Join us in preparing Nanaimo Bars – a delicious Canadian recipe for kids straight from Calgary! We love checking out new recipes (especially desserts) from other countries. During what we called “Canada week,” we also experimented with making Maple “crack,” Poutine, and the Canadian Donair for dinner. Making recipes is a fun addition to homeschooling to enhance our curriculum. Even if you don’t homeschool, you can enjoy an experience in creating something delicious with your children.
During Canada week, we also learned about the country by drawing the flag and watching a short video with fun facts. The flag of Canada was a easy to draw other than getting the maple leaf correct! The fact video we watched about Canada is below.
After watching this brief video, the kids write down some facts about the country in their notebooks. Then, we tested out our trivia knowledge by asking each other questions from this Reader’s Digest quiz with 101 facts about Canada! link to the pdf is here.
Below is the list of ingredients for the Nanaimo bars. We tried this recipe, which is fairly easy because it involves refrigerating the ingredients and no baking in the oven. To make the recipe, you do cook over the stovetop, then layer the bars in stages in the refrigerator. Overall, it takes about an hour or so to put the recipe together, including the time for cooling the layers.
Ingredients:
Base Layer
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup baking cocoa
- 3/4 cup butter, cubed
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
- 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
- 1/2 cup chopped almonds, optional
Filling (Middle Layer)
- 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 2 tablespoons instant vanilla pudding mix
- 1/4 cup butter, melted
- 3 tablespoons 2% milk
Glaze (Top Layer)
- 3 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
- 1 tablespoon butter
The Recipe
This recipe is short and simple. Follow the instructions in the link. First you will break up the graham crackers into crumbs (we used gluten-free and it worked well) and put them in a bowl.
Then you melt the butter and chocolate over the stove.
Now, you mix up your first layer and put it in the fridge. While you wait for this layer to cool, mix up your middle layer. Once the bottom layer is cooled, add the middle layer, and then melt the chocolate and butter for the top layer, carefully spreading it over the others. Cool the layers again (as long as possible), then cut and enjoy!
The finished products came out like this:
The Nanaimo bars were sweet and a delicious combination of crunchy while being squishy in the middle. So if you are learning about Canada in your homeschool, or you want to enjoy an easy and tasty recipe, make these no-bake bars! We hope you’ll try this Canadian recipe for kids (and adults!). For more fun recipes, check out our post on Swedish Pretzels.