Nanaimo Bars

I partnered with Cacao Bliss to make this Canadian confection dessert made of a chocolatey crust, a custard filling, and a chocolate ganache topping. The first layer, the crust, is made with almond and coconut flakes, monk fruit sweetener, butter, Cacao Bliss, and sugar-free maple syrup. The second layer is the custard filling made with softened butter, heavy cream, sugar-free vanilla pudding mix, and powdered erythritol sweetener. Traditionally, nanaimo bars use custard powder, but that is high in sugar.  The third layer is the chocolate ganache topping which is simply made of sugar-free chocolate and butter. These layers all perfectly complement each other to create the best no-bake dessert. Keto Nanaimo bars are a wonderful, cold dessert that can be enjoyed when you don’t want to use the oven in the hot summer and heat up your house.

A Nanaimo bar is a three-tiered dessert bar that does not require baking. It was invented and popularized in Nanaimo, British Columbia, giving the bar its name. The traditional layers in a Nanaimo include a wafer, type of nut, and coconut base, custard filling, and chocolate ganache. Some people also change up the recipe to have different flavored fillings, bases, and chocolate. Nanaimo bars were so popular that they were voted ‘Canada’s Favorite Confection’ and considered a classic Canadian dessert.

These keto Nanaimo bars have a nutty crust base created from almond flour and shreds of coconut for an additional crunch. The filling is made with buttercream custard with butter. Instead of the traditional custard powder in Nanaimo bars, this keto version uses a sugar-free pudding mix to achieve a similar texture and flavor. The keto Nanaimo bars also have sugar-free sweeteners added for additional sweetness instead of regular sugar. The chocolate ganache topping is made with a keto-chocolate from ChocZero which is both sugar-free and sugar alcohol-free.

These keto Nanaimo bars use just a bit of Cacao Bliss to add a touch of chocolate to the crust. Cacao Bliss is a healthy and delicious blend of raw cacao powder, cinnamon, lucuma, MCT powder, turmeric, and black pepper that is used to replace traditional cocoa powder in this no-bake keto recipe. This blend of superfoods can help with  controlling inflammation and blood sugar levels. Cacao Bliss is also sweetened with monk fruit sweetener, making it taste better and more like chocolate than other low-carb cocoa powders.

Nanaimo bars can take a bit more time to make than, say, a brownie since you need to make each layer and chill each layer. But the good news is that each layer can be made in stages ahead of time. Since there aren’t any raw ingredients, Nanaimo bars can stay fresh for a long time. They are freezer-safe and can be stored in a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months. With a long freezer life, you can make larger batches at a time!