Nanaimo Bars are a traditional Canadian favorite! Unfortunately the traditional recipe contains gluten in the crust. This is one of my variations on a gluten free Nanaimo Bar using raw cashews as the base of the crust. I’m working on a nut free version as well. 

One of my favorite desserts as a little kid was Nanaimo Bars. I had no idea what a Nanaimo was (it’s a city in the Canadian Province British Columbia), I just knew that these bars were the most wonderful thing I’d ever tasted. The crust is sticky, chocolaty and coconuty, the filling is a light fluffy, creamy, whipped vanilla icing/filling/amazingness and the top is hardened melted chocolate. You can’t really get any better than this flavor and texture combination. And they’re RICH! This is NOT a low sugar treat! I made these in a regular sized muffin tin and honestly, they’re rich enough to share. (funny how no one did share..)

Why did I make “bars” in a muffin tin instead of the traditional bake pan? Because of some excellent advice I learned from Anti Wheat Girl’s Awesome Holiday Handbook. “Offer to bring a gluten free dish

Caps and emphasis mine because this was absolutely new advice for me. Brilliant. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve made a gluten free dish and right before I can stop them, someone cuts into it with a knife used to cut the chocolate cake, or scoops up a bit with the same spoon used for the gluten filled chicken pot pie. It’s so much easier to just have little individual sized “bars” instead of a pan that could get contaminated. AND I can hide mine away in the corner to make sure I actually get some dessert (and make sure no one sprinkles crumbs all over it by accident) This is only one of the tips in  Anti Wheat Girl’s Awesome Holiday Handbook You can read the whole handbook by CLICKING HERE.

• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 1 egg
• 2 cups ground cashews or almond meal
• 1 1/2c coconut

1. Melt butter, sugar and cocoa over medium low heat and remove from heat.
2. Lightly beat egg in a small bowl.
3. Whisk in 3 or 4 spoonfuls of the warm chocolate mixture, a spoonful at a time to temper the egg.
4. Whisk egg into the chocolate mixture and keep whisking until the mixture is thickened and shiny.
5. Stir in the cashew meal and coconut until you have a thick and sticky dough.

• 1/2 cup softened butter
• 2T heavy cream
• 2T corn or potato starch
• 2tsp vanilla
• 2 cups icing sugar

1. Beat all ingredients together with an electric mixer on high until light and fluffy.

1. Form dough into 24 equal balls, place in muffin tins and flatten to form the bottom layer.
2. Drop spoonfuls of filling onto crust and spread out with the back of a spoon.
3. Top with melted chocolate and spread chocolate to cover the icing.