Daring Bakers, January 2010: Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bar

It's Daring Bakers time! For those just joining me, the Daring Bakers are given a secret recipe at the beginning of the month to bake sometime during the month before they reveal their results at the end of the month.

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.

They're pronounced "nuhn-EYE-moh." I think. You can view the recipe through the link above.






The recipe says I should be able to pat the dough, though soft and sticky, into a rectangle once it had come together. Unfortunately, at first, the dough was more like a batter, so it wouldn't pat so much as puddle.


I was glad to have the visual clue of being able to pat the dough, so I added a bit more rice and sorghum flour until it was more I could actually pat it (without losing digits into the clinging sticky mass). It felt like a loose taffy, and stuck like it, too, until I'd lightly floured it. Then it was as tame as a kitten. See how it holds shapes, like scribbles from the food processor's mixing action?


I scraped the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap, patted it into a rectangle, then floured it on both sides with the rice flour, which made it considerably less sticky (and for me, less daunting--sticky dough frustrates me).


Use a lot of flour on the counter and rolling pin when you roll it out. Move the dough a lot to make sure it's not sticking. The good thing about a soft dough is that it's awesomely easy to roll out.


The baked product.


After grinding the crackers to crumbs, then adding the melted butter, almonds, coconut, and cocoa powder to make the base, the mixture was very moist and actually had it's own puddling action going on. I sprinkled some of the leftover graham cracker crumbs over the top to soak it up. That was fun, except some of the crumbs got into the middle layer, like a cake's crumb coat. This wasn't a problem, unless you want a pristine layer. I didn't even notice the crumbs in that layer, though.


The middle layer--basically a custard-flavored buttercream.


Pour and spread the ganache, cover the pan, and let it set in the fridge overnight, or at least for a few hours.


Then slice and serve. You can use a knife dipped in hot water, then wiped dry, for a cleaner cut. These are so rick, it's absurd. Every layer has butter in it. I strongly recommend small, bite-size servings.








There was a lot of leftover dough, so I cut out some rounds. They're the perfect size for S'mores.

Or, you can just press a mixture of sugar and cinnamon into the tops before baking and end up with a nice treat.

Want to see more? Check out my fellow DBers' blogs here.