Daring Bakers: Graham Crackers and Nanaimo Bars

This month I amazed myself: I made the January Daring Bakers challenge recipe the day it was posted.  Why, you may ask?  Because it was January 1 and I really had nothing else to do.  It was fabulous.

This challenge consisted of two parts: making homemade graham crackers and then using the crackers to make nanaimo bars (a Canadian dessert in honor of the 2010 Winter Olympics, which are being held in Canada.  Where exactly, I can’t tell you.  Sorry.)

These are my homemade graham crackers and they tasted nothing like store-bought graham crackers.  Honestly I thought they were a bit sweet, and they are more like cookies than anything.  And the dough was exceedingly wet and difficult to work with.  I’m interested in pursuing the idea of homemade graham crackers further, but next time I’ll try a different recipe.

The nanaimo bars were essentially a layer of chocolatey almonds, coconut and graham crackers, topped with a layer of frosting, topped with a layer of melted chocolate.  Yum. 

I wound up taking the bars to work since I didn’t think it a good idea to eat the whole pan by myself at home.  My Canadian colleague got a kick out the bars and he said they were good, so I must have done something right!

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.