When I made these last weekend with the 11 year old, the recipe lived in a spreadsheet and I couldn’t find an online version of it. I thought that I’d riffed off a Martha Collison recipe but it turns out that I had the wrong Martha. Martha Stewart had inspired these blondies many years ago in Cambodia and I haven’t made them since I left.
I’ve upped the ginger and cinnamon spices because I like a strong flavour. The complexity of the added cloves gives it that distinct gingerbread flavour but be careful with it. I realise that mini gingerbread men could be placed on top of the batter before baking, if you’d like to add in some crunch and decoration. I just never have had any when I made these.
I wanted to keep this recipe easy to make so that you can make them with kids or you may just want an easy recipe that you can start and finish in 30 minutes. So I’ve opted for this approach rather than the other blondie recipe that I have that you have to whip the eggs and sugar together to ribbon stage.
Ingredients for Gingerbread white chocolate blondies, adapted from Martha Stewart.
- 200g butter
- 200g dark brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- 200g plain flour
- 2.5 tsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- a scant 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- Pinch of salt
- 100g white chocolate, roughly chopped
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180C and line a 20x20cm baking tin.
- Brown the butter: in a medium sized pan, melt the butter on a medium heat until it is as silent as ninja. Take it off the heat and let it cool down for a few minutes.
- As the butter is browning, in a separate bowl, measure out the flour and mix in the spices, baking powder and salt.
- Now to the pot of brown butter, add the sugar and mix it in. Then add in the eggs and mix them in completely.
- Now add in the flour and once it’s mixed in, mix in the white chocolate.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared baking tin and spread it out evenly. Bake in the centre of the oven for 16-20 minutes, until cooked on top. If it’s a bit jiggly, that is okay. It’ll harden as it cools.
- Allow to cool completely before cutting it into 12-16 pieces. I tend to leave them overnight before cutting.
The verdict – they come out quite flat and thin but nobody seems to mind. They are meant to be dense and buttery and sweet and spiced (perfectly I think) to smell like Christmas.
