Monday, 13 October 2008

Nanaimo Bars

Vegan Nanaimo BarsThey were already almost vegan anyway - who knew? Only needed to use dairy free margarine instead of butter, bit of rice milk instead of regular in the filling and I used a recipe that didn't use eggs for the base. Can't tell the difference, still delicious :-)

Base:
1 cup vegan chocolate chips (plain, dark, semi-sweet) or 180g
1/2 cup vegan margarine (1oog)
1 1/4 cup graham wafer crumbs - can't buy these here, use vegan digestive biscuits - 150g processed in a food processor until very crumbly.
1 cup dessicated coconut (80g)
1/2 cup chopped pecans (50g)

Melt the chocolate with the margarine in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. When all melted, remove and stir in everything else. Line a 8 or 9 inch pan with cling film, press the mixture into the pan pressing down and making it all even, chill until set.

Filling:
2 cups icing sugar (300g)
1/4 cup vegan margarine (50g)
about 3 Tbsp dairy free milk
2 Tbsp Bird's custard powder (not the instant which has milk in it, just the original powder)

Soften the margarine then beat in the custard powder, when smooth beat in the icing sugar and 'milk' alternately until a smooth, fairly thick frosting is achieved. I didn't need all the milk. Spread over the chilled base and return to the fridge to set.

Topping:
110g/4oz dark chocolate
2 tsp virgin coconut oil in solid state (or just use vegetable oil)

Melt the chocolate together with the oil then pour over the chilled base and filling, spread over carefully. Return to the fridge to set.

*One thing I forgot to do is to score the squares into the chocolate before it fully sets. If you don't it will be very hard to cut when it's fully set as the chocolate topping will just crack and crumble - which is what happened to me. So score it when it's starting to set but is still a bit tacky.*


4 comments:

  1. I'm not sure if my last comment went through because when I sent it an error appeared. But I just made these and they tasted and looked delicious! :) Thanks for the recipe! I also actually found Birds Custard Powder (started looking for it after I read somewhere you knew it was sold in Canada, and it was simply in the baking section of one of the normal grocery stores!) so now I'm going to try your other recipes that have it.. :D Thanks again for sharing your recipes with us!

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    1. Hi Heather! Thanks so much for your comment, so glad you liked the bars and was able to get the custard powder. I must make these again myself, one of my all time favourites :-)

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  2. These turned out perfectly for me and were a huge hit at the party I took them to (with mostly omnivores). I couldn't find custard powder, so used Jell-O vanilla pudding mix powder - it worked great. I didn't change anything else. Fabulous recipe, thank you!

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    1. So glad they turned out and were a hit! I have heard of using Jello dry vanilla pudding powder in place of the custard powder, so glad it worked. Thanks for letting me know :-)

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