This and that: chocolate desserts

Nanaimo Bars are pure Canadian... and probably one of my favorite Canadian treats, after butter tarts that is...but Butter Tarts will have to be done for another post...
Per wikipedia Nanaimo Bars is a Canadian origin dessert popular throughout North America. It is a bar cookie that needs no baking and is named after a west coast city, Nanaimo, British Colombia. The nanaimo bar is a wafer crumb layer, topped with a vanilla or custard flavoured butter icing, covered with a chocolate layer. Now-a-days you can find many different flavors of Nanaimo Bars - mint, peanut butter and mocha being the most common... Also the flavoured butter icing filling can be coloured any colour for any occasion.
Saying all that I decided that I wanted to make them into cheesecake. I love cheesecake and the combination would be wonderful and also because I didn't have Bird's custard powder and had no idea where I would find it here in upper Michigan.... I did some research. I did find a recipe for the Nanaimo Bar Cheesecake on allrecipes.com ~ (you can go here to find the original recipe), but this recipe didn't have the right base that I wanted, so I started through my recipe books and found what I wanted.... So, once again my recipe is a mismatch of multiple recipes from multiple sites. Now, what do I use for the bird's custard powder... there wasn't alot out there for a substitute ~~ corn starch and vanilla, vanilla pudding and other places and cooks said there was no replacement. So I decided to try vanilla pudding ~~ it was ok but not the best and I know now what will be on my Canadian shopping list - Bird's Custard Pudding... or if anyone wants to send me some... hint! hint! hint! I did find it on Amazon but am thinking that this may be a good excuse for me to make a trip home. So, now that you are total bored here is my recipe....

Nanaimo Bar Cheesecake

Nanaimo Bar Cheesecake

Ingredients:

1/2 c butter
1/4 c sugar
5 tbsp cocoa powder ( I used Fry's cocoa so it was more Canadian)
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 c graham cracker crumbs
1 c shredded coconut
1/2 c walnuts ( I didn't use this time)

4 pkg cream cheese
1 cup white sugar
1/4 c custard powder ( I used vanilla pudding ~ not instant)
4 eggs

6 squares semi-sweet chocolate
1/2 c heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Melt butter in saucepan, stir in sugar and cocoa powder until smooth. Once smooth, whisk in egg and vanilla extract. Make sure the butter mixture isn't too hot when you put in the egg or you will get pieces of scrambled egg in you mixture. Take off heat and add graham cracker crumbs, coconut and walnuts. Place mixture on bottom of pan. Put in fridge while you make the rest of the middle layer. I used a 11 inch spring-form pan for mine.
Beat cream cheese, sugar and custard powder until light and fluffy. Then beat in eggs, one egg at a time. Make sure each egg is thoroughly mixed in before adding the next. Pour over crumb base mixture. Bake for 40 minutes (until center is almost set). Refrigerate until fully chilled about 3 hours ( I did mine overnight).
Place chocolate squares and heavy cream in sauce pan and mix on low heat until smooth and chocolate melted. Pour over cheesecake layer.... Place bake in fridge until chocolate layer is set, about 20 -30 minutes.

mixing butter,sugar and cocoa

crumb layer in pan

mixing cream cheese, sugar and vanilla pudding

ready to go in the oven

out of the oven

chocolate layer on

a piece for you

This cake turned out wonderfully and I got lots of compliments on it. I think it would even turn out better if I would have had Bird's Custard Powder to put in it... One lady told me that this is the best thing that I have ever made..So come and get some, I will have it ready and the coffee pot is always on...