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.
So firstly I spent quite a long time trying to work out how to say nanaimo without people saying, nemo bars? like the fish? Then I got onto the thinking about how awesome these bars are, custard buttercream! yum. crunchy base, gooey middle and chocolate top. bliss. lots and lots of complements from my team at work who invariably get to taste test anything I bake on whims or for challenges.
I chose not to make gluten free graham crackers...which by the way sounds silly said in an english accent...in fact we add an extra "y" in there for good measure, well we have 26 letters, might as well use them all up!
So, I used the recipe for Graaaam Crackers from the ever lovely 101 Cookbooks...very nice. Felt a bit wrong taking ages to make cookies just to crush them all up again!
Then on with the recipe for the bars themselves...I have to say I found using an 8"x8" pan gave quite thin layers, this proved good for the eating as they are so very rich, but was quite hard for the spreading of the top chocolate layer...but this could be remedied by making a thinner ganache. next time...
Nanaimo Bars
Bottom Layer
115g Unsalted Butter
50g Granulated Sugar
5tbsp Unsweetened Cocoa
1 Large Egg, Beaten
160g Graham Wafer Crumbs
55g Almonds, finely chopped
130g Coconut (Shredded, sweetened or unsweetened)
Middle Layer
115g Unsalted Butter
40ml Heavy Cream
2tbsp Vanilla Custard Powder
254g Icing Sugar
Top Layer
115g Semi-sweet chocolate
28g 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.
5 comments:
Glad you liked them and figured out the pronunciation too! Think GRAY-YUM crackers! I have always called them crackers, even though the box says wafers. I'll be making these again and again!
I found saying graham crackers in an English accent really wrong as well!
Your bars look delicious!
ha, glad i was not alone. it felt incredibly over-posh.."oh no, these are graham's crackers...and this is colin's cheese..."
So how does one pronounce nanaimo? I was on tenterhooks thinking you were going to give a nice little phonetic guide...
I would go for NAN-eye-mo bars, but not sure of origin of the word, if Japanese it could be different.
I'm such a word nerd.
Helen xx
well...if you want to get all phonetic about it, according to wikipedia...na-naimo..with the first a as is Rosa's and the o as is boat not boot. but don't take my word for it!
Post a Comment