What are Nanaimo Bars?
Nanaimo bars are rich, triple layered dessert squares. They are sometimes called NBs for short and are named for the British Columbia, Canada city of Nanaimo. A woman entered the dessert in a late 1960s recipe contest under the name Nanaimo Bars in honor of her home city and won! The bottom later is moist and chocolate flavored, the middle layer is sweet vanilla custard and the top layer is a coating of chocolate. The top layer of Nanaimo bars is like a slab of chocolate that is easy to bite into, yet remains fairly firm at the same time. This creates a delicious effect as the chocolate topping mixes with the creamy middle and moist crust when you bite into it. Semi-sweet chocolate, melted with butter on the stove on low heat, is usually used for the top, although some people prefer to use unsweetened or bittersweet chocolate.
