I first heard (and tasted!) a Nanaimo bar while in Canada, which is fitting since that is where they originated. This no-bake bar is named after the city of Nanaimo, British Columbia. They’re super rich and delicious! I’ve actually made them once before, but I couldn’t remember the recipe I used so I found this one from King Arthur (link below).

You start off by making the crust – which is basically just throwing all of the ingredients into a mixer and mixing it up. You’ve got a couple of options for some of the ingredients (pecans or walnuts and then sweetened or unsweetened coconut) and I chose pecans and sweetened coconut (that’s all we had in the pantry).

The filling is kind of mix between buttercream and a very thick vanilla pudding. Honestly I could have eaten it with a spoon…. I didn’t have pastry cream mix so I used the suggested vanilla pudding mix. This mixture is going to be kind of thick and it won’t look like a lot, but trust the recipe here. Once the crust is cooled you’ll spread this over it and this is probably the hardest part since some of my crust was a little loose so it kept pulling some of it up. Pop this in the fridge until you’re ready to do the icing.

The icing (or ganache) is the easiest to make. You could do this on a stove, but I honestly don’t know why you’d want to because using the microwave is super easy (unless you don’t have a microwave!). You’ll pour this over the bars and then pop it back in the fridge.

My picture isn’t super pretty but that’s because I was trying to take one quickly before we ate them all! My crust looks a little different but I think that’s because I had some bigger chunks of graham cracker so I might really crush them a little more next time. These are VERY rich so it’s hard to eat a lot and I’d recommend making them when you’re having people over since it makes a nice amount. Absolutely would make these again!

Here’s a photo of the one I ate in Canada for reference.

Baking Ease	10
Time Spent	9
Taste	10
Visual	10

Recipe Used: King Arthur