December 14, 2015

Nanaimo Bars, the start of the Christmas season

Natacha Sanz Caballero Desserts and Sweets Christmas, nanaimo bars, Navidad

Two events mark the beginning of the Christmas season at our house. The first is the set up of the Nativity Scene. In true Spanish tradition, our Nativity Scene includes the main characters, namely Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus in the manger, and the Three Kings making their way to Bethlehem. But our Nativity Scene also shows life at the time of Jesus’s birth in the town of Bethlehem, with shepherds in the fields with their sheep, the market and the shoppers, chickens and roosters roaming the streets, and a mysterious star looming and moving and guiding their way. When the tiny lights turn on at night, the sight is almost magical.

Once the Nativity Scene is set, it almost feels like Christmas.

The second event that marks the beginning of Christmas season at our house has to do with cooking, of course, and it is the first batch of nanaimo bars. I have to warn you at this point, though, that nanaimo bars are not, as the name implies, a Spanish Christmas treat. They come from the city (or region) of Nanaimo, in British Columbia, Canada, where part of my husband’s family comes from and lives.

Nanaimo bars were my husband’s first cooking venture, soon after we were married. I’m sure he made them to impress me, but also, I’m sure of this as well, he made them because he loves them, and couldn’t imagine Christmas without them. I, obviously, didn’t  know how to make them, and had never even heard of them. The nanaimo bars belong, however, in this blog, despite that they are not a Spanish dish, but because they are a family tradition. They were made at my husband’s house every Christmas, and they have been made at our house every single Christmas as well. I would say that, together with my husband’s paternal grandmother’s amazing shortbread cookies, they are the Christmas dessert par excellence at our house, and my boys’ favorite. If the Nativity Scene makes it feel like Christmas, nanaimo bars make it smell and taste like Christmas.

We have many excellent Christmas treats in Spain —think turrón, mazapanes, polvorones, pestiños, yemas… Yum!— and  eventually I will be posting some of those recipes. But understandably, I became our house’s main Christmas cook after marriage, when I started living in Canada. Prior to that, at home in Spain, my mom was, and still is, the main cook and baker, and my sisters and I like it that way. She is an amazing cook, and we like to be spoiled. For many years now, I have become at our house what she is back home in Spain, and I’ve developed my own list of baking goodies that I usually make. The Nativity Scene, and nanaimo bars, start the Christmas season for us. I hope you love them as much as we do.

 

NANAIMO BARS

Ingredients:

 

For crust 

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup white sugar

1 egg

4 Tbs cocoa

2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

 

For custard layer

6 Tbs butter

5 Tbs milk

3 Tbs vanilla custard powder (I use Birds brand)

3 cups sifted icing sugar

 

For chocolate top

8 squares semi-sweet baker’s chocolate

1 1/2 Tbs butter

 

In a stand up mixer, mix the first four ingredients: butter, sugar, egg and cocoa. Set in a double boiler until it acquires a custard consistency.

Combine the graham cracker crumbs, coconut and chopped walnuts, and mix with the cocoa mixture, blending well (I use the stand up mixer to do this).

Lightly butter a 9×12 inch pan and spread the mixture, flattening and pressing (I use a spatula first, and then I level with a small roller).

Cream all the ingredients for the vanilla custard and spread over the chocolate/cracker crumbs/coconut crust. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Melt chocolate in a double boiler and add the butter. Stir and spread over the vanilla custard layer. Refrigerate.

To serve, cut in squares.

Note: the nanaimo bars should be refrigerated. They can also be frozen (I actually love them straight out of the freezer).