White Chocolate Chip Blondies

Happy Easter all! And if you were about to accuse me of being late to issue those wishes, I'll have you know that today is Greek Easter and as I'm half Greek, I'm in fact right on time :)

How did you all spend your non-Greek Easter? I have to say it actually passed me by as I was in New York and lots of people over there don't have the Friday and Monday off work like we do here and on the Sunday, we were making our way back to NYC from a wedding in Maryland so yeah, I barely even noticed it was Easter. I didn't even get a chocolate egg :(

NYC was amazeballs as usual! I stayed with the amazing Onada and her husband (thanks again!) My time there flew by and I wasn't ready to come back but not to worry, while I was there, I sampled lots and lots of cupcakes! See my list below! This is in no particular order as they were all really good!

1) Sprinkles: I had the Brown Sugar Praline cupcake and it was yummy! Caramel cake with brown sugar frosting and topped with crunchy praline! Their cake was light and fresh and the frosting not too sweet!
2) Magnolia: I went to the shop in Bloomingdales and had a lemon cupcake! It was filled with lemon cream and tasted exactly as a lemon cupcake should! I'mma search through my two Magnolia baking books in search of this recipe!
3) Crumbs: Seriously huge cupcakes! And soooo many flavours! If you're intending to buy only one (like I was), this could be one of the hardest decisions you ever have to mae! Did I mention that they're almost all filled cupcakes? I can't remember what I had but it was really good!
4) Two Little Red Hens: This is a really cute bake shop with wonderful looking layer cakes. I had a yellow cake with meringue frosting which I wasn't too keen on. It's the meringue frosting which is so popular in the US that was the problem. It tastes like butter! Give me good old buttercream or cream cheese frosting any day! But I went back and had a Boston Cream Pie cupcake which was very good! The sponge fluffy and light, the pastry cream tasty and covered in chocolate ganache.

Anyway, back to reality - where I have to bake my own desserts.

These blondies were supposed be funfetti (American word for sprinkles) blondies but I guess my sprinkles were too small (unlike the probably massive sprinkles the Americans have - y'know, with everything being bigger there and all) and melted into the batter. Head on over to Beantown Baker's blog to see what they look like with sprinkles. They were very very good though! The almond extract gives them a really special flavour. I can't wait to make them again!

Ingredients

198g butter, melted
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup white chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 180C / Gas Mark 4 / 350F
2. Line a 9 x 13inch pan with greaseproof paper and grease lightly
3. In a large, microwave safe mixing bowl, melt the butter. Allow to cool for 5 minutes
4. Mix the sugars with the melted butter and beat until smooth. Beat in egg and then the extracts.
5. Add salt, stir in flour and baking powder. Stir in white chocolate chips.
6. Pour into prepared pan and use a greased spatula to evenly spread mixture in pan and level the top. Bake for 24 - 28 minutes or until set in the middle. Cool on rack before cutting.

Raspberry Blondies

I am a huge advocate of equality for everybody regardless of race, gender, sexuality, religion, class ... But *gulp*, I've realised I have my prejudices too. Here goes. *Deep breath* I. am. . . chocolatist. And no, I don't mean that some chocolate is superior to other chocolate - though that is certainly true. Lindt; good. Hershey's; Bad. Nope, what I am trying to say is that I have issues with white chocolate. It's white, chocolate is by definition brown. Issue number 1. It is not made of cocoa, it is made of cocoa butter. The fact that they can even get away with calling it chocolate is beyond me!


This prejudice extends to their use in a moist cakey goodness known as a brownie; or a 'Blondie' as they are known when they're made with white chocolate. However, though I LOVE brownies and don't think Blondies are comparable; I have to admit that when I consider them on their own, instead of comparing them to their darker, richer counterpart, they're actually pretty good. They are essentially dense, white chocolate cakes and although rich in flavour, not overly cloying. The raspberries and clotted cream make it a wonderful summer dessert. I made these as part of a tea-party spread.


I'm not sure what happened when I made this batch but the mixture seemed way too thick which is why I didn't take any photographs. However, the finished blondies were the perfect combination of crispy top layer, and moist, cakey inside. I'll have to make them again at some point and post pictures. In the meantime, give them a go yourself; they're very easy to make!


Ingredients
175g butter, softened
400g golden caster sugar
2 large eggs
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
100g white chocolate, chopped
50g raspberries
clotted cream (To serve)


1 - Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas mark 4
2 - Grease and flour a 23cm (9in) square cake tin
3 - In a large bowl, beat together the butter and caster sugar
4 - Beat in the eggs, one at a time
5 - Stir in the flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder and mix well until combined
6 - Stir in the white chocolate and spoon the mixture into the prepared tin
7 - Scatter over the raspberries and bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean
8 - Leave to cool completely then cut into squares in the tin
9 - Serve with a dollop of clotted cream