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NAINAIMO BARS-Canadian favorite from Nainamo, British Columbia
Nanaimo Bars

Ingredients:

Base layer

18 dates-soaked in warm spring water for 15 minutes and pitted.

1 cup shredded coconut

½ cup cocoa powder

1 cup almond meal-Almond meal works best, but you can use blanched almond flour or chop your own with the food processor.

½ cup chopped pecans

½ cup chopped walnuts

¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt

1-2 tablespoons coconut oil or enough to allow the food processor to mix the ingredients together without burning out.

Filling or middle layer

1 cup cashews soaked overnight in spring water with ½ teaspoon celtic sea salt. Rinse in spring water twice.

¼ cup coconut or cocoa butter melted

2 tablespoons coconut oil

3 tablespoons maple syrup or use vegetable glycerine and maple flavoring, which is what I did.

Top Layer

1 to 1.5 cups of dark chocolate

Any good dark chocolate will do. I used an unsweetened Dagoba

Cooking chocolate bar

2 tablespoons coconut oil

Preparation

To make the base: this is the defining step. Put the 18 dates in the food processor with the coconut oil and process until you have date paste.

Mix all the other dry ingredients together and slowly add to the date paste while processing with the food processor. It will become very thick and become a ball of “play dough”. You may have to stop the food processor a number of times and chop up the ball of ingredients and add a little more coconut oil in order to continue processing. Once all ingredients are used, take the ball out of the food processor and press evenly into the bottom of a pyrex casserole dish lined with parchment paper. I used one about 8X15. This may take a minute and use some muscle, but worth the effort. Put in the freezer while making the second layer.

To make the filling:

Put the soaked cashews in a blender or food processor with the other ingredients and process until you have a smooth paste and that is it.

Take the pyrex out of the freezer and evenly cover with the cashew filling.

To make the top layer:

Melt the chocolate with the coconut oil and pour evenly over the cashew layer and you are finished. Put in the refrigerator and it will set up. The chocolate top will harden, so take out for 5-10 minutes before trying to cut into squares or the top will break up. My brother helped by using a pizza cutter. No. I don’t own a pizza cutter.

Enjoy, Dr J