Sammy's Dot

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.

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I have to begin with a confession. I think this may cost me some of my Canadian cred – even more than the time I blithely said that the animal on our quarter is a moose.

I don’t particularly like Nanaimo bars.

I do love the idea of them: graham cracker crusts (with nuts and coconut, no less!) are yummy, custard is always good, and chocolate is chocolate and nothing else need be said. But put them all together, and for some reason we Canadians tend to produce something so sweet it makes my teeth ache.

I’ve made them twice before, the second time just this last December, while visiting R in Belfast; we brought them to a potluck dinner his co-workers put on, as they asked us to bring something Canadian. It took a good chunk of our last day before coming back to Toronto to track down the ingredients. We never did find graham crackers (though plain digestive biscuits turned out to be more or less indistinguishable), and had to go to five – FIVE! – grocery stores before we found unsalted butter. I was pretty pleased that we managed to make anything at all, given the under-equipped kitchen we had access to, but they turned out like ordinary Nanaimo bars – painfully sweet. I’m not sure R’s colleagues were impressed. (Probably a good thing we didn’t make poutine!) It convinced me that if I made Nanaimo bars again, I was going to do something different.

Fortunately, a few days later I signed up for the Daring Bakers, and the opportunity presented itself. Part of the challenge was to make my own Graham crackers, preferably gluten-free. I skipped the gluten-free in favour of  using up the whole wheat pastry flour I had on hand, and I think it worked out very well (in the sense that they tasted like store-bought Graham crackers, only better), although my cookies were too sticky to roll out properly. I also decided to use hazelnuts instead of almonds (though I’ll toast them longer next time), and added candied ginger and cinnamon to the base layer. For the buttercream, I added 2 tablespoons of very finely grated fresh ginger (if you try this, it works best with frozen ginger), 1/8 tsp of lemon extract, and instead of Bird’s Custard Powder I used 1 Tbsp of homemade vanilla (vanilla beans steeped in Bourbon) and reduced the amount of cream by half. I could have cut down on the sugar even so, because it’s still very sweet, but there’s a subtle hint of zip and brightness from the lemon and ginger that I really love, and I’m not sure I’ll ever make a plain buttercream again. I topped off the bars with Green & Black’s Fair Trade dark chocolate, which I should have tempered but which is nonetheless delicious.

Graham Crackers:

2 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp flaky sea salt
7 Tbsp unsalted butter
1/3 cup honey
5 Tbsp milk
2 Tbsp pure vanilla extract

Method:

1. Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Use a pastry cutter or your hands to break up any lumps. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles a coarse meal, with no visible butter.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together the honey, milk, and vanilla. Pour into the flour mixture and stir until it barely comes together. It will be very sticky at this point. Wrap in plastic and chill, at least 2 hours or overnight. (I skimp on chilling sometimes, but this dough really needed all of the time I gave it.)

3. Preheat the oven to 350F and line two baking sheets with parchment.

4. Divide the dough in half. Return one half to the fridge, and roll out the other until it is 1/8 of an inch thick on a lightly floured surface. Use a glass or round cookie cutter to cut it into circles – or if, like me, your dough simply will not cooperate in this process, just lift the irregular pieces to the baking sheet, since you’re going to be pulverizing the cookies anyway. Prick the cookies lightly with a fork, place them in the oven on a middle rack, and bake for up to 25 minutes; they should be fairly hard and will harden more. Repeat with the second half of the dough.

Nanaimo Bars:

Ingredients:

Bottom Layer:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup granulated sugar
5 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 large egg, beaten
1 1/4 cups Graham wafer crumbs (See previous recipe)
1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts (or almonds), coarsely chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped candied ginger
1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut

Buttercream:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 Tbsp cream (whipping cream or half&half)
2 cups icing sugar
1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
2 Tbsp grated ginger
1/8 tsp lemon extract

Top Layer:
115 g good-quality dark chocolate
2 Tbsp unsalted butter

Method:

1. Make the base: pulverize the Graham crackers until you have 1 1/4 cups of crumbs. In a large bowl, toss the crumbs with the nuts, candied ginger, and shredded coconut. In a small saucepan, melt the butter together with the sugar, cinnamon, ground ginger, and cocoa powder. When the butter is melted, whisk in the beaten egg and continue to whisk until the mixture thickens. Combine with the Graham cracker mixture until fully moistened, then press into an 8″ x 8″ square pan. Place in the fridge or freezer.

2. Make the buttercream: cream all ingredients together until a smooth frosting forms. Taste and adjust flavourings if necessary. Spread the frosting evenly onto the base layer and return to the fridge or freezer.

3. Make the top layer: melt the chocolate and butter together, on the stove or in the microwave, and mix until completely combined. Set aside until the mixture is cool but still liquid. Pour over the buttercream layer and spread evenly. Allow the bars to chill until the top layer is hardened.

4. Cut into small (1″) squares. Can be served immediately or kept wrapped in the freezer for several weeks.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 7:21 pm and is filed under Daring Bakers, tariqata cooks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.