Nanaimo Bars
by: Three Many Cooks
Serves: Makes 16
Ingredients
Chocolate Crust
- 24 Famous Chocolate Wafers, coarsely crumbled
- ¼ cups sugar
- ½ cup sliced almonds
- 6 tablespoons butter, melted
Pudding Layer
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- Pinch salt
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
Chocolate Layer
- 4 ounces bitter or semi-sweet chocolate
- 2 tablespoons butter
Instructions
- Line an 8- by 8-inch pan with heavy-duty foil, leaving an overhang on two sides to facilitate removal of bars; coat with vegetable cooking spray.
- Finely grind wafers, sugar, and almonds in a food processor. Add butter and continue to process until well mixed. Turn mixture into prepared pan and tamp it down to form a solid crust; set aside.
- Whisk sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a medium saucepan. Just before adding milk, whisk in egg yolks, and then turn heat to medium and vigorously whisk in milk. Continue to whisk until mixture boils and becomes thick pudding. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla and then coconut. Spread mixture over crust and set in freezer to cool and set quickly.
- Meanwhile, melt chocolate and butter over low heat until just melted. When pudding layer has set, drizzle chocolate over it and spread to cover.
- Cover and refrigerate (up to 2 days) until ready to serve. Using foil handles, remove bars from pan. Cut into 16 squares and serve.
I love every ingredient — thanks for lightening them up, Maggy. I would love to join you for tea!
This looks yummy! Can’t wait to make.
Oh my word, this is not what I needed to see so early in my day – what a temptation!
dear Lighter delight,
They look perfect! I wish I knew how the ‘Nanaimo’ word is pronounced though. I am a long way from Canada and don’t know anyone there to ask. Maybe since I am a ‘Nana’ to 3 darling grands, and they already call my famous banana bread “Nana’s~nana~bread” They could name these “Nana~bars” for me!! I will have to try them out for them and see.
Love,
Even the name sounds sweet
in
NE
Hey Nana,
The closest I can come phonetically to pronunciation is Nah Nai Moe. But frankly, I like your name–Nana Bars–much better.
I want one…or two, or three:)
Oh baby these look incredible!! Great recipe!!
Scrumptious!
Yum! I skipped out on this for the Daring Baker because it was gluten-free and I couldn’t afford all the ingredients that month, but I definitely want to try yours!
Got the recipe but will have to wait until I lose someweight (-:!
Bob!
I’ll bet you could enjoy just one of these reasonable, delicious bars every afternoon and still lose weight.
Dang…these look sooo good! I’m going to need dessert intervention to keep from eating all these when I make them. 🙂
You are speaking my language! These bars were always such a treat growing up (in Vancouver, just a quick ferry ride from Nanaimo). I like the changes you made and can’t wait to try them.
Gah! Somebody brought these to a neighborhood potluck my mother hosted years ago and I think I ate most of the pan myself. I have been thinking about them ever since but never managed to find out what they were called or how to make them. Thank you!
Oooooh, we LOVE Nanaimo bars! I had never had them until the Daring Bakers challenge earlier in the year required us to make them! Now I’m hooked! Your recipe looks fabulous!
What are Famous Chocolate Wafers? Also it was mentioned that taking out the sugar and butter doesn’t hurt the taste. Is the sugar removed from both the crust and the pudding?
Girls, this was lovely!! I made then yesterday, and my husband decided to have dessert for dinner! I made a few changes myself: For the crust, I used digestive biscuits, as I didn’t have chocolate wafers at hand, and omitted the sugar. And for the coating I just used melted chocolate – no butter. These are a keeper, thank you!
Michelle,
Famous Chocolate Wafers are located in the cookie aisle and are pretty widely available at most decently stocked grocery stores.
About the sugar, we left the 1/4 cup of sugar in the crust and 1/4 cup in the pudding, but it’s not nearly as much as the original recipe called for.
I have always wanted to make nanaimo bars but coconut makes me ill, do you think they would be just as good sans coconut?
I think they’d be fine, Amanda. Just increase the pudding by half.
I’m originally from Canada and I love me a good nanaimo bar! Yours look delicious.
I’ve never had these but they look absolutely delicious!
If you can’t find Chocolate Wafer cookies in the cookie aisle, try by the ice cream toppings. That’s where they’re located in my neck of the woods.
I made these for my church not too long ago and I am so happy I snagged one at home first because they vanished! Thank you for the recipe!
oh… My chocolate set up very weird though… I’m going to have to fiddle with that one I think
Any idea how many cups/weight the 24 wafers add up to? This looks like a super easy recipe to convert to gluten free for our family. My son loves coconut, so this would be a great treat for him!