Berry blondies

Man oh man, these were salivation-worthy. Quite often, white chocolate baked goods can turn out too sweet, or not taste of white chocolate. But by using all of my dried berry powders, which are quite earthy and not at all sweet, it counterbalanced the sweetness of the white chocolate, and by drizzling melted chocolate over at the end its flavour wasn’t lost. These bad boys are definitely one to try if you’re looking for a special treat!

As always, change around the fillings as you wish.

Ingredients:

• 8 oz unsalted butter  (plus extra for greasing)
• 8 oz white chocolate (plus extra 10-20g for drizzling)
• 4 large eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste (vanilla extract will do too)
• 8 oz golden caster sugar
• 5 1/2 oz plain flour
• 4 oz frozen berries
• 4 tsp berry powder
  (I used one each of: cranberry, lingonberry, blackcurrant, and blueberry)
• Handful flaked almonds

Method:
(Makes 16 blondie squares)

1. Grease and line a brownie tin (I think mine was an 10″ square tin?). Pre-heat a fan oven to 175C.
2. Melt the chocolate and butter over a bain marie. Allow to cool before moving on to the next step.
3. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.
4. Beat in the sugar.
5. Sift and fold in the flour.
6. Fold in the frozen berries and the berry powder until evenly distributed. (This is the point to add any other fillings of your choice.) Fresh berries will work, too, but may bleed into the brownie and give a very wet consistency.
7. Transfer the batter to your lined baking tin. Scatter flaked almonds (they give a great texture, I wish I’d put more on mine!) and a few extra frozen berries across the top of the brownie mixture.
8. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out just clean.
9. Leave to cool before turning out.
10. (Optional: trim the brown outer edges of the blondie, this will give a better presentation.) Drizzle with extra melted chocolate, then portion and serve 🙂