Nainoma Bars

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I’ve been baking a lot lately, the kitchen is my space to be creative, away from work, Uni and other stressors. I love finding a new recipe and trying it out. Especially ones that are a little bit different, like this one.

If I’m honest, I would say that the first thing that attracted me to this slice was the name of it. Nainoma Bars, where did that come from? The recipe tells me that the slice is also known as Continental Fudge, but I like Nainoma Bars much better. My Mum had a couple of recipes books out on the coffee table, and I was flicking through them and came across this slice. I’ve been a little obsessed with the chocolate-coconut combo lately, to the point where I’ve developed my own ‘Chocolate Rough’ muffin recipe. I’m still in the developing stages of this, but it is tasting pretty good. Anyway, this slice also had custard in it (another winner in my books) so I had to try it out.

This slice is quite sweet, so you only want a small piece at a time, but it went down a treat with my family. I cut my batch into 60 pieces, so there’s plenty to go round. Another thing I like about this recipe is that it involves no actually cooking time, which means that you can make it as you have time. I made the first two layers, had to go out for an hour, then came home and finished it off.

Nainoma Bars (aka Continental Fudge)

Base

115g butter

¼ cup sugar

3 Tbsp cocoa

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla essence

200g crushed malt biscuits (though I imagine wine biscuits would work too, throw them into the food processer to do this quickly)

Filling

55g butter

2 cups icing sugar

2 Tbsp custard powder

2 Tbsp hot water

Topping

150g dark chocolate (I used 62% cocoa)

1 Tbsp butter

1.     Line a shallow 30cm x 21cm tin with baking paper.

2.     For the base: Melt the butter and add sugar and cocoa, mixing together. Add the beaten egg, then the vanilla essence, crushed biscuits and coconut. Press into prepared tin and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

3.     For the filling: Cream softened butter with the sifted icing sugar, custard powder and hot water. Spread over the chilled base and return the refrigerator.

4.     For the topping: Melt and chocolate and butter in the microwave (30 second bursts at medium) and spread over the custard mixture.

5.     Refrigerate for another hour and cut into small squares. I recommend a hot knife to avoid cracking the chocolate topping. I cut mine into 60 squares, but you can make them bigger or smaller according to your own preferences. Store in the fridge.

Recipe taken from Ladies, A Plate: Traditional Home Baking by Alexa Johnston.

So if you have a bit of a sweet tooth I would recommend trying this one out.

Happy baking!

H xo

Apricot Slice and All Things Nice

One thing that I consider myself to be rather good at is procrastination. It’s that time of year when assignments are starting to pile up and on a sunny day like today, I can think of at least twenty other things I would rather be doing than working inside on the computer. One of my favourite forms of productive procrastination is baking. And yes, that half a tin of condensed milk in the fridge needed to be used up right away. Clearly, it was a highly urgent matter that I had to attend to. That said, this is one of my favourite slice recipes. It is simple and quick, requires no baking, and most importantly, is delicious! A fabulous addition to any high tea menu.

 

My main piece of advice in regards to this slice is don’t compromise on the quality of the dried apricots. They will make all the difference. We currently have some Otago dried apricots, which tasted amazing in this slice (and also very good on their own!).

Apricot Slice

100-150g dried apricots

¼ cup orange juice (I use whatever  type of juice we have in the fridge at the time)

75g butter, melted

½ a 400g can sweetened condensed milk

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup coconut

1 packet (250g) Wine or Malt biscuits (biscuits of preference: plain Girl Guide biscuits)

extra coconut

Line the base and sides of a pan about 18x28 cm with baking paper.

Finely chop the dried apricots using kitchen scissors or a sharp knife and cook them in the juice in a large pot until there is no liquid left. Add the butter to the apricots and stir over low heat until melted. Add condensed milk and brown sugar, then heat gently, stirring often until the sugar is no longer grainy, and the mixture is golden brown. (Caution, this will stick to the bottom of the saucepan if the temperature is too high or if you leave it too long without stirring.)

Remove from heat and stir in coconut and the finely crushed biscuits. Stir everything together well.

Sprinkle the lined baking paper with the extra coconut, and then tip in the mixture. Press in evenly to the depth you like. Sprinkle the mixture with more coconut, then refrigerate for at least 2 hours before cutting.

Recipe taken from 100 Favourite Muffins & Slices, by Simon and Alison Holst.

And voila! You have a delicious slice that keeps for a least a week in the fridge and you can continue on with your day. Extra condensed milk disaster averted.

Happy baking!

H xo