Too Much on the Bottom and Not Enough in the Middle: Nanaimo Bar Outrage

kshama2001 wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

kshama2001 wrote: »

Alright you Canadians (or Canada-adjacent), where are YOUR recipes? I used this once, and it was delicious, but from their picture it looks like the proportions were wrong:

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/213587/easy-nanaimo-bars/

This will probably start a culture war, because I'm not Canadian.

I'm only Canada-adjacent, and have only had Nanaimo bars from bakeries or at restaurants in Canada. I've never made them. They've mostly looked like this, more or less (operating from memory, because Canada hasn't been letting us in for nigh on a year now, no matter how close):



These are a couple of purportedly Canadian sources about Nanaimo bars, the first of which links to multiple recipes (one of which has the perceived-inauthentic rippled top layer):

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/nanaimo-bar
https://smartcanucks.ca/great-canadian-foods-nanaimo-bars/

Help!

For the recipe at the bottom, does "cocoa" mean "hot cocoa powder" which has sugar, or "baking cocoa" which is unsweetened? It also calls for sugar so I'm thinking it's "baking cocoa."

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/nanaimo-bar

Here is Joyce Hardcastle’s award-winning Nanaimo bar recipe:

For the bottom layer, melt a ½ cup unsalted butter (European style, cultured), a ¼ cup sugar, and 5 tablespoons cocoa in the top of a double boiler. Add 1 beaten egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in 1¾ cups graham wafer crumbs, 1 cup shredded coconut, and ½ cup finely chopped almonds. Press firmly into an 8" x 8" pan lined with parchment paper.

For the middle layer, cream ½ cup unsalted butter, 2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons heavy cream or whipping cream, and 2 tablespoons vanilla custard powder. Gradually add 2 cups icing sugar to the creamed mixture. Beat until light and fluffy. Spread over bottom layer.

For the third layer, melt 4 squares of semi-sweet chocolate (1 oz. each) and 2 tablespoons unsalted butter over low heat. Cool. Once cool, but still liquid, pour and smooth over second layer and chill in refrigerator. Cut into small squares to serve.