious recipe I have come across, and as a Canadian, I have tried lots!!!

Ingredients: 

1. Bottom Layer

• ½ cup butter or ¼ cup margarine
• ¼ cup sugar
• I egg beaten
• ½ cup chocolate chips semi-sweet or 5 tbsp cocoa
• 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1 cup coconut (finely ground)
• ½ chopped nuts (optional)

2. Middle Layer

• ¼ cup butter or margarine
• 2tbsp vanilla custard powder
• 2 tbsp milk (or cream)
• 2 cups sifted icing sugar

3. Third Layer

• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 tbsp butter or margarine
• ¼ cup icing sugar

Steps: 

Step 1: To make the bottom layer, mix butter, sugar, egg, and chipits in a heavy saucepan, and stir until mixed. Then add in crumbs, coconut, and nuts, and press into 9” square pan

Step 2: Cream butter, custard, milk, and icing sugar until smooth and spread evenly over crumb layer. Then chill these two layers in the fridge until set.

Step 3: To make the top later, melt butter and chipits over low heat, then allow to cool. Once cooled but still in liquid state, pour over first two chilled layers..

Step 4: Chill the pan in the refrigerator.

And voilà: a super-easy no-baking-required dessert!!! I love adding these to dessert platters, especially at family gatherings because they are the perfect size for snacking, and they always get eaten. The pictures above are of the last few that were left at the end of the day I made them. They went that fast!!! I had set aside a few for photos but somehow the “Do not touch-blog material” sign was misread as “Help yourself to these delicious treats.”

If you haven’t made Nanaimo bars before, give this recipe a try and let me know what you think!!!