BLONDIES

Arabella bought me the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook a couple of Christmases ago, however she has been complaining we don't use it enough. I have made the delicious frosting / icing several times and I think the cakes and pies look phenomenal but they also look pretty complicated. Thankfully this weekend Arabella chose to bake blondies which are a bit like a white chocolate brownie and pretty simple to make. They took about 50 minutes in total plus cooling time.

Ingredients for around 12 portions:

150g white chocolate, whitely chopped
125g unsalted butter
150g caster sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
200g plain flour
a pinch of salt
120g shelled pecan nuts, chopped

Preheat the oven to 170 C, gas mark 3.

Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper - the recommended size is 33 x 23 x 5cm but just use what you have!

Put the chocolate and butter in a glass bowl over a saucepan of boiling water. Stir occasionally until it is melted and smooth.

Remove from the heat and then add the sugar and stir until incorporated. I had to move the ingredients into a bigger bowl.

Add the vanilla extract and then the eggs, stirring briskly as you don't want to allow time for the eggs to scramble. Arabella helped here by cracking the eggs and doing some brilliant stirring!

Add the flour, salt and pecan nuts and stir again until all mixed together and the pecans are evenly dispersed.

It's good to have a helper!

Spoon the mixture into the lined baking tray and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes - I did 35 - you want it to be golden brown but still soft in the middle.

Once cooled, cut into squares and tuck in.

This was very easy and really good - it wasn't too sweet or particularly naughty and so perfect for an afternoon snack. Arabella and our lovely friend Ceri both really enjoyed it - I would have liked to add raisins but this idea was completely vetoed!! A great lighter alternative to brownies…..I can almost convince myself they are healthy!!