CUSTARD CREAM BLONDIES

I cannot eat a custard cream without being flooded with memories of my silver Duke of Edinburgh walk in Wales about 20 years ago. Even though I was not a keen camper (I still am not), I did have fun and I think I consumed my body weight in custard creams and Bourbon biscuits. I found this recipe in Olive magazine and decided to cook it for when my ex mother-in-law came for tea - it took under an hour and was very easy.

Ingredients for 12-18 bars (depending on the size):

175g butter, plus extra for greasing

200g light muscovado sugar

125g golden caster sugar

4 tbsp custard powder

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

250g self-raising flour

Salt

15 custard creams, roughly crumbled

150g vanilla white chocolate, chopped into small chunks

Preheat the oven to 180 C / fan 160 C / gas mark 4. Butter and line a baking tin / dish with baking paper (around 20 x 30 cm).

Melt the butter, both sugars and custard powder gently in a large saucepan. When the mixture is smooth and you can't feel any grains of sugar left, take off the heat and leave to cool for 5 minutes. This didn't take long. I used this "cooling" time to cut up the biscuits and chocolate. I was on a diet day so couldn't even nibble the milky bar - it was torture!!

Stir in the eggs, one by one, until smooth. Then follow with the vanilla extract, flour and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Quickly stir in two thirds of the custard creams and the chocolate chunks and pour into your baking dish / tin. 

Scatter over the remaining biscuit bits and bake for 30 minutes until golden and set on top. Cool the blondies in the tin before cutting into bars.

I found 30 minutes wasn't enough for me - it was still too gooey inside. My daughter loved it but I preferred it a bit more cooked so I did a further 20 minutes, keeping a constant eye on it so it didn't burn on top.

I loved the combination of the custard creams and white chocolate and it made a great lighter alternative to a brownie. It wasn't my favourite though. My daughter on the other hand thought it was incredible and was begging to have some at breakfast as she couldn't wait for tea. Plus luckily my ex mother-in-law enjoyed it too.