The gentlemen bakers offer a recipe for Nanaimo Ice Cream Bars in honor of Canada Day. Their variation of the Canadian treat substitutes a layer of ice cream for the traditional custard filling. I've made this dessert from Baked Occasions a few times before -- it was the very first recipe I tested for the cookbook and I also served them as part of our frozen menu at last year's holiday party. In the past I've taken the shortcut of using store-bought ice cream, but this time I decided to make my own; I used David Lebovitz's recipe for Caramel Ice Cream from Ready for Dessert.
I made the custard for the ice cream a day in advance so that I would have time to thoroughly chill it before freezing the ice cream. You make a dry caramel by melting sugar in a pan; add whole milk and salt; cook the mixture until the hardened caramel dissolves; add tempered egg yolks and cook the custard until thickened; pour the mixture through a sieve into some heavy cream; add vanilla and more salt; cool the mixture to room temperature; and put it in the refrigerator to chill.
The following day, I made the base for the Nanaimo bars. The recipe calls for digestive biscuits or graham crackers but I decided to go with Biscoffs (after discovering that my grocery store was out of plain digestive biscuits and only had chocolate-covered ones). You melt butter in a double boiler, add brown sugar and cocoa, stream in a beaten egg, and cook until the mixture thickens slightly. After adding some vanilla, I mixed in ground Biscoff cookies, broken stick pretzels, and chopped walnuts. I pressed the mixture into the bottom of a parchment-lined pan and put it in the refrigerator.
While the crust was chilling, I froze the ice cream. That took about 30 minutes, and I transferred the entire batch of ice cream straight from the ice cream maker to the pan with the chilled crust, smoothing it into an even layer. After the bars spent a few hours in the freezer, I spread on the fudge topping, which is made from heavy cream, butter, corn syrup, and dark chocolate. After a few more hours in the freezer, the bars were ready to serve.
The fudge layer on top of the bars was thick and firm and very difficult to cut through, even using a hot knife. And I don't even think the clunky top layer was even necessary from a taste perspective -- I know that you need a chocolate topping to emulate a Nanaimo bar, but the base and ice cream filling of these bars were so flavorful and satisfying that the fudge topping was gratuitous.
I love the touch of cinnamon in the base from the Biscoffs -- I think this will be a permanent substitution from now on when I make these bars. And the pretzel bits add some wonderful salty crunch. The caramel ice cream was so freakin' good. It was perfectly smooth, ultra-creamy, and had the loveliest salted caramel flavor. I'd have to do a side-by-side taste test to decide if I like this ice cream better than the Salty Caramel Ice Cream from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home, but both are winners. I couldn't be happier with these bars turned out.
Recipes:
Previous Post: "A Chilled Treat from Our Neighbors to the North: Nanaimo Bars," September 6, 2012.
I made the custard for the ice cream a day in advance so that I would have time to thoroughly chill it before freezing the ice cream. You make a dry caramel by melting sugar in a pan; add whole milk and salt; cook the mixture until the hardened caramel dissolves; add tempered egg yolks and cook the custard until thickened; pour the mixture through a sieve into some heavy cream; add vanilla and more salt; cool the mixture to room temperature; and put it in the refrigerator to chill.
The following day, I made the base for the Nanaimo bars. The recipe calls for digestive biscuits or graham crackers but I decided to go with Biscoffs (after discovering that my grocery store was out of plain digestive biscuits and only had chocolate-covered ones). You melt butter in a double boiler, add brown sugar and cocoa, stream in a beaten egg, and cook until the mixture thickens slightly. After adding some vanilla, I mixed in ground Biscoff cookies, broken stick pretzels, and chopped walnuts. I pressed the mixture into the bottom of a parchment-lined pan and put it in the refrigerator.
While the crust was chilling, I froze the ice cream. That took about 30 minutes, and I transferred the entire batch of ice cream straight from the ice cream maker to the pan with the chilled crust, smoothing it into an even layer. After the bars spent a few hours in the freezer, I spread on the fudge topping, which is made from heavy cream, butter, corn syrup, and dark chocolate. After a few more hours in the freezer, the bars were ready to serve.
I love the touch of cinnamon in the base from the Biscoffs -- I think this will be a permanent substitution from now on when I make these bars. And the pretzel bits add some wonderful salty crunch. The caramel ice cream was so freakin' good. It was perfectly smooth, ultra-creamy, and had the loveliest salted caramel flavor. I'd have to do a side-by-side taste test to decide if I like this ice cream better than the Salty Caramel Ice Cream from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home, but both are winners. I couldn't be happier with these bars turned out.
Recipes:
- "Nanaimo Ice Cream Bars" from Baked Occasions by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, recipe available here at Baked Sunday Mornings.
- "Caramel Ice Cream" from Ready for Dessert by David Lebovitz, recipe available here at kitchn.com.
Previous Post: "A Chilled Treat from Our Neighbors to the North: Nanaimo Bars," September 6, 2012.
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