Hi! I'm BAAAACK!
Yeah... yeah... I've been gone from the Daring Baker event for such a long time that I actually missed it. I'm soooooo glad to be back!
For this exciting new year, our DB challenge is hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. She has chosen 2 amazing recipes that I'm really excited about a Nanaimo Bars and Gluten Free Graham Crackers. The sources for this two are from 101 Cookbooks and nanaimo.ca.
I would have loved to try the Gluten Free Graham Crackers unfortunately I had a hard time finding the ingredients here and some that I found are quite expensive. I had two options either make my own graham crackers the not gluten free version or use a store bought one.
Ahem...ahem..guess which choice I did? I chose the easy route and use the store bought one. *hey don't judge!* they tasted good! really they do!
Now time to concentrate on the star of the month the Nanaimo Bars. In order to prepare for this event, didn't want to foul anything up, I did my research and watch demos on youtube. Once I got the courage to do it, there is no going back. Nanaimo bars here I come!
As regular readers of my blog probably notices a pattern here... that I like taking shortcuts. I mean I love to make things from scratch but if I find a way of making it easier for me in the process, who am I to ignore such convenience? For this challenge, the recipe specified melting and mixing stuff in a double boiler but lazy ol' me did but in the microwave! yup I tell you it works! Once I added the egg part I zap it in the micro in 10 minutes interval until it thickens. Doubtful that the wet ingredients can hold together all the dry ingredients, I patiently kept mixing and mixing while quietly saying to myself "Oh my.. oh my... hope this works" Good thing it did. Phew! ^_^ I used my square loose bottom pan so that I don't have to greased and line my pan, the bars came out smoothly when it was time to remove from the pan.
With the jam packed crust busy chilling in the fridge, it was time to make the yellow filling. I was fortunate enough to have found a custard powder before but have absolutely lost the recipe where I was going to use it. That day finally came! It's amazing to see that with the custard powder it made the butter/sugar mixture more intense in color. Although I really have no idea what the custard powder is for. Anyone care to enlighten me? As a perk of a baker I get to lick the spoon after, I must admit I didn't like the filling in itself, it was too sweet even though I only used half of the amount of sugar it called for and it taste like a buttercream icing, which for the life of me I simply cannot tolerate. It seems as though the filling wasn't enough to cover the entire crust but be patient because it can! just gingerly push the filling from side to side and before you know it the entire crust is covered with the gorgeous yellow filling.
Now it's time for the topping, my favorite! what is it? well... what else but chocolate! I had a problem when I made my chocolate topping. The recipe called for butter and chocolate melted together until smooth and shinny then pour. Mine didn't turn out that way, while I was mixing the chocolate/butter mixture it seems so thick and didn't have enough liquid in it. I was afraid to add more melted butter thinking it might make the topping oily, I opted for few splashes of cream and voila! just like magic the topping became smooth and silky. I quickly poured it on the crust/filling and covered with cling wrap. I put it in the fridge and went to sleep. Or at least a tried too... after a couple of hours of tossing and turning, I finally gave up and got up and went down to the kitchen, got a serrated knife and popped the bars off the pan and cut a small square, alright! a relatively small square in my standard :P Surprisingly, with all the three layers together and with the crust having so much texture, the filling rightly balanced everything with it's smoothness! Yum... yum...
Now I can go to sleep! Goodnight everyone ^_^
yummy looking bars. i opted for the easy way out too and used all-purpose flour to make my graham crackers :) it's good to see another db from manila
ReplyDeleteThe custard powder is used to flavour and colour the middle layer =D. Nothing too extreme!
ReplyDeleteYour bars look fantastic! I'm glad you enjoyed my challenge!
@ Lauren - yeah I did have a very nice time making this ^_^
ReplyDeleteYour bars look great! Congrats on the challenge!
ReplyDeletethey look delicious.
ReplyDeletewelcome back.
Welcome back
ReplyDeleteBeautiful bars
they look delicious.
Lookin' good! (I cheated with the graham crackers, too!)
ReplyDeletePraise for the nanaimo bars... They deserve all the love !! Your chocolate frosting looks perfect and so smooth...
ReplyDeleteReally nice looking bars. I didn't use the ingredients from her recipe either, but I did use a GF alternative - coconut flour. You may be able to find that in Manila. I sub'd that for the sorghum and one other flour (I wrote about it in my post, I just can't recall right now), and it made a nice change.
ReplyDeleteoh gosh...this looks scrumptious! your layers came out perfectly!
ReplyDeleteYour bars look great! It's amazing how putting three layers together that aren' t that spectacular can produce an incredibly delicious result.
ReplyDeleteWelcome back! No shame in store-bought, as long as it tastes good, right? :)
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad to se that I'm not the only one who cheated and use store bought. hehehehe...
ReplyDeleteThese look stunning, and you did put in a lot of effort into it.
ReplyDeleteYour Nanaimo Bars look perfect! Great job! :)
ReplyDeletewhat great looking pictures, v well done
ReplyDeleteyou did a great job on this challenge, the bars looks delicious and yummy.
ReplyDeleteLovely Nanaimo Bars. Aren't they delicious?!
ReplyDeleteGreat job on these bars...the look delicious!
ReplyDeleteYours turned out beautiful.
ReplyDelete