Nanaimos=Canadian for bliss
No one was more delighted than me to see this month’s DB pick!
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.
A dear friend kicked off my Nanaimo obsession during my Berkeley days. They were uber addictive, and the joke with my 
roommates was that one of us would creep to the freezer in the middle of the night, grab one and scurry away…and then creep back 30 seconds later and grab another. So Michelle, Adrien and Hayley–these babies are for you! Come raid my freezer.
Good thing for me that these were pretty easily gluten-freeable, but I’m also menos dairy, eggs, corn, soy and most importantly, sugar. I made a version last year and they were good–I like these even better.
So this is my grain and sugar free, vegan and massively delicious new and improved version. They do not taste just like nanaimos, but they are luscious.
One word of warning–they’re dense. As in like, very, very rich. And so a small piece does wonderfully, or at least it would if I didn’t go back for the 2nd small piece…and the 3rd…
Base:
2 cups almonds
¾ cup walnuts
½ tsp stevia powder
¼ cup agave
2 T water
1 tablespoon whole chia seeds
1 cup unsweetened coconut
½ tsp salt
Filling:
2 cups raw cashews and macadamias
2 teaspoons whole chia seeds
pinch stevia
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract (or more
1.5 cups water
.5 cup agave nectar
Top
8 oz chocolate mass (unsweetened)
¼ cup cashew mac butter
1 cup agave
2 tsp stevia powder
2 Tablespoons mesquite or carob powder
½ tsp vanilla powder
For the base: soak chia in the agave. pulse nuts in the food processor, add in the wet and pulse until combined. Press down into 2 lined 8X8 pans (or a 9X11). Bake at 350 until starting to brown. Allow to cool or put in the freezer
For filling: I put all in the vitamix and throughly blitzed. With a normal blender, you’d absolutely have to soak the nuts. Pour on top of the base, and freeze until hard
For the topping: melt the chocolate, add in other ingredients and whisk very thoroughly until well blended. Pour mix quickly onto of frozen filling, and smooth down with out making a mess.
Store in the freezer, chop with a very sharp knife once hard. Enjoy! I’ve only had them straight from the freezer, I do think they’d ooze at room temp.
Please do check out the other DB Nanaimo masterpieces!
I must confess I forgot today was DB day. I think it might have something to do with the fact that my chocolate macarons didn’t work quite as planned!
The 2009 October Daring Baker’s challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe. You can visit Ami at her blog, 
The first of the month is now a fun time of anticipation, wondering what new adventure is in store for the Daring Baker challenge. Invariably, it’s something I’d never dream of making on my own, and this was no exception!
doing 3 turns and rolling out 4 times (moral of the story: read the darn directions!!!) Not only that, but I suspect that 2 turns would have given a better product. The smell was heavenly, and the short ones came out beautifully, but the big cups just didn’t cook through very well, and I didn’t realize until they’d cooled a lot.
I was jazzed to know that indeed, pastries are possible and easier than I thought (note: not easy, just easier) and I will do this again as a croissant. And, of course, flour went everywhere. I mean, everywhere. But it was awesome to have the house smelling so beautifully, and what a treat to have GF puff pastry!
I was delighted when I discovered the August Daring Baker challenge!
Let’s just start by saying that I grew up a few blocks away from a Pepperidge Farm outlet store. You know, the places where cookies go when they’re put out to pasture…maybe a few days before the expiration date, maybe cookies that didn’t make the cut, you get the general idea. As I grew up in a–let’s say–thrifty family (and I definitely have the thrifty gene myself!!!) I came to intimately know and love their cookies. I don’t think I could say what my favorite was–the Geneva? Brussels? Bordeaux? Seriously, why choose.
But needless to day
I was overly jazzed when I discovered that Orange Milan Cookies were this month’s DB challenge.
Since I couldn’t eat them anyway, I opted to just make them GF. I used Better Batter flour and subbed 1:1. It worked perfectly. The milan cookies were very delicate at first so I added a tablespoon more flour, which in retrospect was silly. Despite my better judgment, I did also use 1.5 Tablespoons of lemon extract, and honestly, I still think that was too much. I’d have to eliminate it all together to make the holy grail of cookies, Mint Milan cookies.
Substituting an almond flour crust was super easy. Making a faux raspberry jam with fresh raspberries, agave and chia seed wasn’t so hard. But the spongy frangipane, with the sugar and eggs did puzzle me for a while. Most of my alt DB brethren were using tofu, which I can’t have. I opted for baking on a almond butter/white bean paste, and was totally delighted with how yummy it all was. The texture of the topping was a bit reminiscent of cheesecake texture and mouth feel, and was delicious out of the oven and also refrigerated, too. I do strongly suspect that it wasn’t anywhere near an authentic frangipane, but it was yummy. Possibly less water and a little more baking powder would make it more spongy, but it was delicious as is. The only down side was that it did stick to the tart pan. I’d make them in mini springform pans next time and line them to make clean up easier.
Nigella Lawson’s recipe, which was quick and easy, and made good use of our fresh raspberries.
I love the fact that every month, I have to stretch a little bit outside my comfort zone, get a little daring and bake up a storm!
h is a fabulous jumping off point for subsequent recipe tweaking.
Ah, it’s that time of month again, when luscious photos of overly indulgent 
The recipe was super simple. It’s amazing that I’ve forgotten what cheesecake batter looks like, and each time I do it, I’m reminded why I swear I’m done with recipes that require a waterbath. Especially since the mini-cheesecakes required a mini waterbath, and had to cool down in the toaster so that the big one could bake longer…it was a big of a logistical mess, but worked out surprisingly well.
And, of course, I can’t wait to see what’s in store for next month.
What better way to spread the love than a chocolate cake that tastes like pure chocolate.
It’s Daring Baker time again, and this month’s challenge is brought to us by Karen of 
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