Butterscotch Blondies

 

 

I set out to make strawberry blondies to use up some leftover strawberries, and found this recipe on the Food Network website. As I started making it, I realised that it used strawberry jam rather than fresh strawberries, and butterscotch chips, which I thought sounded really nice but not necessarily combined with strawberries… so  I set my punnet of strawberries to one side while I found a different recipe to use those, and made what I am calling Butterscotch Blondies instead!

 

You need

4 tbsp butter

1 cup light brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla flavouring

1 egg

¾ cup plain flour

¼ tsp baking powder

½ cup butterscotch chips

 

Preheat oven to 180C. Line a square baking tin with parchment, or if you have a brownie pan like I do, spray each section with Cake Release.

 

Melt the butter and the sugar in a bowl in the microwave for 1 minute on high. Stir in the vanilla and the egg.

  

 

 

 

 

In a larger bowl if necessary, fold the butter and sugar mixture into the flour and baking powder. Stir in the butterscotch chips and spoon into the pan.

 

 

Bake for 20 minutes – they should still be a little soft as they come out of the oven. Leave to cool in the pan then if you have baked it in a square tin, remove from the pan and cut into squares. If you have a brownie pan, job done!

 

I'm sharing these with Treat Petite, hosted by Stuart at Cakeyboi and Kat at The Baking Explorer as they have an 'anything goes' theme this month.

 

Strawberry and White Chocolate Blondies

I had some strawberries that needed using up and it was that time of the month again where I was due to spend a whole day with the design agency I work with and I've got into the habit of taking cake.

I wanted something that would be easy to transport and thought that blondies - a bit like brownies, but without chocolate - would work really well as a way of incorporating the strawberries.

 

I found a recipe on the Good Food website for strawberry and macademia blondies but changed them to leave out the nuts. I also ran out of light muscovado sugar so used a mixture of half caster sugar, half demerera! They turned out well but I took my eye off the clock and overbaked them a bit which was a shame.

You need:
125g butter
200g white chocolate
2 eggs
50g caster sugar
50g brown sugar
130g plain flour
120g strawberries

Preheat oven to 180C. Line a 22cm square baking tin with greaseproof paper. Or if you have a brownie pan like I do, use that - spray with Cake Release.

Melt the butter and white chocolate in a small pan or in the microwave.

In a separate bowl cream the eggs and sugar then fold in the flour and the chocolate and butter mixture.




Chop the strawberries and fold in to the mixture. Pour into the tin and bake for 30 minutes.

 Leave to cool in the tin. Turn out of the brownie pan or if you have used a larger pan, turn out and cut into squares.

I'm sending this to Tea Time Treats as they have a theme of summer holiday baking; the strawberries make this quite summery and also this is an easy bake to make with the kids while they are off from school. The challenge is hosted by Karen at Lavender and Lovage and Jane at The Hedgecombers,

I'm also sharing it with the Vegetable Palette challenge, hosted by Shaheen at Allotment 2 Kitchen; the theme is 'more glorious reds' and she accepts fruits as well as veg.

 
These travel well so you could take them on a picnic; for that reason I'm sending these to Ness at JibberJabberUK for her challenge Love Cake.

In addition I'm sending this to the Food Year Linkup hosted by Charlottes Lively Kitchen. There are plenty of things happening this month and time of year that these blondies would be good for, but one stands out in particular, Breast Cancer Care's Strawberry Tea fundraiser.



Finally I'm sending this to We Should Cocoa, hosted by Choclette at Tin and Thyme; anything goes this month as long as it uses chocolate.

Toffee walnut blondies

I wanted to make something for my dad for Father's Day but it had to be suitable for carrying on a train, and also I knew my sister was planning to make a cake (which was delicious, by the way!). I was flicking through a recipe book I got for my birthday in April, Baked in America - there's something about this book that really appeals to me. I came across a recipe for Toffee Walnut Blondies and as I love brownies but haven't made blondies before, I wanted to give these a go.

You start by creaming butter, sugar, instant coffee granules and vanilla flavouring, then add some eggs. 

Melt some white chocolate and add to the mixture

Weighing out flour

The mixture coming together... finally fold in some chopped walnuts and some more chopped white chocolate.

Pour into a pan and bake in the oven for 20-30 mins

I think I left it in slightly too long!

Trim off any slightly burnt edges (ahem) and cut into squares

If you want the full recipe, it's on page 34 of Baked in America by Outsider Tart :-) I promise next time I bake from this book, I'll give you the full recipe (with the publisher's permission of course).

This recipe contains both chocolate and coffee, which is the theme for this month's We Should Cocoa challenge, guest hosted this month by The Kitchenmaid. The challenge is the brainchild of Choclette and Chele.