Macadamia & Raspberry White Chocolate Blondie

 

A few weeks back a friend brought us over some yummy chocolate muffins and they were deliciously sludgy!

I’ve been wanting to make this blondie for a while but wanted a slightly cakier texture rather than the chewy, gooey chocolate brownie I normally make.
The texture and sludginess of her muffins were exactly what I had in mind and thankfully she was happy for me to turn her recipe into this blondie!
So I switched the white sugar to brown, changed the dark chocolate to white, added some macadamias and raspberries, baked it in a slice tin and…HEY PRESTO!…A delicious blondie that’s easy to make and can be enjoyed for afternoon tea or served warm for dessert with ice cream and/or whipped cream. 🙂

 

INGREDIENTS

200 g white chocolate (in a block or buttons)
½ cup / 65 g macadamia nuts
150 g butter (at room temperature)
1 cup / 200 g firmly packed, brown sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla paste or extract
4 medium-sized eggs (I use size 6’s)
1 ¼ cups / 190 g standard flour
1 rounded cup / 120 g fresh or frozen raspberries

Icing sugar (confectioner’s sugar) to dust

 

Serves 12

 

Notes

• If I’m using frozen raspberries to my baking I add them without defrosting them because then they’re quite soft and break up easily and/or bleed. Fresh ones are different, they’re nice and dry.

 

STEP BY STEP

First, spray a 27 x 16 cm / 10 ½ x 6 ½” (or close to) standard-sized, slice tin with non-stick cooking spray and then line it with non-stick baking paper.

To melt the chocolate, find a heatproof bowl that fits snuggly into the top of a small saucepan. Break up the chocolate and place the pieces (or, if using them, the buttons) in the bowl. 

Fill 1/3 of the saucepan with water and then set the bowl on top again. Check that the water isn’t touching the bottom of the bowl and if it is, tip some out.

Remove the bowl again and bring the water to the boil. Once boiling turn down the heat to medium/low or to where the water is simmering.

Place the bowl of chocolate back on the saucepan and stir often (especially the sides and bottom so it doesn’t stick and burn), until all the chocolate has melted.

Turn the oven to 150°C / 300°F fan/convection oven or 170°C / 325°F conventional oven, on bake, with a rack situated just below the centre of the oven.

Next, roughly chop up the macadamias and set them aside.

If the butter isn’t at a warm room temperature cut it into small cubes and pop it in the microwave on 50% / ½ power for 30 seconds and then 15-second increments until it’s soft (we don’t want any melty bits though).

• Butter is soft enough to cream when you can easily push your finger into it and it leaves a nice, soft indentation. 🙂

Place the softened butter into a medium sized bowl with the brown sugar and vanilla.

Using an electric beater on medium speed, cream the two together for around 3 minutes or until it’s creamy and has paled in colour (the time will depend on how soft the butter is).

Then add the eggs, one at a time, beating each one in for around 30 seconds before adding the next.

Go on to pour in the melted chocolate and still using the beaters, mix it in well.

Add the flour and the macadamia nuts and using a large spoon, fold them through the mixture.

Next, add the raspberries and fold them through also.

Give the lined tin a light going over with the cooking spray and then spoon in the blondie batter, spreading it around evenly.

Place it in the oven and it’ll be ready in 35 minutes or when a skewer or a sharp knife inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Hungry yet?

Once cooled, cut it into pieces (I cut mine into 12 pieces, 6 x 2).

If you like you can lightly dust it all over with icing sugar.

Make sure it’s cooled down completely before placing in a container.

As I said this makes a nice dessert by warming each piece up in the microwave for 20 seconds and serving it with ice cream and/or whipped cream.

Keeping it fresh – Store in an airtight container in a cool pantry up to 3 days. You can freshen it up by warming each piece up in the microwave for 20 seconds.

 

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