The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.
The challenge this time was very interesting and quite straightforward. We had to first make graham crackers from scratch, gluten fee if possible, and then make the bars. All in a days work and a pleasure I have to say! I have read about nanaimo bars on blogs often, the first time at Closet Cooking and it’s been in my bookmarked folder forever! Push came to shove here and I was excited to finally have a go at them. Have heard of grahamn crackers very often, but don’t get them here, so we settle for digestive biscuits etc. The crackers were a BREEZE to make. Unfortunately we don’t easily get gluten free flour here. I am sure it is available is speciality stores but I couldn’t find any appropriate stuff near my place, so I setlled for APF with a small portion of whole wheat thrown in.
Winter is the time to bake…and that is music to my ears. Did see a few folk struggling with sticky dough at the forum, but mine was a cake walk. It behaved beautifully, rolled beautifully, baked beautifully … and made the whole place smell divine! I nicked 2 graham crackers as they cooled down and loved how good they tasted. I certainly shall be making over and over again as the flavours, the lightness and the crispness is wonderful! The recipe below makes loads of surplus graham crackers, which is just as well, because the kids LOVED them!
The rest of the challenge was a breeze too. I had some finely chopped roasted peanuts, waiting to be made into peanut butter, so I used those instead of almonds. I also reduced the coconut a bit and threw in exra peanuts. I like Snickers and thought peanuts would work well in there! They did indeed. My top layer cracked a bit and I reckon that’s because I was in a hurry to cut up the bars and they needed more time to set.
I made a few stand alone ones too in dessert rings and squares just to experiment and they worked out great. With lots of time left over for a change, I dressed up a couple in lace collars. You can see how I did it in this Strawberry Bavarian Cream Cake post here. The only difference this time was that I wound the parchment with the piped chocolate while the chocolate was 50% set, and popped it into the fridge to harden. Found it much easier to handle!
For Graham Wafers
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups + 2 tbsps all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter (cut into 1-inch cubes and frozen)
1/3 cup honey
5 tbsps skimmed milk
2 tbsps pure vanilla extract
Directions:
In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, combine the flours, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Pulse on low to incorporate. Add the butter and pulse on and off, until the mixture is the consistency of a coarse meal.
In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the honey, milk and vanilla. Add to the flour mixture until the dough barely comes together. It will be very soft and sticky.
Turn the dough onto a well-floured surface and pat the dough into 2 rectangles about 1 inch thick each. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, about 2 hours, or overnight.
Sift an even layer of flour onto the work surface and roll the dough into a long rectangle, about 1/8 inch thick. The dough will be quite sticky, so flour as necessary. Cut into 4 by 4 inch squares. Place wafers on one or two parchment-lined baking sheets. Chill until firm, about 30 to 45 minutes. Repeat with the second batch of dough.Gather the scraps together into a ball, chill until firm, and reroll to get a couple more wafers.
Preheat oven to 180C.
Prick the wafers with toothpick or fork, not all the way through, in two or more rows.
Bake for 12-15 minutes, until browned and slightly firm to the touch.
When cooled completely, place enough wafers in food processor to make 1 ¼ cups (300 mL) of crumbs. Another way to do this is to place in a large ziplock bag, force all air out and smash with a rolling pin until wafers are crumbs.
Nanaimo Bars
Ingredients:
Bottom Layer
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup granulated vanilla sugar
5 tbsps unsweetened cocoa
1 Large Egg, beaten
1 1/4 cups (160 g)Graham Wafer Crumbs (See previous recipe)
1 cup Roasted peanuts (finely chopped)
1/2 cup shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
Middle Layer
1/2 cup Unsalted Butter
2 tbsps and 2 tsps (40 mL) Cream
2 tbsps Vanilla Custard Powder
1 cup Icing Sugar
Top Layer
115 g Semi-sweet chocolate
2 tbsps Unsalted Butter
Directions:
1. For bottom Layer: Melt unsalted butter, sugar and cocoa in top of a double boiler. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in crumbs, nuts and coconut. Press firmly into an ungreased 8 by 8 inch pan.
2. For Middle Layer: Cream butter, cream, custard powder, and icing sugar together well. Beat until light in colour. Spread over bottom layer.
3. For Top Layer: Melt chocolate and unsalted butter over low heat. Cool. Once cool, pour over middle layer and chill.
Additional Information:
These bars freeze very well, so don’t be afraid to pop some into the freezer.
The graham wafers may be kept in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. Mine lasted about that long.
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