Sunday, May 25, 2014

Nanaimo Bars from Canada

The Canadian teachers at my school put in a request for me to make nanaimo bars.  I was initially a little hesitant as I thought I would be setting myself up for failure as they all had such high expectations and good memories of nanaimo bars grannies had made.  Could I measure up?  I thought what the hell, I'd give it a try and they came out just like the pictures I found on the internet!  My friends were pleased so it passed the taste test.
Biscuit layer
1/2 cup soft butter
1/4 cup sugar
5 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 packet digestive type biscuits
1 cup desiccated coconut
1/2 ground walnuts
Buttercream layer
1/2 cup soft butter
5 tablespoons thick cream
2 tablespoons custard powder
2 cups icing sugar
Chocolate topping
2 slabs chocolate
4 tablespoons butter
To make the biscuit crust:  Melt the butter in a pot and add the sugar and cocoa powder.  Stir until melted and smooth.  Bash your digestive biscuits until they become crumbs and add to the cocoa mixture.  Add in the coconut and walnuts (or almonds if you prefer).  Press this down into the bottom of an ungreased baking pan.  Cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge to chill.
To make the middle layer, use your food processor to mix together the butter, cream and custard powder until it is light and fluffy.  Add in the icing sugar and beat it until smooth.  Take the baking pan out of the fridge and spread your buttercream mixture onto your biscuit layer.  Cover it again with plastic wrap and pop it back into the fridge to set.
Grab another pot and melt the chocolate and butter together to make the third and final layer.  Spread this over the buttercream layer which should now be hard to the touch.  Cover with plastic wrap again and pop it back into the fridge so that the chocolate can set before cutting it into squares.  The size of the squares is a personal preference, but remember this is quite sweet and rich so you might not want to make the squares too big!
Cindy Vine is a South African currently living and working in Kyiv in Ukraine. She is the author of Hush Baby, Defective, C U @ 8, Not Telling and The Case of Billy B. All her books are available on Amazon in both print and Kindle format. http://cindyvine.com

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