Nanaimo is a town on Vancouver Island. I’m not sure what these yummies have to do with it – presumably, they were created there – but like many Canadians, we eat these around the holidays. They’re sweet enough to stop your heart, but really good.
This recipe is from a Baker’s Chocolate recipe book. Probably the most popular variation is to add mint flavouring and green food colouring to the custard layer, but we’re purists – we keep it plain.
Base:
2 squares semi-sweet Baker’s chocolate, melted and cooled
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 tbsp white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
2 cups graham wafer crumbs
1 cup cocoanut (I use the unsweetened kind)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Combine chocolate, butter, sugar, vanilla and egg, and mix well. Add graham wafer crumbs, cocoanut and walnuts and mix well. Press into a 9″ x 9″ pan and chill.
Filling:
1/4 cup butter, softened
3 tbsp milk
2 tbsp custard powder (look in the International Foods aisle at the grocery)
2 cups icing sugar, sifted
Combine butter, milk and custard powder. Blend in icing sugar. Spread over base and chill 15 minutes before glazing.
Glaze:
4 squares semi-sweet Baker’s chocolate
1 tbsp butter
Partially melt chocolate with butter over hot water. Remove from heat, stir until melted. Spread over custard layer. Chill.
Store in refrigerator as long as they last.
Deborah Cooke: Author 
5 responses to “Nanaimo Bars”
After asking the question yesterday, I looked up a recipe. For us custard-powder deprived Americans, the recipe suggested substituting an equal amount of vanilla instant pudding mix.
I might whip these up – something new for the office this year.
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You might find custard powder in a grocery that carries a lot of British items, like sticky toffee pudding. It’s not that common even here, and I’ve never used mine for anything other than Nanaimo Bars.
What are fat balls?
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“Store in refrigerator as long as they last.”
That would be approx. 10 minutes, if they make it to the refridgerator at all. My one true weakness. LOL
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Fat balls are deep-fried balls of dough. Not quite a doughnut, not quite a bread – somewhere in between. I only liked the ones that didn’t have raisins in them.
Might be something from the Netherlands – where my Grandmother’s family was from. I saw them in kiosks and in the bakeries there – a rough translation of the name there was “batter ball”.
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You might look for Bird’s Eye custard – having a name to ask for might help. I use it every Christmas to make custard for the pudding 🙂
Mmmmmmm – Nanaimo bars.
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