I wish there was an amusing story I could tell that related to these Nanaimo bars. The fact is, everything went really smoothly when I made them and because I had some time off from work, I even managed to complete the task a few weeks ago (instead of last-minute, as is my more typical modus operandi).

Some months I have a sort of love-hate relationship happening with Daring Bakers challenges and there have been many times where I’ve contemplated relinquishing my membership, what with the demands of work and life stretching me both time and energy-wise.

It is both a negative and positive fact that I also sometimes find myself faced with recipes I wouldn’t normally contemplate making. Some people consider this A Good Thing and I’m one of these people. I don’t mind being taken out of my comfort zone and can honestly say that with every challenge so far, I’ve learned something new.

Besides, did I mention that I also love baking? I relish the opportunity to discuss ingredients and techniques with like-minded enthusiasts and love any excuse to scurry into the kitchen to make something I can later share with friends.

At some point however, I know I’ll have to face reality and accept that I’m not managing my time smartly. At some point, I’ll have to make the ‘sensible’ decision.

But right now, I’m having too much fun and don’t think I’m quite ready to give it up yet.

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.

For Gluten-Free Graham Wafers
Ingredients
138g sweet rice flour/glutinous rice flour
100g tapioca starch/flour
65g sorghum flour (or brown rice flour)
200g dark brown sugar, lightly packed
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
100g unsalted butter (cut into 1-inch cubes and frozen)
80ml honey, mild-flavoured
75 ml whole milk
2 tablespoons (30 mL) pure vanilla extract

Directions:
1. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, combine the flours, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Pulse on low to incorporate. Add the butter and pulse on and off, until the mixture is the consistency of a coarse meal.
2. In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the honey, milk and vanilla. Add to the flour mixture until the dough barely comes together. It will be very soft and sticky.
3. Turn the dough onto a surface well-floured with sweet rice flour and pat the dough into a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, about 2 hours, or overnight.
4. Divide the dough in half and return one half to the refrigerator. Sift an even layer of sweet rice flour onto the work surface and roll the dough into a long rectangle, about 1/8 inch thick. The dough will be quite sticky, so flour as necessary. Cut into 4 by 4 inch squares. Gather the scraps together and set aside. Place wafers on one or two parchment-lined baking sheets. Chill until firm, about 30 to 45 minutes. Repeat with the second batch of dough.
5. Adjust the rack to the upper and lower positions and preheat oven to 180’C.
6. Gather the scraps together into a ball, chill until firm, and reroll. Dust the surface with more sweet rice flour and roll out the dough to get a couple more wafers.
7. Prick the wafers with toothpick or fork, not all the way through, in two or more rows.
8. Bake for 25 minutes, until browned and slightly firm to the touch, rotating sheets halfway through to ensure even baking.
9. When cooled completely, place enough wafers in food processor to make 1 ¼ cups of crumbs.

Nanaimo Bars
Ingredients:
For Nanaimo Bars — Bottom Layer
115g unsalted butter
50g granulated sugar
5 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 large egg, beaten
1 1/4 cups gluten free graham wafer crumbs (See previous recipe)
55g almonds, finely chopped
130g shredded coconut

For Nanaimo Bars — Middle Layer
115g unsalted butter
40ml heavy cream
2 tablespoons vanilla custard powder
254g icing sugar

For Nanaimo Bars — Top Layer
115g semi-sweet chocolate
28g 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.

I know what you’re thinking. It’s not looking good, is it? I must be in denial. I’m not a chocoholic, I tell ya. Yet, somehow when I made a list of things I wanted to bake as holiday gifts this weekend, it would appear that at least 80% of the list involved chocolate in some form or other.

Chocolate, glorious chocolate.

Perhaps it had something to do with the big bag of Lindt chocolate buttons I’d bought the other day. Or some recently acquired cookbooks. In any case, each item has a reason (or excuse, if you will) for being.

I made Fran Bigelow’s The Reine after yearning for a simple cake with a striking chocolate glaze. In keeping with the Christmas theme, some cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla were added to the batter; spices I usually associate with Christmas. The resulting cake was moist and delicious, but certainly didn’t hold a candle to the following brownies.

These chocolate brownies from Paul A Young’s book are the ultimate fudgey brownie. I topped mine with dried cranberries for that festive feel, and folded cocoa nibs through the batter, instead of the recommended dessicated coconut. Once baked and chilled, they sliced beautifully, and if they manage to make it out of the kitchen, I will be wrapping bars of these in cellophane to give away.

For friends with more ‘grown-up’ tastes, I couldn’t go past Claire Clark’s slightly mysterious and fruity chocolate red wine cake. It’s almost mulled wine in cake form, which is a good thing. So good, that this is the fourth or fifth time I’ve made this cake. I’ve provided the recipe below, but would encourage you to consider buying the book, as it also contains stellar recipes for all manners of cookies, cakes and plated desserts.

Of course, this is by no means my final post for the year, but I wanted to take the opportunity to thank everyone for reading this year. The support has been greatly appreciated, and I’m sorry I haven’t anything to give to you in return except for a handful of pictures. If you are ever in the neighbourhood, please drop by for a cup of tea and a piece of cake. Possibly a chocolate one. 🙂

Chocolate Red Wine Cake :
(from Indulge : 100 Perfect Desserts by Claire Clark)

125g softened unsalted butter
125g caster sugar
2 medium eggs, lightly beaten
150ml red wine, at room temperature
125g plain flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
65g dark chocolate (55-70% cocoa solids), grated

for soaking :
50ml water
30g caster sugar
125ml red wine

Preheat the oven to 170’C. Grease and flour a 25cm/10inch bundt tin.

Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then add the beaten eggs a little at a time, beating well between each addition. Add the wine and mix well.

Sift the flour, cinnamon, cloves, cocoa powder and baking powder together. Fold the dry ingredients a tablespoon at a time into the creamed cake mixture.
Lastly fold in the grated chocolate. Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan and level the top. Bake in the centre of the oven for 35 minutes, until the cake is well risen and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Let the cake cool in the tin for 20 minutes and then place a thin cake card over the top and invert the tin. Lift off the tin so the cake sits on the card. It will still be warm, so do not try to move it at this stage. Cool the cake completely.

To soak the cake, bring the water and sugar to the boil in a small pan and stir in the red wine. Fill the cleaned bundt tin with the red wine syrup and place the cooled cake back in the tin. It will quickly absorb the hot liquid. Once the liquid has been absorbed, reverse the cake on to the cake card as before. Remove the tin, being careful not to damage the cake. Leave the cake to cool before glazing.

[Note : I don’t have a bundt tin, so I made this in a basic round springform tin, and gently brushed the syrup over the cake, rather than lifting it out of the tin and pouring the syrup in first. You need to be careful if soaking the cake in a springform tin, obviously because it will probably leak a little. I usually do this in a tray next to the sink. Claire Clark finishes her cake with a redcurrant jelly glaze and discs of glossy tempered chocolate. In the mood for something a little more simple, I sprinkled the top of the cake with shaved chocolate instead]

I should first confess that I baked my cannoli. I’ve made plenty of cannoli before, but never at home due to my no-deep-frying-at-home policy (partly because I dread having to do the requisite post-fry clean up).

So, baked cannoli. Despite this, they actually turned out pretty well. The shells may have lacked that wonderful bit of blistering you get from frying, but they were slightly puffy and acceptably crunchy. A step up from the vast difference between oven chips and fried chips, if you will.

The resulting cannoli formed part of a dessert that played on the flavours of avocado, vegemite and toast; three ingredients which are one of my favourite ways to start the morning. How I came about the idea of incorporating them into a dessert, is a bit long winded and would probably require a flowchart to accurately re-tell. So I’m not going to.

Instead, I thought I would distract you with a recollection of my first avocado experience. Growing up, avocados were considered pretty exotic, so it was only when I was at least 10 that I tried my first avocado. It being the 80’s (that was the excuse anyway), mom served it to us sliced, with scoops of store-bought vanilla ice-cream. It was so horrible, I think I tried to hide the slices underneath the pool of melted ice-cream, and it was many years later before I finally realised how delicious avocados were.

Meanwhile, back at the cannoli factory…

I filled the cannoli shells with a vegemite chocolate ganache and paired them with a scoop of avocado ice-cream and some twisty chocolate tuiles for extra crunch. The avocado ice-cream recipe comes from The Perfect Scoop, by David Leibovitz. Following David’s recommendation to pour espresso over the ice-cream, I decided to incorporate coffee into the dessert, in the form of a crumble.

As with most first attempts, this is a tasty dish that would require a few changes if I were to make it again. And you know what, I just might make it again!

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

Thanks Lisa Michele, for picking such a versatile and interesting challenge this month!