This is a first. The recipe I’m about to show you is something I came up with, inspired by a dozen other recipes and bakers, drawing upon my successes in trying their recipes and what I’ve learned from reading their (far superior) blogs. I’m super excited to bring you this recipe, so let’s get to it!
Why, hello there…
As I’m typing this there is snow on the ground outside, but when I baked these cookies last week the weather still vaguely resembled autumn and that was my inspiration for choosing them. The recipe is courtesy of Laurie Sadowski and her recipe book “The Allergy-Free Cook Bakes Cakes and Cookies“. I picked up her book at “Canada’s Gluten-Free Market”, an expo on all things gluten-free back in June that was a riot of gluten-free-ness and a good deal of fun.
Thanks to Laurie’s allergy-free efforts the recipe didn’t call for any modifications on my part. These cookies are not only gluten-free but dairy-free, nut-free, and contain no refined sugar. This chalks them up alongside the Vegan Maple Nanaimo Bars for allergy-friendliness (though my current iteration of the nanaimo bars includes nuts) and I’m also happy to report that they’re right up there in the “delicious” and “don’t last very long once offered to people” categories as well.
Back in April I attempted to make nanaimo bars by taking Leanne’s recipe from Healthful Pursuit and changing a significant number of the ingredients. Perhaps not surprisingly that didn’t work out so well and I’ve been meaning to try again but stay closer to the original recipe. I’m happy to report that my second attempt worked much better!
First things first, many thanks to Leanne at Healthful Pursuit for this recipe, which I followed in substance if not exactly to the letter. Before moving to Canada I’d never heard of nanaimo bars but I wish I’d encountered them a long time ago. I put them somewhere between a chocolate bar and a brownie, with great potential for versatility on flavor, and I couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to take a shot at making my own.
The other thing they have great potential for is hitting various points for allergic or otherwise preferential dietary choices. The original recipe hit raw, vegan (and thus dairy-free), gluten-free, and no refined sugar, which is a remarkable feat, but I decided to take a swing at going for five points and added nut-free to the list.
The end result needs some work, but hey, that’s why I’m calling this one experimental!
Regarding Recipes 