This is the recipe that made me want to start blogging again. When I made it last year, I was chuffed with how delicious it tasted, but the texture wasn’t quite right and it took me a while to perfect it. The trick is in the timing – after 25-27 minutes it will seem like it’s not cooked, but trust in the wobble because it will set as it cools.
So here they are – my salty, malty, gooey, brown butter blondies with chocolate chunks. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
Malted, salted chocolate chunk blondies
Makes good-sized 9 blondies
Cook: 25-30 mins
150g dark chocolate (not too dark – 50% is best for this or use a mix of dark and milk)
1. Preheat oven to 190/170 fan. Butter a 20 x 20cm brownie tin and line it with baking paper (if you only have a 20×23 tin, that’s fine, but it might take a bit less time to cook).
2. Start by browning the butter: In a medium-large saucepan, melt the butter on a low-medium heat. This will take around 5-8 minutes – first it will get really foamy, then it will start turning rust-coloured underneath and begin to smell nutty. Once this happens and some of the foam starts to subside, remove it from the heat. Add the sugars and stir until well combined, then leave to cool for at least 10 mins (if you don’t, your eggs will scramble when you add them).
3. While it’s cooling, weigh out your dry ingredients (the flour, baking powder, malt power and salt) and set aside. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs together with 1 tsp vanilla bean paste. Finally, weigh out and roughly chop the chocolate into chunks of around 2cm.
4. Once the butter and sugar mix has cooled a bit, stir in the beaten eggs and vanilla. Then, sieve in the dry ingredients and stir until smooth – the batter should be pretty thick. Finally, add most of the chocolate chunks (leaving a handful aside) and pour the batter into the lined tin.
5. Scatter the remaining handful of chocolate chips over the top. Bake for 25-30 mins – it should have browned on the top and still have a slight wobble in the middle. Trust in the wobble! Mine was perfect after 26-27 mins (still soft in the middle), but cook for 30 or more if you like it less gooey and more cakey.
6. Cool in the tin before cutting into squares. Sprinkle sea salt flakes over the top for an extra je ne sais quoi.
Anna Lawson eats... 