Nanaimo Bar Recipe

We follow a great Canadian tradition each Christmas by making a batch of the sinfully delish – Nanaimo Bars.  I shared a picture of the weekend on Facebook of us making these and there were requests for the recipe, so here you are:  Our Nanaimo Bar Recipe

You can add rum to the filling (center white portion), but if not, just increase the vanilla extract by ½ tsp and the milk by 2 tbsp.

Prep Time:  30 minutes

Total Time:  3 hours (including chilling)

Base:

• ½ Cup unsalted Butter
• ½ Cup granulated white sugar
• ½ Cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg, beaten
• ½ cup unsweetened flaked toasted coconut
• 1 cup graham-cracker crumbs.

Bake the Base:

• – With the oven rack in the lower third of the oven, preheat to 325 F
• – Grease a 9 x 9 cake pan and line with parchment paper (this makes it really easy to remove from the pan).
• – Melt butter, sugar, cocoa, and salt in saucepan over low heat until smooth. Remove from heat to cool.  Wisk in vanilla, then the egg.  Stir in the coconut and graham-cracker crumbs.
• Scrape into the cake pan and smooth as flat as possible. Bake 12 – 15 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of the base comes out clean.
• Let cool.

Filling:

• ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3 tbsp custard powder
• 2 cups icing sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground nutmeg
• Pinch of salt
• 3 tbsp dark rum
• 2 tbsp milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Add the 2^nd layer and Chill

• – Beat butter, custard powder, icing sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt until light and fluffy.
• – Beat in rum, milk and vanilla
• – Spread over the cooled base and refrigerate 1 hour until firm.

The TOP:

• ¾ cup chopped dark chocolate
• 4 tsp coconut oil.

Top it Off:

• – Melt chocolate and coconut oil in a saucepan over low heat until smooth
• – Pour chocolate over filling and spread evenly
• – Refrigerate until chocolate is almost set – about 30 -40 minutes
• – Gently score the top chocolate layer into 1-1/2 x 3 inch bars;
• – Return to the fridge for about another 30 minutes.
• – Cut the score lines
• – keep refrigerated until ready to serve

We usually do a batch with and without the Rum so the little people in our lives can enjoy them too.

Enjoy