 Today we're making Nanaimo bars. Now, if you've never heard of them, well, neither had I until I visited Vancouver British Columbia in Canada It's a beautiful place to visit by the way, and this is one of their traditional Christmas desserts, which has three layers It's a bar and so that first layer is basically a graham cracker crust with some coconut and almonds and some cocoa powder and some sugar and Then the second layer is a nice vanilla custard filling and my version is gluten-free and the last layer We're gonna top it off with a nice semi-sweet layer of chocolate. This is very rich and delicious You're gonna love it. I'm rockin robin, and I'm gonna show you how to make it right after my chef joke Okay, so here we go with chef joke number one. Number two will be a little later All right, so what did the teddy bear say when he was offered dessert? No, thanks. I'm stuffed To start off, I'm gonna prep up my baking dish Although we're not gonna be baking this in an eight by eight baking dish that is lined with some parchment paper This is gonna make getting the dessert out of the dish very easy We'll set this aside and we'll start working on our bottom layer I am using gluten-free graham crackers in this or rather cookies You know feel free to go ahead and use regular graham crackers if you want to now I used Mary's Gone cookies and they have a honey flavor and they have a cinnamon flavor and Either one or both I actually used a combination in this recipe just because that's what I had so that works as well And I measured out about 180 grams for this or after you grind them up measure out a cup and a half and We'll place these into a food processor and really just grind them up until they're almost like flour These are pretty crunchy and they take a little while to to work. So just stay with it So here's the consistency that you're looking for nice and smooth. No big chunks So if you don't have a scale you can go ahead and just measure out a cup and a half and we'll set these aside Next we'll need some raw sliced almonds and I got these at Trader Joe's as you can see and we're gonna need about a half a cup Now remember you can get the written recipe below the video in the description area So next I'm gonna add some shredded coconuts unsweetened to the almonds You probably noticed that I processed the graham crackers separate from the coconut and the almonds And that's just making it easier on the machine because I really want this grounded up nice and fine I'll process this and I'll show you what it should look like Okay, that looks good Now I'm gonna pour the graham crackers back into the food processor with the almonds and the coconut and we're gonna Just mix it again. So everything's well combined and I make sure there's no big chunks I'm gonna place this mixture into a mixing bowl until we need to add some more ingredients For our next step, we're gonna need a double boiler and to that we're gonna add some cocoa powder I like to use guitar cocoa powder. It is one of my favorites, but you can use any kind you like So I'm gonna measure out five tablespoons of this and put it in my double boiler To that we're gonna add one cube of butter or that's equivalent to a half a cup Now I've changed the recipe just a little bit by cutting back on the sugar actually quite a bit And I'm using coconut sugar here and I'm only using a quarter of a cup When you go to put water in your double boiler just make sure that it doesn't touch the bottom of the upper pan that way It won't get too hot All right, let's take this over to the stove and we're gonna put this on a simmer Once the water starts to boil. I will turn the temperature to low Well, that's starting to warm up We're gonna crack an egg into a bowl and then we're gonna whisk it and we're gonna end up Tempering this egg and putting it into our chocolate mixture So take a fork and give it a good mix Now you'll notice in this recipe that coconut sugar takes a bit longer to dissolve it stays a little grainy So you're gonna want to really stir it really well with a spatula and you'll be able to feel It's rubbing on the bottom of the pan that it hasn't quite dissolved yet. So just keep going until it gets smooth The chocolate is hot so it's time to temper our egg. So here we go. This is what we're gonna do We're gonna slowly pour that chocolate into the egg while I whisk it and that will keep it from curdling and overcooking So slow and easy is the way to go I'm gonna end up pouring maybe a quarter a cup of the chocolate into the egg And that's gonna gradually raise the temperature without like I said curdling it and then once we did that and I can add That mixture back to the chocolate Okay, so that should do it. I probably added a third of a cup So back on the pot the chocolate goes and now I'm gonna add this mixture back to it while I'm whisking and I do have my heat on low So I'm gonna cook this over the heat for another two minutes so that the egg will continue to cook completely So now we're gonna pour our chocolate mixture into the graham cracker mixture And now you just want to blend it up And it'll take a couple of minutes here to work this in but you want to make sure all of the crumbs Are mixed in with that sauce so there's no dry spots Okay, I think that looks good. All right, it's time to pour our bottom layer into the dish I like to even it out with my hand and then I will start to press it down into the dish Then I'll take a flat bottom glass and press it down into the dish even more just to make sure it's nice and compact Then this will go into the refrigerator to chill for at least an hour We want it to get nice and cool before we add the next layer Okay, so it's got to be time for chef joke number two, right? So here we go I was at the farmer's market last week and this guy threw a milk chocolate bar at me And I said How darey Now to work on our custard type filling. All right, we've got a half a cube of butter here That's about a quarter of a cup along with some softened cream cheese I like to mix these two together first just to get them nice and creamed together Our next ingredient is custard powder now This is traditionally used in this recipe, but I understand you can use vanilla pudding powder If you can't find this you can order this online and I'll leave a link below So we'll add a couple of tablespoons of this to our mix And next we're going to add three tablespoons of heavy whipping cream And the last thing we're going to add is a little bit of vanilla extract Once everything is mixed well, we're going to start adding the powdered sugar Now one thing's for sure is I really cut back on the powdered sugar in this recipe compared to some recipes Some call for two cups. I'm only using three quarters of one cup and it is plenty sweet So go ahead and add about half of the sugar and then blend it in really well and then add the second half You'll need to scrape down the size with a spatula as you go Once it looks like this then you're ready to add your second layer Smooth out that beautiful custard and just make it nice and even All the way to the edges Now this needs to go back in the refrigerator for at least another hour so that it can firm up before we add our chocolate layer So for our last layer on top, we're going to be using Guitard's baking chocolate. This is semi-sweet chocolate I'm going to break this up a little bit just to make it easier to melt so you can either chop it up Or you can break it up with your hands I'm going to place the chocolate into my double boiler along with a little bit of butter Now remember not to place too much water in the pan so that it touches the upper pot where the chocolate is Otherwise it could burn once this melts completely. We're ready to use it If your chocolate gets too thick you can always add a little more butter say a tablespoon at a time Drizzle that melted chocolate over the top and then we'll spread it out with an offset spatula Once you get it all evened out, it's going back to guess where the refrigerator. We want that chocolate to firm up After at least an hour in the fridge. It's ready to serve So you're going to want to take a knife and cut along the side of the pan where the parchment paper isn't And this should help release it so you can lift it right out I store my Nanaimo bars in the refrigerator But it makes the chocolate get a little bit hard sometimes So you may want to take it out about a half an hour before you actually slice it Here you can see those beautiful layers. This is such a delicious dessert You've got that chocolatey coconut layer with the custard on top that is so creamy And then you got the final chocolate layer. You can't beat it If you love chocolate desserts and you want to try something really quick and maybe just one serving try my chocolate mug cake You're going to love it. Click the link on the screen. It'll take you right to the recipe If you enjoyed today's video, let me know by hitting the subscribe and the like button And if you'd like to chat with me, leave me a comment down below. I'd love to hear from you All right, we'll see you back here next week for another rockin recipe