The Nanaimo bar is the three-layer no-bake Canadian dessert square: a coconut-graham-cracker chocolate base, custard buttercream middle and chocolate ganache top; in Canada we have verified places to eat it in Toronto and Vancouver.
Nanaimo bar · Toronto
The Nanaimo bar is the three-layer no-bake Canadian dessert square: a coconut-graham-cracker chocolate base, custard buttercream middle and chocolate ganache top. Toronto bakeries carry it year-round.
The Nanaimo bar originated in Nanaimo, British Columbia in the 1950s, the first published recipe appearing in the 1953 Edith Adams cookbook. Through the 1960s the bar travelled east across Canada and became a staple in Toronto bakeries and Jewish delis. Wanda's Pie in the Sky in Kensington has carried it since 1989; the runny-custard middle layer the city's reference style.
Where to eat in Toronto:
- Wanda's Pie in the Sky
Where to eat Nanaimo bar in Toronto: the editor picks
Nanaimo bar · Vancouver
The Nanaimo bar is a no-bake bar of three layers: a wafer, nut and coconut crumb base, custard icing in the middle and chocolate ganache on top.
The earliest confirmed printed recipe under the name Nanaimo bars is in the 14th edition of the Edith Adams prize cookbook, from 1953, and the Vancouver Sun printed the same recipe earlier that year as London Fog Bar. Vancouver caterer Susan Mendleson helped keep it popular by selling it at her Lazy Gourmet Cafe in the 1970s and printing three recipes in the Expo 86 cookbook. In 1985 Nanaimo's mayor held a contest for the best recipe, won by Joyce Hardcastle.
Where to eat Nanaimo bar in Vancouver: the editor picks
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