Nanaimo Bars for Canada Day

Happy Canada day!

Even if you aren't Canadian, it's the beginning of July, and thus high summer. That's enough reason to celebrate! Still, these bars are a Canadian classic worthy of making in honour of the land of maple syrup and a Tim Horton's on every corner. I've got plenty of beefs with my nation, but those definitely aren't it. 

I saw some pictures of Fourth-of-July themed Nanaimo bars on social media recently, and the irony wasn't lost on me. It seems a bit like making Independence Day clotted cream scones or something. Nah, for me these will always be iconic to Canada, no matter how far away I live from the West coast and the actual city of Nanaimo in British Columbia thereover. 

I've seen these being called New York Squares, but I guess sharing is caring... it wouldn't be fair to deprive the States of these delicious classics, but just remember that you've got Canada to thank for 'em!

As for the actual recipe writer in question, the city of Nanaimo (yes, these bars warrant mention on the official municipal website) traces them back to the early '50s, though the actual inventor is unknown. The earliest mention by name seems to be a recipe from a Nanaimo church-led compilation of housewives' recipes in 1957, where it is submitted strangely enough by an American... yet even before that, a very similar version under the name of London Fog Bars was published in a Vancouver newspaper in 1953, and appeared in a cookbook soon after. The recipe also popped up in New Brunswick, hence some people calling them New Brunswick bars (hey, as long as they're Canadian...)

I'll leave it to you to decide how much of that Wikipedia-gleaned information can be trusted. But as far as I'm concerned, I'm just glad that these delicious bars made their spread into nearly every corner of the nation. I first met them at Loblaw's as a kid, where I was right away smitten with the fusion of subtle toasty graham crumbs, nutty coconut and almonds, vanillaey custard icing and fudgy chocolate topping. I never would've guessed that something so good could be so easily replicated at home, but then again, this recipe was borne from the new '50s genre of easy, nearly instant recipes assembled from newly available commercial components. You don't even need to bake these bars, and most of the ingredients would likely have already been in a Canadian or American housewife's pantry. 

A somewhat neater-looking batch from a previous year.

For the modern baker, the only things that might be tricky to find are the custard powder and, in some places, graham crumbs. For the custard powder, I'd recommend replacing it with full fat powdered milk and a dash of vanilla extract, with some yellow food colouring or turmeric for the signature colour. You aren't missing out if you can't find graham crumbs- they're one of those things that gets excessively modified to stay unstale and nonrancid for months on shelves despite the whole wheat content. I used homemade graham crackers pulverized in a food processor, which I'd highly recommend- yes, making your own graham crackers is an extra step, but it's highly impressive to be able to tell people you made these completely for scratch. And you can keep the leftover crackers or crumbs for future baking in the freezer for several months. They aren't hard to make- I'll put up the recipe soon. You can also use digestive biscuits that have been processed to crumbs if those are available.

One last note- these bars are always  unrepentantly sweet, but a little less so than the originals since I reduced the sugar in the icing. That makes them a bit softer and more sensitive to warmth, but they still hold together nicely. If you want the real thing, add another half cup of powdered sugar to the icing and reduce the cream by a little less than two tablespoons- you can also skip the cream-beating step in that case. Cut these into small pieces if you like, a little goes a long way. Take a bite of chocolatey-custardey-coconutty goodness and think of the ol' Land of the Maple Leaf.

Nanaimo Bars
Adapted from the original Nanaimo bar recipe on the City of Nanaimo website
Makes about 18 bars, or 24 small ones

For the Base:
1/2 C Butter
1/4 C. Sugar
5 TBSP Cocoa
1 Egg
1 1/4 C. Graham cracker crumbs
1 C. Shredded unsweetened coconut
1/2 C. Slivered or flaked almonds
1/2 C. Walnut pieces, optional

Grease and line a 8"x8" or 9"x13" pan with baking parchment. Set aside.

Set a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water as a bain-marie. Melt the butter and mix in the sugar and cocoa, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Quickly mix in the egg. Remove from heat and add the remaining ingredients.

Press the mixture into the greased and lined pan in a relatively even layer. Refrigerate until cool.

For the Icing:
1/2 C. Butter, softened
1 1/2 C. Powdered Sugar
2 TBSP Custard Powder
2 Tsp. Vanilla extract, optional
1/4 C. Whipping cream

Beat all of the ingredients together either on high speed in a mixer or in a food processor. If using the mixer, first use the whisk attachment to beat the cream with 2 TBSP of the sugar, then scrape it out and set it aside. Switch to a paddle attachment and cream everything else together, adding the whipped cream last and mixing it in until smooth.

Spread the icing over the cooled base layer with a knife or offset spatula in an even layer. Refrigerate until cold.

For the Topping:
8 Oz. Dark or semisweet chocolate
2 TBSP Butter

In a bain-marie set up as for the base, melt together the butter and chocolate until homogeneous. Take off the heat and let cool until not hot, but still relatively fluid. Spread onto the cold icing layer quickly to avoid the butter in it melting, then refrigerate the finished bars for at least 2 hours before cutting.

When cutting, use a warm knife (rinse it in hot water, then dry it, just before use).