Nanaimo – Ali Does It Herself

Yup. ANOTHER cupcake recipe. If you think that’s ridiculous, you’re gonna laugh at what I have planned for Friday. This recipe has been stored in my Evernote for forever, but I keep seeing the photos pop up on Facebook. I think it’s a not-so-subtle hint that I should probably make them.

Start with 1 1/2 cups blanched slivered almonds (I used flaked) and mix them with 2 cups dessicated unsweetened coconut in a bowl. Set that aside for now.

Toast a wee pinch of the coconut and almonds (I popped mine in the toaster oven) and set that aside as well.

Preheat your oven to 350°F and line a standard muffin tin with cups. I like how cheery these are.

In another bowl, whisk together 2 cups cake flour, 1 cup cocoa, and 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda.

In yet ANOTHER bowl, ideally the one in your electric mixer, cream together 3/4 room temperature butter, 1 1/2 cups brown sugar, and 1/2 cup granulated (white) sugar for about 3 minutes until pale and cohesive.

Beat in 3 eggs, one at a time. Ideally they are also room temperature. Pour in 3 teaspoons vanilla while you’re at it.

Now you can start adding your flour mixture in, alternating with 1 1/2 cup buttermilk until it’s all smooth and combined.

Then you can fold in all your almonds and coconut.

Scoop the batter into your cupcake cups until they’re’ about 3/4 full. Now, the recipe didn’t tell me how many this made and so I assumed that it was only 12.

I WAS WRONG. AND I WAS OUT OF CUPCAKE LINERS. So I used the last four I had, then put the rest of the batter in a disposable loaf pan. I figured it’d make a nice cake to freeze.

Anyway, bake your enormous number of cupcakes for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the centre cupcake comes out clean, then you can let them cool completely on a wire rack.

The Nanaimo-bar-y-ness of the icing comes from using custard powder. The custard is what makes a Nanaimo bar a Nanaimo bar. Nah-NYE-mo bar. I love the word Nanaimo. I may have a problem.

Right. Icing. That’s what we were doing.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, whip together 1 cup room temperature butter, 2 teaspoons vanilla, 4 cups icing sugar, and 4 tablespoons custard powder.

When that’s all combined, pour in as well about 3/4 cup whipping cream for smoothness.

There, that’s lovely.

Pipe it onto your cupcakes, and then sprinkle with the toasted almonds and coconut. That’s it.

Then you eat it and then it’s gone. So satisfying.

Despite having eaten probably a thousand of these over the years, I have never made one before. I guess I thought it would be hard. It really isn’t.

The origins of the Nanaimo bar are shrouded in mystery. Some say they are not from Nanaimo at all, that some housewife merely pointed to a town on a map when she named her crusty buttery bar.

Others (Canadians, mostly, and especially those from Nanaimo), insist that the Nanaimo bar belongs in its rightful birthplace on Vancouver Island. For our purposes, we’ll go with the second story. According to that second story, miners in town would take the bars with them when they went to work.

There are, of course, a hojillion recipes out there for Nanaimo bars. There are a bajillion variations (my neighbour makes a variation with candy canes at Christmas). I kept seeing ones that told you to use custard powder or pudding mix and I kept thinking, where is the original recipe? How can I make this from scratch? Then I realized that using a powder mix IS the original recipe. The custard powder is there more for flavour and sticky-together-ness than it is for making an original custard.

This particular recipe, with some very minor modifications, comes from Nanaimo [Nah-NIGH-mo] itself, which is a tiny town on the tiny Vancouver Island, a few hours’ ferry ride away from Vancouver in British Columbia. Apparently the mayor of Nanaimo held a contest several years ago to find the BEST Nanaimo bar recipe in town. It was re-posted by the owners of the Buccaneer Inn, in Nanaimo. How many times do you think I can say “Nanaimo”? I bet it’s more than you think.

In a double boiler, or a bowl suspended over a pot of simmering water, melt 4 or 5 ounces dark chocolate with 2 tablespoons butter.

Stir it until it’s smooth and set it aside to cool to room temperature.

It will cool faster if you swish it up on the sides of the bowl.

In a stand mixer or with an electric mixer, whip together 1/2 cup room temperature butter, 3 tablespoons cream, 2 tablespoons custard powder (I used Bird’s), 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 2 cups icing sugar.

Keep going until it’s light and fluffy.

In another bowl over a pot of water, melt and stir together 1/2 cup butter, 1/4 cup sugar, and 5 tablespoons cocoa.

Beat up an egg.

Add that into the melted butter, sugar, and cocoa, and stir to thicken. The egg will cook as you do this, and the texture might turn out a little lumpy, but that’s fine.

Remove the mix from the heat and stir in 1 1/4 cups graham crumbs, 1/2 cup finely chopped nuts (I used almonds), and 1 cup sweetened dessicated coconut.