Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Daring Bakers' Challenge #3 : Rum-pecan dulce de leche nanaimo bars



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.

I'll admit I'd never heard of nanaimo bars in my life. But hey, that's what being a Daring Baker is all about! I did change things up a bit, adding a generous shot of rum into the base layer, using only pecans and graham cracker crumbs (I dislike the coconut-chocolate combination), and swapping homemade dulce de leche for the buttercream. Since everyone on the forum had been commenting on how rich these were, I also cut them into bite-size pieces, more like candies than bars.

I think I crushed my graham crackers too fine, because I could barely taste them in the finished product. The verdict: tasty (with chocolate, rum, pecans, caramel - what's not to like?), and a novelty, but I may not make these again.


10 comments:

Mary said...

Rum and dulce de leche sound like a delicious combination! I think I'd have trouble stopping at one. I'm not sure that I'll make them again either, but I'll definitely be making more graham crackers!

Suz said...

Dulce de leche? Be still my heart - that sounds incredible!

Karin said...

Rum...did you say rum? Whoa...I wish I thought of that. I love these bars and will make them again...but will make sure that I have company to eat them. lol...love your combination! And I agree the graham crackers were wonderful!

Anonymous said...

mmmm, dulce de leche is a wonderful idea. I also couldn't taste the graham crackers that much, I preferred them much more just by themselves with a glass of milk or with an orange cream cheese frosting sandwiched between which turned out to be the perfect complement.

Maya said...

Thanks for stopping by, folks! If you haven't tried David Lebovitz's method for dulce de leche (linked in the post above), I encourage you to give it a shot. Much less scary than the boil-can-whole method.

Unknown said...

OMG! These sound amazing. What a fantastic flavour combination. Congratualtion!

Ms. Meanie said...

Wow. Rum-pecan, dulce de leche -- they all sound amazing. I bet the flavor combination was delicious. Excellent job on this challenge!

Unknown said...

I agree about the graham crackers...REALLY missed those in the bottom layer. So sad since the crackers were the best part! Your bars look great.

Ozoz said...

Sounds like a tasty combination.....I've just made microwave dulce de leche....it is the future of cooking!!!!!!!! Love the rum combo too....kitchenbutterfly.com

Sara said...

Mmmm, love the sound of your flavors...a caramel layer sounds fantastic! :)