Maybe candy canes, marshmallows, and sugar cookies arenāt your thing, but youāve still got a sweet tooth. You want to partake in the holiday cookie swap as usualāitās just that youāre looking for something thatās easy, no-bake, and isnāt covered in sparkles or shaped like a snowflake. We have just the dessert for you: the Nanaimo bar, an iconic Canadian confection.
Most Canadians grow up knowing and loving the Nanaimo bar, but I, a child deprived of sweets, did not encounter my first one until I was 16, when I was offered a slice by a high school teacher. I remember biting into the top layer of chocolate, meeting the soft, rich middle of custard-flavored buttercream, and finally, reaching the salty-sweet crunch of the graham cracker, coconut, and chocolate base. I could see why my parents had hidden this dessert from me. It was so rich and sweet that I suspected that my single bite had inspired a cavity to begin forming then and there. But there was something so pleasing about its contrasts in textureāthe crispness of the graham crackers and coconut against the velvety buttercreamāthat I immediately wanted another taste.
According to Lenore Newman, the director of the Food and Agriculture Institute at the University of Fraser Valley, āThe first known recipe [for the confection] was included in the 1952 Womenās Auxiliary to the Nanaimo Hospital Cookbook.ā The book has āthree nearly identical recipes for the dessert that differ only slightly from the modern version,ā she says, āunder the names Chocolate Square (twice) and Chocolate Slice.ā Itās possible the bar was born when older recipes for traybakes and bars were updated with a new icingāone made with Birdās Custard Powder, an egg-free, vanilla-flavored powder used to make instant custard that, along with other ready-made ingredients, became popular after World War II.Ā
As refrigeration, butter, and sugar became more accessible in the postwar period, square desserts that were set and refrigeratedāreferred to as ādaintiesāābecame increasingly popular. But Newman notes that the move toward premade, modern-feeling ingredients āwas more about status than time saving. Nanaimo bars, already costly due to their high butter and sugar content, required several purchased premade goods, and required time and care to make.ā For young homemakers, Nanaimo bars and other dainties became something of a status symbolāliving proof of the achievability of the modern Canadian dream.
Since its inception in the 1950s, the bar has been proudly claimed by the citizens of Nanaimo, a city on Vancouver Island located across the Strait of Georgia from Vancouver, and has gone on to inspire many other desserts across Canada, like Nanaimo bar-flavored cheesecakes, cupcakes, doughnuts, and more. When I moved to the United States, I was surprised to find that many Americans I met had never tastedāor heard ofāthis confection. While there are many similar recipes, like cowboy cookie bars or chocolate coconut bars, none of those really stand up to the Nanaimo bar in flavor or texture. In the words of chef Tyler Duft, āItās a slice of Canadianaā¦as soon as you go across the border, it doesnāt exist.ā
Duft and his wife, Red Sealācertified pastry chef Cassandra Crocco, are the owners of Duft & Co Bakehouse in Abbotsford, British Columbia. Some Canadians feel strongly that a Nanaimo bar isnāt a Nanaimo bar if it isnāt made with Birdās Custard Powder, but Crocco and Duft disagree. What can make or break a Nanaimo bar isnāt custard powder, they say, but the ability to ānail the combination between the fat, the salt, the sugar so it doesnāt wind up just being this monotone sort of taste.ā They use vanilla paste in lieu of custard powder, and top their bars with a touch of Maldon salt, which helps to balance the sweetness of the filling.
Although Nanaimo bars are available year-round, theyāre a feature of holiday season in Canada. Newman tells me, āTheyāre the kind of things you eat at Christmas, like shortbread cookies.ā During the holidays, Newman will make them for her family and often brings them to parties. They make a nice gift and because theyāre portioned and easy to pick up are a great finger food.
When I failed to locate a bakery that sold Nanaimo bars near me in the States, I turned to Canadian chef Anthony Roseās cookbook, The Last Schmaltz, to guide me. I had assumed it would be a trying and frustrating process to recreate a beloved and nostalgic snack from my homeland, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was simple, belonging to the genre of āset it and forget itā cooking.
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With three distinct layers, the bar may look difficult to make. But as long as you let each layer set properly before adding the next, itās an easy project that you can return to whenever itās convenient. I like to make my base, plop it into the fridge to set, then pull the butter from the fridge to allow it to come to room temperature for the buttercream filling. I go about my day, and by the time Iām ready to make the next layerāusually in an hour or twoāmy base has set and my butter is ready to be whipped into buttercream. An hour before Iām ready to serve the bars, I melt the chocolate chips, then glaze the top, which firms up slightly.
The Nanaimo bar requires no glitter to sparkle, but it will certainly shine at any cookie swap or holiday celebration you bring it to. Sharing them with my American friends, Iām brought back to my very first bite of this sweet, rich confectionāand make a note to myself to brush my teeth after.
