Just Swap Out the Filling, Eh?: No-Bake Nanaimo Bars

After I made Erin Clarkson's delicious No-Bake Peppermint Slice, I had to give her No-Bake Nanaimo Bars a try. Not just because I still couldn't use my oven and was limited to no-bake recipes. But also because I loved the peppermint slice and the Nanaimo bar recipe is a very close cousin. They have the exact same chocolate-graham-coconut crust and identical chocolate glazes; the only difference is that the Nanaimo bars have vanilla custard buttercream in the middle instead of peppermint filling.

Because the crust of my peppermint slice had been a bit crumbly, I was extra diligent about tightly packing down the crust (ground graham crackers, sugar, Dutch cocoa, salt, unsweetened shredded coconut, and melted butter) for the Nanaimo bars before placing it in the freezer. The custard buttercream is a mixture of softened butter, custard powder (I used Bird's), powdered sugar, salt, vanilla bean paste, and heavy cream. I spread it on top of the cold crust and chilled the bars briefly before adding the chocolate glaze (dark chocolate and oil). I chilled the bars to set the topping before cutting them.
The custard buttercream was firmer than the mint filling for the peppermint slice. The base was just as crumbly -- next time, I think I'll try adding a little more butter and hope it holds together better. I know that Nanaimo bars are generally very sweet and quite rich, and these were no exception. While I liked them, I preferred the peppermint slice bars because I adore the combination of chocolate and mint, and the cool mint flavor made those bars seem less sweet -- even though the peppermint filling actually contains more sugar than the Nanaimo bar filling. 
 
Whether you go with the mint filling or the vanilla custard buttercream, either recipe will give you an easy, satisfying dessert. 

Recipe: "No-Bake Nanaimo Bars" by Erin Clarkson of Cloudy Kitchen. 

Previous Posts:

Comments

Post a Comment