Blondies: Squidgy White Chocolate Version of Brownies
A lush and sumptuous traybake. These squidgy white chocolate blondies are sweet, rich and vanillary with lovely caramel notes. They’re quick and easy to make and will delight all who are lucky enough to taste one.
What is a Blondie?
There’s a bit of debate as to what a blondie actually is. For some it’s like a cakey cookie made with brown sugar which doesn’t contain chocolate. But for me it’s only a blondie if it’s made with white chocolate.
I make my blondies with white chocolate rather than dark, milk or cocoa powder. They have a rich vanilla flavour with caramel tones which come from the cooked white chocolate. Sweet they may be, but they’re not in the least bit cloying though.
The first blondie recipe to appear in a cookbook was way back in 1896. The cookbook was a US one called the Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by Fanny Farmer. Because as we all know, both blondies and brownies are an American invention. And a very fine invention they are too. Fanny is said to have adapted her cookie recipe and baked it as one entity in a rectangular pan. What we in the UK now call a traybake.
As it happens, Fanny called her bake a brownie, even though she didn’t use any sort of chocolate.
White Chocolate Blondies
I went with a recipe for white chocolate and macadamia brownies from Nigella’s How To Be A Domestic Goddessas my starting point. It doesn’t bare much resemblance to the original, but the resulting blondies are jolly good.
They’re lush and sumptuous. The flavours of vanilla and caramel are well balanced and decidedly flavourful. They’re pleasingly squidgy in the middle with a light and crisp top and the sweetness is tempered by the generous helping of crunchy walnuts.
These blondies are quite simple to make and not at all difficult. You do need to beat the eggs and sugar together until thick and creamy though, so if you have an electric whisk or beaters, so much the better. Otherwise, you just need to melt the butter and chocolate together and stir.
If you like your blondies to be really thick, you might want to use a twenty centimetre square tin to cook them in. I’ve gone for a twenty three centimetre one as I prefer them not to be too thick. The traybake takes less time to bake, it’s easier to gage whether they are cooked or not and it’s also easier to eat the finished blondies with some degree of elegance.
Top Tip
If you find the blondies are not cooked enough for your liking when cool, then just pop them back into a hot oven again for a further five minutes or so. But do be careful not to over bake. A dry blondie can be a real disappointment.
Other White Chocolate Recipes You Might Like
- Apple tarts with white chocolate
- Double chocolate cheesecake pudding
- Plum, amaretti and white chocolate ripple ice cream
- Raspberry & white chocolate flapjacks
- Rhubarb friands with white chocolate
- White chocolate shortbread biscuits – four flavours
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make these white chocolate blondies, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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For the complete experience, with nearly fifty brownie and blondie recipes on Tin and Thyme, head over to my brownies and blondies category. All delicious, of course.
Choclette x
White Chocolate Blondies. PIN IT.
White Chocolate Blondies – The Recipe
White Chocolate Blondies
Ingredients
- 85 g unsalted butter (3 oz)
- 100 g white chocolate (3.5 oz (I used my favourite Green & Black's))
- 2 large eggs (I used duck eggs)
- 170 g golden granulated sugar (6 oz)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 170 g whole grain flour (6 oz) (I used half wholemeal spelt & half gluten free)
- 1 pinch sea salt
- 110 g walnuts (4 oz) chopped
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a pan over a low heat with the white chocolate.
- Whisk the eggs with the sugar until thick and creamy.
- Beat in the cooled chocolate along with the vanilla extract.
- Sift and fold in the flours and salt.
- Stir in the walnuts.
- Turn the mixture into a buttered 23cm x 23cm lined tin and bake at 170℃ (150℃ fan, 338℉, Gas 3) for 20 minutes. The blondie traybake should be golden and slightly crisp around the edges, but still have a slight wobble in the middle.
- Leave to cool in the tin, then turn out onto a cutting board and slice into twelve pieces.
Never heard of a blondie before! May need a taste test before I can say which I prefer!
I like the look of these. What effect do the duck eggs have? Can chicken eggs be substituted?
Yes, it’s fine to use chicken eggs instead of duck eggs – they generally equate to a large hen’s egg. I wrote a post about the benefits of duck eggs if you’re intrested – http://choclogblog.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/duck-eggs.html
Thank you very much – it’s a labour of love!
Choclette, you’ve been busy!I’m enjoying the fruits/choclates of your labors. Thank you for doing all this!