Hello, readers.

Here is a somewhat vegan, totally gluten-free, not too sweet variation on a canadian classic¹ called, NANAIMO BARS, what I concocted with the help and suggestions of a friendly Canadian lady person.

Nanaimo bars being a three-layered stack of delicious equal parts crumbly, creamy, and chocolatey.
 

 

a recipe for nanaimo

 

LAYER 1: the crumbly bottom

ingredients

1 egg

~230g butter/coconut butter²

90g cocoa powder³

250g oat biscuits

200g shredded coconut

100g chopped nuts

method

1. Heat the fat in a pan with the cocoa. Melt.
2. Remove from the heat.
3. Slowly beat the egg into the cocoa/fat mixture. Place back on stove. Cook for about 1 minute.
4. Remove from heat. Mix in the crumbs/coconut/nuts mixture (one could add dried fruit if one wanted).
5. Press into pan what lined with parchment paper and greased.

 

LAYER 2: the creamy, sweet middle

ingredients

2–5tbsp almond butter (instead of custard)⁴
180g–230g fat
some amount of maple syrup as sweetener

method

1. Cream everything together into a creamy thing.
2. Spread on top of the chilled crumbly layer.
3. Chill for another 30 minutes to an hour.

LAYER 3: the chocolatey top

ingredients

4 oz dark chocolate
~1/2–1 tbsp fat

method

1. Heat the fat in a double boiler with the chocolate. Melt.
2. Remove from the heat.
3. Top the middle layer
4. Chill.
5. For at least half an hour.
6. Eat.

Happy fooding, readers.

 

ttfn.

1. Note: I halved all of these ingredients except for, well, the egg, which I didn’t. Also. You could make this totally vegan by substituting some egg-replacement and using vegan butter or just going full-on with the coconut oil/butter [↩]
2. As noted above, feel free to substitute more coconut butter/oil for the butter and see how it goes [↩]
3. Totally used carob powder cause had it on hand [↩]
4. A lot of nanaimo recipes call for whole milk, or cream, plus some custard to thicken it all up. I went straight for something already thick and creamy. [↩]