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.
I will admit that I did not make the gluten free. Maybe in the states, gluten free flours are a bit cheaper, but here they are expensive! And I couldn't even find them on the German economy. My graham wafers were delicious though. I followed the recipe closely for them and didn't have any sort of problem with the dough. I did slim it down though to 1/4 the recipe since I was making them just for me!
I got a little trickier with the Nanaimo bars though. I divided the recipe in half, substituted...some other type of nut...I honestly don't remember what...for the the almonds and scrapped to coconut.
Bottom Layer
½ cup unsalted butter (European style cultured)
¼ cup sugar
5 tbsp. cocoa
1 egg beaten
1 ¼ cups graham wafer crumbs
½ c. finely chopped almonds
1 cup coconut
Melt first 3 ingredients in top of double boiler. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in crumbs, coconut, and nuts. Press firmly into an ungreased 8" x 8" pan.
I'll admit that I didn't make the second layer at all. I sweetened some marscapone cheese with a little powdered sugar and used that. It was super yummy.
Second Layer
½ cup unsalted butter
2 Tbsp. and 2 Tsp. cream
2 Tbsp. vanilla custard powder
2 cups icing sugar
Cream butter, cream, custard powder, and icing sugar together well. Beat until light. Spread over bottom layer.
Third Layer
4 squares semi-sweet chocolate (1 oz. each)
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
Melt chocolate and butter overlow heat. Cool. Once cool, but still liquid, pour over second layer and chill in refrigerator.
Looks great...this was surely a wonderful challenge.I also loved the layout of ur blog:)
ReplyDeletei like your version of nanaimo bars :) i also made mine with wheat flour
ReplyDeleteIf you are interested in making the gluten-free version: in Germany you'll find glutinous rice flour and tapioca starch in every Asian food store. You can buy sorghum at almost every grocerie store and grind it if you have a grain mill (that's what I did). Anyway, good job on your bars!
ReplyDeleteoh, my...that looks lovely and tasty and oh so good...glad you're still DBing it!
ReplyDeleteby the way, my word for posting just now was "fodenugg" which sounds like it might be some sort of German-American foodie thing???
ReplyDeleteThat sounds really good with the mascarpone - like a Nanaimo cheesecake. Mmmm!
ReplyDeleteI love your idea of using the mascarpone cheese in the middle layer--yummy! :)
ReplyDeleteMmm, I like how you made it in a dish, sort of like a giant cookie pie! Looks delicious. :)
ReplyDeleteLove what you did with my challenge! It looks fantastic =D.
ReplyDeleteOMG that looks soooo good!!
ReplyDelete