Nanaimo Bars

First off, hello! This is my first post here, so I'm rather excited. Instead of blathering on about myself or my co-cook, though, I'll get right to the goodies.

Recently, I discovered a stash of shredded coconut tucked away in the depths of our massive pantry, and I was more than excited. Oh, what to do? Since Chef G isn't a big coconut fan, I knew I didn't have to worry too much about coordinating our tastes, or cooperating, so I set out on a recipe hunt. Well, to be honest, I was surfing a food website, and stumbled upon these bars that I'd never heard of: Nanaimo Bars. They're a Canadian dessert, and though I'm not from Canada, I was terrifically excited to find out what these gorgeous bars would taste like. Just looking at the recipe, I was reminded of the super-easy seven-layer bar concoction, but after making these, I don't know if I'll ever make seven-layer bars again. This bar dessert is made up of three layers: a thick, chewy bottom crust with coconut, chocolate, and nuts, topped by a thin vanilla custard/frosting layer, all covered with chocolate.

So anyway, I based my creation off of this recipe, but due to personal preference and a lack of a few ingredients, I made modifications of my own. Firstly, here in the States, we don't have custard powder, and we didn't have any pudding powder in the pantry, so I simply added cornstarch in it's stead, and upped the vanilla extract. Additionally, we did not have enough graham crackers to make 2 cups worth of crumbs, so I used cornflakes instead (if we want to get specific, I used Special K with dried strawberries, and simply removed the strawberries before putting them through the food processor).

For the bottom layer:

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 large egg, room temperature

Vanilla*

2 cup cornflake crumbs

1 cup coconut

1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (or pecans, if you'd prefer)

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Prepare a 9x9 pan with whatever form of non-stick material you prefer. For this, I just sprayed Pam on our pan. In a saucepan, over low to medium heat, melt the butter, and then stir in sugar in cocoa. Remove the pan from stove, and then add the egg, whisking the mixture until all is uniform, and then return to stove. Cook until the mixture thickens, or about one to two minutes. Once again, remove from heat, and add the vanilla, crumbs, coconut, and chopped nuts. Stir until all are coated, at which point you should drop the mixture into the 9x9 pan, and press it down until it is flat, uniform, and there are no gaps in the crust. Cover, and refridgerate until firm, about an hour. Or, if you're impatient like me, freezing worked well for this layer.

For the middle layer:

1/4 cup butter

3 1/3 tablespoons milk

2 tablespoons cornstarch

Vanilla extract*

2 cup powdered sugar

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Cream butter, and slowly add in the other ingredients. I started by adding the vanilla and the cornstarch, then the sugar, then the milk, but here, the order doesn't matter too terribly much. When I made this, I used 3 2/3 tablespoons milk, which resulted in a very thin - though easily spreadable - custard, so I would recommend using the reduced amount. After this, the middle layer must refrigerate to avoid chaos, havoc, and horror while adding the last layer.

For the top layer:

1 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 tablespoon crisco/butter

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Place in a microwave-safe bowl (I used our Pyrex measure), and melt on high for 30 seconds, then for 15 second intervals, stirring between each melt cycle. Spread the chocolate on the bars, but be warned that a too-hot chocolate will melt the custard, while chocolate that's too-cold will harden before you can spread and smooth it.

A note about vanilla (and spices): I, like my co-cook, see spice and flavoring amounts more as "guidelines," and I often nearly double the amount I put in my creations. Although this method works well for vanilla, I would not advise the "add more than called for" plan in most other aspects. As experience has shown me, it is much easier to add a bit more spice to something than it is to have to dilute flavoring. If you're still terrifically curious about the vanilla, I poured in about 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla for the bottom layer, and for the middle layer, a little more than 2 tablespoons went in.

~The Baker's Apprentice