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 love these babies. I’ve made them for a while, and finally wrote down the recipe…only to lose it in the shuffle of a kitchen remodel. But no worries! The new, improved version is even yummier (I think). So check out these gluten/dairy/egg/soy/corn/sugar/caffeine free vegan babies and know that no matter what you can eat, there’s always a way to make life very tasty. 
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!
beautiful ones, and some Ranier cherries too, which are beyond delicious. Although I think cherries are perfect as is, I did make an easy and yummy raw, sugar free, vegan cherry pudding and the recipe is below.
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.
Kate of 
Ricki of 
Wendy of 
Emily was eager to recreate a quinoa recipe she had in San Diego, and she brings us her 
Could I really be the only one who brings along dessert? Well, 
Heather of
always sank. So I pretty much forgot all about the recipe for years, until it popped back into my head a month or so ago. Very few of the original ingredients remain, but the taste is along the same lines. Very chocolate, very dense, very fruity, very moist.
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