Salted peanut and milk chocolate blondies - straight from the fridge |
So, I made blondies. I filled them with big chunks of my favourite milk chocolate, oats, and salted peanuts. They were amazing. The day I baked them they were like warm, gooey, underbaked choc chip cookies. After a night in the fridge they were even better, just like a caramelly Snickers bar. They were intense and rich, with an almost obscene amount of butter, but hot damn they were good!
Gooey blondie square on the day of baking |
I've made blondies a couple of times in the past - Nigella's white chocolate and macadamia 'brownies' from How to be a Domestic Goddess, and her blondies from Kitchen (not blogged) - but neither particularly impressed me. The former were more like a dense eggy cake, and the latter were overly sweet, with a bizarre texture.
Appropriately enough, it was an American author's recipe that gave me the blueprint for the blondies that I ended up loving so much. For Christmas, we gave my dad a copy of Ina Garten's latest book: Foolproof (he's a big fan of Ina's!), and of course I had to flick through it before wrapping it up. The whole book is great, but her recipe for blondies caught my eye. Check out the picture:
Picture of Ina Garten's blondies from Foolproof |
I couldn't resist changing it up quite a bit - I used dark brown sugar for an extra caramelly taste, cut down the flour for extra fudginess, added oats for texture (let's not kid ourselves and say it was for health purposes!) and used salted peanuts and Lindt milk chocolate for the add-ins. And thus my salted peanut and milk chocolate chunk blondies were born.
Blondie batter |
Kingaroy Salted Peanuts |
Lindt chocolate |
Dough |
Raw dough |
I made these in a foil tray, as I was taking them to a picnic later that day and knew would be easier to transport. They rise up quite a bit during baking, but sink down upon cooling.
Brownies at the picnic |
Mega fudgy fudge town |
Salted Peanut and Milk Chocolate Blondies
Adapted from Ina Garten's Chocolate Chunk Blondies
Ingredients
225 grams unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup dark brown sugar (standard supermarket stuff, not dark muscovado)
1/2 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup rolled oats
1 1/2 cups salted peanuts
400 grams milk chocolate, chopped into rough chunks
Method
Preheat the oven to 175C. Line a 20 x 30 x 5 cm baking tray with baking paper. (Alternatively, if you use a foil tray, there's no need to line it.)
Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars until well combined, light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract, then the eggs, one at a time, and beat until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
Remove the bowl from the mixer. Sift over the flour, baking soda and salt. Add the oats to the bowl, and mix gently with a wooden spoon until combined, with no streaks of flour. Fold in the salted peanuts and chocolate chunks.
Spread the batter into the baking tray, and smooth the top down with a wooden spoon or spatula.
Bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown and more-or-less set. (It should be squidgy, so don't be alarmed if it looks a bit soft and a cake tester doesn't come out clean - it will firm up as it cools down and the chocolate solidifies).
Allow to cool completely (or for as long as you can bear!) before cutting into small squares and removing from the tin.
Makes lots
8 comments
Wow there is a lot of chocolate in those blondies! :O Not that I'm complaining-I look at it as a good thing!
ReplyDeleteLovely recipe :) I've never tried putting oats in brownies, but this recipe will definitely change my view on the diversity that this great dessert has :) !
ReplyDeleteI want to go to there.
ReplyDeleteThese look amazing - love the sound of salted peanut, chocolate and oats...
ReplyDeleteOMG these look sooooo good!!!! I'm accumulating quite a list of recipes to try and now have just added this.. :)
ReplyDeleteOh the gooeyness :) it looks sooo good!
ReplyDeleteOh my... these look incredible!
ReplyDeleteWow! Blondies and chocolates! I can hear my sweet tooth calling me again! It looks so good!
ReplyDelete