The Violet Butterscotch Blondies
11 Jan 2025
Happy New Year and welcome to the first post for 2025. I'm easing myself back slowly into the kitchen after a mammoth 2 months of baking. I decided to make some blondies using a Claire Ptak recipe. The day before I returned to work, I made the caramel shards then quickly but the batter together. By the time the blondies had cooled I'd lost the light so I put them into an airtight container and returned to photograph them a few days later.
They're delicious but even though I reduced the sugar in the recipe, I found them very sweet. To take the sweetness down a notch I've dropped the sugar in the batter even more. I could have taken the caramel a bit further which would have taken the edge off the sweetness and instead of milk chocolate, dark chocolate pieces would also help.
Here's the recipe for you, adapted from here, which makes 8 brownies. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.
Caramel shards
15 ml water
75g caster sugar
15 ml water
75g caster sugar
Ingredients
125g unsalted butter, plus more for greasing the tin
1 egg
125g light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
120g plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp fine sea salt
60g milk chocolate, broken into small pieces
125g unsalted butter, plus more for greasing the tin
1 egg
125g light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
120g plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp fine sea salt
60g milk chocolate, broken into small pieces
Caramel
Have a sheet of greaseproof paper ready on a heat proof surface. Measure the water into a heavy-bottomed pan. Cover with the sugar and place over a medium-low heat until the sugar starts to dissolve. Resist the temptation to stir the pan as this can cause crystallisation. Once the sugar starts to dissolve, turn up the heat to medium-high until the sugar is a dark golden brown. Pour the caramel onto the greaseproof paper in a thin and even layer. Leave to cool, then use a sharp knife to chop into smallish shards. Be careful, as the caramel can be quite hard.
Blondies
Preheat the oven to 170°C, conventional. Butter a 17 x 17 cm baking tin and line with baking paper.
Preheat the oven to 170°C, conventional. Butter a 17 x 17 cm baking tin and line with baking paper.
Gently melt the 125g butter in a small, heavy-bottomed pan and set aside to cool slightly.
In a large bowl, whisk together the egg, sugar and vanilla until frothy, then whisk in the melted butter.
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a separate bowl then add add to the egg and butter mixture along with the milk chocolate pieces. Mix until just combined.
Pour the mixture into the prepared baking tin and smooth the top with a palette knife or spatula. Sprinkle 40g of the caramel shards over the top and bake for 30 minutes. The centre should be puffed and set but still a little gooey.
Leave to cool completely in the tin, then cut into 8 thick but smallish pieces.
A perfect bite sized treat served with a nice cup of tea.
See you all again next week with some more baking for my kitchen.
Bye for now,
Jillian