Ruby Edward's TARTINE - Bakery   Cafe

A brief history:

According to local legend about 35 years ago, a Nanaimo housewife entered her recipe for chocolate squares in a magazine contest.

In a burst of civic pride, she chose to dub the entry not "Daphne's Delights" or "Mary's Munchies", but "Nanaimo Bars".

The entry won a prize, thereby promoting the town as much as her cooking. Some American [USA] tourists claim sovereignty over the dessert, referred to as "New York Slice" which is sold in many other places in the world. Nanaimo residents refuse to accept this theory, however, believing that once you set foot on Vancouver Island, there are no other places in the world.

The official Nanaimo Bar recipe was available as a handout as well as on quality tea towel and apron souvenirs.

In 1986, Nanaimo Mayor Graeme Roberts, in conjunction with Harbor Park Mall, initiated a contest to find the ultimate Nanaimo Bar Recipe. During the four-week long contest, almost 100 different variations of the famous confection were submitted.

The winner: Joyce Hardcastle. We have followed Joyce Hardcastle's recipe in meticulous detail

http://www.nanaimo.ca/EN/main/visitors/NanaimoBars.html

using Belgium chocolate, French cocoa, Pakistani vanilla custard powder, Malaysian coconut, Madagascar vanilla, local cream,

butter and eggs rather than the typical North American supermarket fare.

We are sure Joyce would approve of our high quality choices.

Our Lemon Squares are so zesty that we decided to call them "Pucker-Up" because that is what you do when you bite

into one of these TARTINE signature squares. As for the Grouch, well, we named them after our favorite grouch

because he smiles every time he eats one of our Lemon Squares.

We start with a baked shortbread cookie base and then add the Spanish lemon juice, eggs, sugar, flour and a very

secret zest together and pour it over the base and bake to perfection. After chilling, we cut them into squares and

put them in their unique boxes.

The recipe for these crowd pleaser comes from a friend of mine who used to bring them to our church pot-lucks, I was

always first in line for her Lemon Squares. Now these just happen to be the Episcopalian recipe and not the one used

down the street at the Luthern Church.

"My mother gave me a copy of THE BOY'S COOKBOOK in 1959 when I was 10 years old.

This book opened the world of cooking and baking to me, along with the need to follow directions.

One of the first recipes I tried was one for BROWNIES, it was an instant hit with the family then, and I have continued to

use the same exact recipe today, 50 years later." -Chef Garrett