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.
Step 3. Measure out the flour, spices and salt before giving them a good mix. I think this one looks a bit like a dog’s face. Ready for step 5.
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.
Rarely will I just make something up and immediately conclude that it is amazing. Those who know me will testify to how I critique what I make, and recipes go through several iterations before I am happy with them. As I write, I’ve suddenly realised that this recipe also had several predecessors as a cookie re-enacted as a blondie. Wow – I had dismissed that because I hadn’t been trying to tweak that recipe. Nonetheless, this blondie came about with happy accidental happenstance.
Basically, a couple of Mondays ago, I decided that I wanted to bake brownies or blondies. On the Tuesday I ate a rich peanut brownie from Chocnroll, which satisfied my craving for brownies and so I turned my mind to blondies. When Wednesday evening happened, I had finished disseminating the findings of the first round of testing we had done on a major project I’m working on at work, written a lot of action points and very much needing to bake as therapy. Does anybody else do this? I know that I’m not alone in this.
I mentioned before that I have been working on another – yet unfinished – blondie recipe and I set out to make that. However this time, I added in another egg for extra hoped for fudginess, so that it mimicked my fudgy brownie recipe. As I browned some butter, I realised that I had no pecans nor white chocolate. So the substitutions began and a new blondie was birthed.
Once roasted, rub the hazelnut skins off with a tea towel – Step 2
I’ve since seen on the internet other recipes that call their version of a hazelnut and chocolate blondie a gianduja one. I’ve since thought about grinding up hazelnuts to make a chocolate hazelnut butter that I add in as a layer in the middle or on top. Then in consultations with friends, I decided that this added layer of complication takes away from the simple joy of baking blondies. Admittedly the browning of the butter may be a step too far for some, but it is so essential for the flavour! I promise you that it will be worth learning a new technique that you can use over and over again.
Ribbon stage – Step 4
Ingredients for Brown Butter, Hazelnut and Chocolate Blondies
200g butter which I then browned
200g dark brown sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
200g plain flour
100g hazelnuts
150g chocolate. I used 100g of milk and 50g dark chocolate.
Method
Preheat the oven to 350F/180C or 170C fan.
Roast the hazelnuts first for 10 mins using the baking tin for the blondies, until the skins come off them. Use a dry tea towel to rub the skins off the hazelnuts, then chop just over half of them. Don’t miss out this step.
Brown the butter: melt the butter in a medium saucepan on a medium heat and it will start to froth and cackle. That is the water evaporating. Continue and stir the sides and scrape the bottom a few times so that it doesn’t burn. When it is ‘as quiet as a ninja’ (quote from Stella Parks) it is ready. Take it off the heat and either pour the butter in a bowl to cool down, not forgetting to scrape the browned bits from the sides and bottom. Or as I often do, fill up the sink with cold water and carefully place the hot pan in there to cool down.
Now whisk the eggs and sugar together until it is at a ribbon stage. I used a stand mixer on a medium setting (3 on a Kenwood) for about 8 mins. I have instructions on whisking to a ribbon stage in my fudgy brownie recipe
As the eggs and sugar are whisking, line the tin. I used a 20cm square tin.
Now on the lowest setting, continue whisking but pour in the butter and add the salt. Whisk again on a medium setting until combined. I’m always amazed by the reaction and how it goes to almost like a buttercream consistency.
Fold in the flour, chopped hazelnuts and chopped chocolate.
Pour half the mixture into the tin, sprinkle over the unchopped hazelnuts and pour the rest of the mixture into the tin.
Bake in the middle of the oven for 17-20 mins until cooked on top. If it looks a bit jiggly, that is ok. It’ll harden up as it cools.
Allow to cool completely. I like to leave mine overnight. And then cut into 12-16 pieces.
Hazelnuts added as a middle layer – Step 8The baked brown butter, hazelnut and chocolate blondies
And the verdict? Suitably more-ish, dense and fudgy. Surprisingly not overly sweet with the milk chocolate because of the dark chocolate. Lastly, it is always worth roasting the hazelnuts because it improves the texture and flavour.
