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.
