If you’ve been following us on our Social Media sites, you will know that we were recently able to take a working “holiday” to Vancouver Island. We have already uploaded two of our three videos that we shot while we were there- Sand Dollar Sugar Cookies, and a Marshmallow Shooter– but our video today was definitely my favourite because I LOVE Nanaimo Bars!
A Nanaimo Bar is a Canadian specialty, in case you’re wondering what in the world I’m talking about. It is a three layered dessert bar that has a bottom, brownie like base with almonds and coconut, a middle vanilla custard layer, and a top layer of chocolate.
My Grandma had a Nanaimo Bar recipe that my mom and her sisters always make. I was going to use that recipe one day to make a video, but when the opportunity to head to Nanaimo presented itself, I knew I was going to have to skip Grandma’s recipe, and go for the original one.
The true origin and documented first version of the recipe cannot be found but the city of Nanaimo claims it to be theirs, as they are the namesake of this particular bar. There are other bars that are similar and ones that go by different names, but this is the version that is known to be the official Canadian Nanaimo Bar version. The first printing of the bar was documented to be in the 1952 Women’s Auxiliary to the Nanaimo Hospital Cookbook.
If you have never heard of this dessert, or never made it homemade before, you MUST stop what you’re doing and make it now. There is NO comparison to the store bought version. This version is amazing.
