Vegan Nanaimo Bars from Dreena's Kind Kitchen

Vegan Nanaimo Bars are the ultimate in chocolatey treats! They’re perfect for holiday parties and Christmas treat boxes. This easy, no-bake recipe from Dreena's Kind Kitchen by Dreena Burton is eggless, dairy free, and gluten free.

Vegan Nanaimo Bars

When Dreena Burton’s newest book Dreena's Kind Kitchen arrived, I headed straight to the dessert chapter. I had a hankering for something chocolatey, and I heard the vegan Nanaimo bars quietly calling my name.

Before making these, I’d never had a Nanaimo bar, but I’ve drooled over photos of them online. Since they’re Canadian, I’ve never seen them available anywhere around me, and making them has always seemed too daunting. Trust me when I tell you that Dreena’s recipe is super easy to tackle. If you can work a food processor, you can make them!

What are Nanaimo Bars?

Nanaimo bars are a Canadian no-bake dessert that are named after Nanaimo, British Columbia. They have three layers: a crumb base, a creamy middle layer, and chocolate ganache on top. They’re traditionally made with lots of sugar, eggs, and butter.

Dreena’s vegan version uses coconut butter and nondairy milk, and it’s gluten-free and nut-free. That doesn’t mean it’s flavor-free though. These little bars are highly addictive!

How to make Vegan Nanaimo Bars

This no-bake recipe is easy to make!

• First you pulse the dates and oats together in a food processor until they start to come together and get slightly crumbly.
• Next you add the cocoa powder, salt, and vanilla and process until the mixture starts to become sticky.
• Then you add the pumpkin seeds and coconut and process until the mixture is very sticky and holds together when pressed with your fingers.
• Now you press the mixture into an 8x8-inch baking pan lined with parchment paper. Place you pan in the fridge while you proceed with the rest of the layers.
• Next you add all the ingredients for the middle layer to a mini processor and pulse it together until just combined and smooth. Dreena cautions against over blending, because the mixture will heat and become oily.
• Then you transfer the mixture to the baking pan, spreading it evenly over the base layer. Place the pan back in the refrigerator.
• Now you prepare a hot water bath to make the topping by filling a small saucepan with several inches of water and heat it over low heat. You put a heatproof bowl on top of the saucepan to hover over the simmering water. Put the chocolate and coconut milk in the bowl and heat gently. You stir the mixture occasionally until the chips are totally melted and the mixture is smooth.
• Finally, you pour the chocolate topping over the top of your bar and refrigerate the pan until the bars are set.

Cut the mixture into 16–20 bars. You can store the leftover bars in an air-tight container on the freezer, if you have any left!

Dreena’s Kind Kitchen

Waaaay back in the early 2000s, when I first went vegan there weren’t very many vegan cookbooks available. My cookbooks took up one shelf on my IKEA Billy bookcase, and most of them were vegetarian. I’d adapt the recipes by taking out the eggs and dairy products. One of the first vegan cookbooks I bought was Dreena Burton’s Eat, Drink & Be Vegan.

Since then, I’ve filled TWO Billy bookcases with vegan cookbooks, but I always find myself going back to Dreena’s recipes. So I was super excited to receive her newest cookbook Dreena’s Kind Kitchen.

Dreena’s Kind Kitchen is full of more than 100 plant-based recipes that prove that healthy vegan food is anything but boring. The recipes are all easy to make using ingredients that are easy to find. And they’re all family-friendly and will please the pickiest of eaters! I mean, who’s going to say no to Wow ’Em Waffles, Fiesta Taco Filling, 1-Minute Pasta Alfredo, or Crackle Blender Brownies?

Dreena starts the book with tips on preparing ingredients, instructions on batch cooking, and how to give your ingredients a makeover (like how to make sweet potatoes more exciting). She also includes frequently asked questions, like how to make ingredient substitutions and how to store your cooked recipes.

And then there are the recipes, which will take you from breakfast all the way through dinner and dessert, with snacks and salad in between.

Chapters in Dreena’s Kind Kitchen Include:

• Breakfast Vibes
• The Salad Bowl
• Noshing: Dips, Spreads, and Nibblers
• Dinner Plates
• Holiday Fare
• Home Sweet Home

No matter what your dietary preference, you need room on your bookcase for Dreena’s Kind Kitchen!

Dreena’s Nanaimo Bars

Dreena Burton

Originating out of Nanaimo, British Columbia, this traditional Canadian no-bake dessert bar has a crumb base, a creamy middle layer, and chocolate ganache on top. Conventional versions use a great deal of white sugar, along with butter and eggs. This Kind Kitchen version is gluten-free and nut-free, and no vegan margarine is needed! (Not “health food” exactly, but quite an improvement on the original—and readers tell me they taste better!)

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine Canadian

Servings 20 bars

Calories 156 kcal

Ingredients

  

Base

• 1½ cups pitted dates
• ½ cup rolled oats
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ¼ cup raw pumpkin seeds or almond meal
• ¼ cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Middle

• ¾ cup coconut butter
• ¾-1 cup natural icing sugar (see note)
• 3 tablespoons vanilla nondairy milk or full-fat canned coconut milk (see note)
• ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract or ¼ teaspoon pure vanilla bean powder
• ¼ teaspoon ground turmeric (optional)
• ⅛ teaspoon sea salt

Topping

• 1 cup chopped nondairy chocolate bar or chocolate chips
• 2½ tablespoons full-fat canned coconut milk or other nondairy milk (see note)

Instructions

 

• Line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper.
• To prepare the base, put the dates and oats in a food processor and pulse several times, until they start to come together and get slightly crumbly. Add the cocoa powder, salt, and vanilla and process until the mixture starts to become sticky. Add the pumpkin seeds and coconut and process until the mixture is very sticky and holds together when pressed with your fingers. Press the mixture into the prepared baking pan. Chill in the refrigerator while you proceed with the next layers.
• Add all the ingredients for the middle layer to a mini processor (see note) and pulse until just combined and smooth. Try not to overblend, as the mixture will heat and become oily. Transfer to the baking pan, spreading the mixture evenly over the base layer. Place the pan back in the refrigerator.
• Prepare a hot water bath to make the topping: Fill a small saucepan with several inches of water and heat it over low heat. Put a heatproof bowl on top of the saucepan to hover over the simmering water (be sure it fully covers the top of the saucepan to prevent steam from entering the bowl). Put the chocolate and coconut milk in the bowl and heat gently, stirring occasionally, until the chips are totally melted and the mixture is smooth.
• Pour the chocolate topping over the top of your bars, and refrigerate until set. To serve, cut into 16–20 bars. Leftover bars can be frozen, if they last that long!

Notes

Icing Sugar Note: Natural icing sugars are blended from unrefined cane sugar and are less processed than standard icing sugar. If you don’t have a ready-made natural icing sugar, you can pulse coconut sugar in the blender until it’s very fine; it will give the filling a natural caramel color rather than the traditional yellow. Using the full 1 cup sugar makes a thicker, slightly firmer center layer. My recipe testers and I agreed that the ¾ cup version was sweet enough for us!

Milk Note: I really enjoy the subtle flavor of a vegan eggnog at the holidays, using either almond, soy, or coconut nog.

Food Processor Note: My food processor has a 16-cup capacity, so I break out my mini-processor to make the middle layer; it’s hard to get the right consistency in a big processor. If you used a smaller food processor to make the base, you can use the same one to make the middle layer; just to clean it out in between.

 

Recipe reprinted with permission from Dreena's Kind Kitchen by Dreena Burton.

More no-bake treats you might enjoy include:

• Chocolate Gingersnap Bars
• Chocolate Marble Raw Cheesecake
• Grasshopper Pie
• Chocolate Almond Date Truffles