Let me warn you, I’m slapping these in the “600 calorie death spiral” category ASAP. Nanaimo bars are sweet. Tooth-achingly, sugar coma-inducing sweet. Guess how much butter this recipe packs into an 8 x 8 pan?

Okay, you guessed two. I’ll give that to you, because it was obvious. How about this? What is that yellow, creamy middle layer 90% comprised of?

Drat, you guessed a stick of butter. And you were right.

Nanaimo bars — I keep wanting to call them Nanowrimo bars —are a Canadian invention, intended to nourish moose hunters in the frigid Yukon winters much like the Eskimos gained their needed calories from whale blubber. It’s common for moosers (as the great Yukon moose hunters call themselves) to fabricate dozens of batches of Nanaimo bars in the fall, pack them in their own dogsled, and thus haul the sweets with them throughout their winter hunting on the tundra.

quit making things up already

There were two required parts to this Daring Bakers Challenge: make your own graham crackers, preferably gluten-free, and make the Nanaimo bars. The gluten-free grahams recipe called for several specialty flours, and I didn’t look forward to a) hunting them down or b) spending $30 on flours I literally would never use again.

Instead, I made a graham cracker recipe I’ve made before: Whole wheat graham crackers from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking. As always with crackers, I had trouble rolling the dough thin enough (read: I couldn’t). However, even the crackers that came out thick and cookie-like were tasty, of course. How could they not be? Crackers are made using the same cutting-solid-fat-into-flour method as pie crust. Don’t expect homemade crackers to be similar to store-bought. They are very rich in comparison — not the kind of cracker you can eat a few dozen of easily.

Nanaimo bars are three layers: bottom is crushed grahams, cocoa, chopped nuts, coconut, butter. The butter middle layer is basically butter, with some powdered sugar and custard powder. I can only imagine those dry ingredients are added to the butter to stabilize it, because they don’t add much flavor. The top layer is melted chocolate chips with…guess. Come on, guess. Butter!

As you also may have guessed, Nanaimo bars aren’t quite my cup of tea. I found them cloyingly sweet (and I like sweets) with little going on other than chocolate and butter. The nuts, coconut, and grahams are entirely lost, and I have no idea what the custard powder is supposed to taste like because the layer it’s in simply tastes like a stick of butter.

However! Linda and Dad really liked them. Mom thought they were too dark chocolate-like. So I’m likely the weirdo here, missing out on something amazing.

whole grain graham crackers

Adapted with permission from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking.

oven: 350 degrees
yield: 6 dozen 3-inch crackers
baking time: 12 to 15 minutes

1 cup (4 ounces) whole wheat flour
1/2 cup (2 ounces) whole barley flour
1/2 cup (2-1/8 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (1-7/8 ounces) packed light or dark brown sugar
1/4 cup (1-3/4 ounces) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounces) unsalted butter, chilled
1/4 cup (2 ounces) milk
Cinnamon sugar (optional)

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cut in butter until the mixture is crumbly. Alternately, use a food processor, and pulse in short bursts until butter is nearly pea-sized.

Add the milk and combine until you have a stiff dough. You may need to add a bit more or less milk depending on local humidity. Knead the dough lightly until it’s smooth. It’s okay to work with this dough a little bit, but take care to only knead until the bread is smooth — you don’t want to completely incorporate the butter; you want to be able to see bits of butter poking through.

Divide dough into 2 pieces and flatten into a rectangle. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill until firm, about an hour, or overnight. I chilled mine overnight.

Working with one piece of dough at a time, and leaving the other in the fridge, roll out the rectangle very thin on floured parchment paper, about 1/16th of an inch thick. With a sharp knife or a pizza cutter (I prefer the pizza cutter), trim the edges from the dough to form a clean rectangle about 9 x 12 inches. Save scraps to re-roll later.

Cut the dough into 3-inch squares, then cut each square in half. Prick the crackers with a fork or a dough docker. Transfer the parchment, dough and all, to a baking sheet.

Repeat with second piece of dough, saving its scraps as well. Re-roll the scraps into more crackers. The re-rolled dough bakes up surprisingly well, not much tougher at all, nearly indistinguishable from the “virgin” crackers.

Top crackers with cinnamon sugar, if desired.

Bake crackers until lightly browned, 12 to 15 minutes. I found 14 minutes worked well in my oven, and I did one pan at a time while rolling and preparing the next. Transfer crackers to a wire rack to cool.

For Nanaimo bars, place graham crackers in a plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin to make 1-1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs.

nanaimo bars

Bottom Layer

1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
1/4 cup (50 g) (1.8 ounces) Granulated Sugar
5 tablespoons (75 mL) Unsweetened Cocoa
1 Large Egg, Beaten
1 1/4 cups (300 mL) (160 g) (5.6 ounces) Gluten Free Graham Wafer Crumbs (See previous recipe)
1/2 cup (55 g) (1.9 ounces) Almonds (Any type, Finely chopped)
1 cup (130 g) (4.5 ounces) Coconut (Shredded, sweetened or unsweetened)

Middle Layer

1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons (40 mL) Heavy Cream
2 tablespoons (30 mL) Vanilla Custard Powder (Such as Bird’s. Vanilla pudding mix may be substituted.)
2 cups (254 g) (8.9 ounces) Icing Sugar

Top Layer

4 ounces (115 g) Semi-sweet chocolate
2 tablespoons (28 g) (1 ounce) 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. Makes 16 servings.

Each serving is 312 calories. Two bars surpasses the 600 calorie death spiral threshold.

© Amy for Shiny Cooking, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: almonds, barley flour, chocolate, coconut, whole wheat flour

Guess what? I actually got off my arse and did some research for y’all this time.

moops?

See, the cookie we call Mexican wedding cakes, or Russian tea cakes, or polvorones in Spain, or melting moments in Australia actually has a common descendent: the “sandie” type cookie first developed by the Moors in the Middle Ages, medieval Arabs being very fond of sweets.

Most commonly known as Mexican wedding cakes or Russian tea cakes here in the U.S., they’re a buttery, not-too-sweet cookie made with finely chopped nuts. The cookie is shaped like a ball, and rolled twice in powdered sugar after baking. The first dusting of sugar is done while warm, which allows the sugar to absorb slightly into the cookie and keeps its crust from getting hard. Since the first sugar dusting usually melts into near-invisibility, a second coating of sugar is applied to make the cookies pretty.

It’s important to note that Mexican wedding cakes are never baked until browned (else they’d be dry and overdone), so one has to trust one’s recipe for the time and one’s nose for clues as to when they’re done. It’s amazing how many things, when cooking, are “done” when you begin to smell them.

I’ve never seen them in Mexico (someone can correct me if I’m wrong), and in fact the first recipe by this name began appearing in community cookbooks in the 1950s. My mom has it in the out-of-print and highly sought after Betty Crocker’s Cooky Book, originally published in 1963.

I’ve been making Mexican wedding cakes as a Christmas cookie for a few years now, after Mom dropped them from her repertoire. Unlike nutty crescents or miloste they’re not a longstanding family tradition, so I felt safe in trying the barley flour version in the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking cookbook.

I asked Mom if food photography was really this ugly back in the day, or whether I’m just being overly critical and the photos had faded over time. She said no, it was that way when new, too. Nice.

sexed up

This is a sexed up Mexican wedding cake cookie. The regular version is spiced only with vanilla. This one not only has a tablespoon of vanilla instead of a teaspoon, it adds almond extract and lemon zest. The two new flavorings broaden the spectrum of this delicate cookie, adding notes both deep and tangy. I like it, but if you prefer your MWC unsexified, leave out the almond extract and lemon zest and cut the vanilla in half.

This recipe calls for processing the nuts with the oats and barley flour to a very fine consistency. My taste tester, Dad, said he missed biting into walnut pieces. You could finely chop the walnuts separately instead of processing them into the flour.

However, I recommend trying them this way, since I found this version to be a reliable recipe, good-tasting, and close enough to the original that guests will simply think, “Wow, this is a really good cookie,” and not, “My gods, what have they done to this cookie!?”

Mexican wedding cakes, or Russian tea cakes cookies

This recipe is adapted from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking, aka My Favorite Baking Cookbook Ever. Reprinted with permission.

prep: 30 minutes
bake: 15 minutes
servings: about 41 cookies
oven: 325 degrees
special equipment: food processor

1-1/3 cups (4-5/8 ounces) old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup (4 ounces) whole barley flour
2/3 cup (2-5/8 ounces) walnuts
11 tablespoons (5-1/2 ounces) unsalted butter
1/2 cup (2 ounces) confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
grated zest of 1 lemon, chopped finely
1 cup confectioners’ sugar for coating

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Get out two baking sheets. Leave them naked. You may wear clothes if you like.

Optional: toast the walnuts before processing. Put the walnuts in a pan over medium heat, shaking occasionally. Heat several minutes, until you begin to smell walnuts. It’s better to remove the nuts from the heat sooner rather than later, because overheating the oils in the nuts results in a burnt flavor, while a nut that’s a bit undertoasted is much more minor, and still better than one that hasn’t been toasted at all.

Place oats, barley flour, and walnuts in a food processor. Process for 30 seconds, or until everything is finely ground.

Beat the butter, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl until smooth. Beat in vanilla extract, almond extract, and lemon zest. Mix in the processed oats, barley and walnuts.

Using your hands, roll bits of dough into teaspoon-size balls, no more than an inch around. Place the balls on your baking sheets, leaving about 1-1/2 inches between them. The original recipe says it yields 41 cookies; I got 51. Whichever end you tend towards, you will fill up two baking sheets.

Bake both pans at once, one on a top rack and one on a low rack, for 15 minutes. Switch the pans around midway through baking, to ensure evenness. They won’t have begun to brown, except perhaps very slightly around the bottom edge.

While the cookies are baking, spoon about 1 cup of confectioners’ sugar into a gallon-size plastic bag.

Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool for 5 minutes. Place the warm cookies in the bag and shake gently to coat with sugar. Remove the cookies, allow them to cool completely, then shake them in the powdered sugar again, adding more sugar to the bag if necessary. Place the cookies on the rack once more, to allow time for the sugar to adhere, before serving or storing.

© Amy for Shiny Cooking, 2009. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: barley flour, oats, walnuts