Fool Proof Blondies

Welcome to the month of home baked gifting goodies. This is the first of many November Christmas bakes.

Once I've said a sad farewell to October 31st, in comes 1st November all jingle bells and whistles. Unpopular opinion incoming - I hate Mariah Careys/All I want for Christmas is you. My ultimate favourite Christmas tune is Brenda Lee - Rocking around the Christmas tree. And any old classic covered by Michael Bublé. I adore all the old classics. What's your favourite Christmas tune??

So one of my many homemade gifts that I like to gift at Christmas is a brownie/blondie box. Packaged nicely in a Kraft brown box with twine and a homemade gift tag. Usually I'll put it in a Christmas eve box with Hot Chocolate and facemasks for the ultimate girly gift box. I just feel goodies like this really add a personal touch at this time of year, you've put time and effort into it so to me it means so much more. Plus Christmas is one of the no1 foodie seasons where you can experiment and cook up all sorts of good bakes and hearty foods. 

This recipe is a nod to one of my favourite biscuits The Jammie Dodger and these are always an absolute hit with my friends and family. They are so yummy, the sponge is sweet from the white chocolate, the biscuits are delicious of course and the extra bits of jam are definitely the best bit.

I bake them in the oven on 160C fan for 30 minutes until they are golden brown all over. Using a skewer inserted in the centre doesn't give a clear indication that they are done because blondies are meant to be gooey and almost a little undercooked. Blondies are the white chocolate version of brownies and they are not like cake. They are super squidgy and gooey. They will also set more as they cool down so wait until they are fully cooled before you remove them from your baking dish. I usually bake them of an evening, leave them to cool, then pop the whole baking tray in the fridge before going to bed to allow them to set overnight before I cut/portion them.

I use my staple 20cm x 20cm Pyrex glass baking dish, lined with baking paper.

Ingredients 

200g Stork
300g Caster sugar
150g White chocolate broken into chunks
3 Large eggs
1 Tsp Vanilla extract
225g Plain flour
3 Tbsp Strawberry jam
8 Jammie Dodger biscuits (7 for the recipe and 1 to have with a brew whilst waiting for your blondies to cook!)

Method.


1. Pre heat your oven to 160c and grease and line a 20 x 20 baking dish.
2. Melt the butter and sugar in a pan on low heat.
3. Once the butter has melted, take the pan off the heat and add the white chocolate.
Leave it for a couple of minutes to melt then stir together. Leave the mixture to cool for 5 minutes.
4. Break the eggs into a bowl and then add them to the mixture, keep whisking as you pour them in to make sure the mixture doesn't cook the eggs. Then stir in the vanilla extract.
​5. Add the flour and whisk it in, then pour the mixture into your lined baking dish.
6. Swirl your jam through the mixture with a knife.
7. Press a couple of broken up pieces of Jammie Dodgers into the mixture so you cant see them, then place a few whole ones on top and a few extra blobs of jam for good measure.
8. Bake the blondies for around 30-40 minutes depending on how gooey you like them. Remember if they look too gooey in the middle, they WILL continue to cook once removed from the oven and won't be as gooey. Again blondies are the white chocolate version of brownies and not like cake so they are meant to remain slightly gooey.
9. Wait until they are completely cooled to remove them from the dish and portion them. Store in an airtight container or fridge and eat within 5 days.

Enjoy guys xxx

For the calorie conscious, look away now. Nutritional info as always below.
Makes 9 portions, nutritional info per portion is...
Calories 526
Carbs 72.4g
Protein 6.9g
​Fats 23.1g
 

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