A secret worth keeping — a recipe only a mother could make
CHLOE COCHRAN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 2 months AGO
The motherly instinct to provide the best for your children is what makes this Nanaimo bar recipe special to several residents in Bonner and Kootenai counties, along with many other locations around North America.
Mixed between the crunchy chocolate wafers and the smooth texture of vanilla custard is a recipe that’s deeply embedded into my family’s lineage, dating back five generations of folks with a sweet tooth for one specific Canadian dessert.
My twin sister and I had always known that Nanaimo bars were a staple in our Christmas celebrations, eager for our mother to cut through the hardened chocolate so we could snag a piece before the dessert was gone. But it was not until researching the origin of our recipe that I realized how special — and, dare I say, sacred — the dessert was.
My grandma, the keeper of all things nostalgic, was the first person I sought out for the recipe’s history. After all, the desserts origin in British Columbia, Canada, was in line with my papa’s roots, with the family recipe beginning with his mother, my nana.
I do not have many memories of my nana, aside from her stealing fruit snacks for my sister and me (we did not know that at the time, though; we are not accomplices of the crime). But the story of how our family got hold of her famous recipe seems to fit her spirit.
As a mother of four boys, the conception of another woman filling that space in their lives could be difficult, I imagined. That's why, when the significant others of her children requested the recipe for a dessert that her boys loved so much, she gave each of them slightly different recipes than the one she used throughout their childhood.
For years, they used the recipe, never able to quite get it the same as hers. It wasn’t until she passed that the original recipe came to light.
Now, as the holidays are quickly approaching — faster than in the years prior — I get to make the bars the same way my nana, grandma and mother did, along with all the relatives sprinkled around the country. It is recipe sprinkled with humor and motherly love, and I’m happy to share it with you all before I alter it one day for my own children’s spouses.
Nana's Nanaimo Bars
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup + 1 tbsp butter
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp cocoa powder
- 2 cups graham wafer crumbs
- 1 cup fine coconut flakes
- 1/2 cup chopped almonds
- 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 2 tbsp vanilla custard powder
- 3 tbsp milk
- 4 squares chocolate — 2 semi-sweet, 2 bittersweet
Directions
- Boil about 2 cups of water.
- Over the hot water in a bowl, melt and mix 1/2 cup butter, sugar, cocoa powder, egg and vanilla.
- Remove from heat and mix in graham crumbs, coconut and almonds. Spread in a 9-by-9-inch pan.
- In a separate bowl, mix 1/4 cup butter, confectioners’ sugar and custard powder (stir into the milk first) and spread over the first layer.
- Chill in the fridge.
- Melt chocolate with 1 tbsp butter, pour over the chilled bars and let harden before slicing.
*Grandma's Tip
To substitute custard powder, use instant vanilla pudding. For a less-sweet treat, use only 1 cup powdered sugar.
Nanaimo bar recipe, an over 50-year-old recipeARTICLES BY CHLOE COCHRAN
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