Saturday 6 February 2010

White Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Blondies

Surprisingly, there only seem to be two recipes for these in general use. One based on an Emeril Lagasse recipe, and the one I used, found here, which I chose over the Emeril recipe because it melts a large proportion of the white chocolate into the cake batter. Some variations of this second recipe use more butter. I baked in an 8" square tin, and got a tray of blondies of a reasonable depth, which could be cut into 16 pieces.

The texture was much better than those of the Butterscotch Blondies which I made earlier in the week, but my Chief Tester thought they were lacking in any defined flavour, other than vanilla, and I think I agree with him. Even the macadamia nuts, although they added a good crunch to the texture, lost their flavour in the overwhelming vanilla blandness.

He much preferred the flavour of the Butterscotch Blondies, so I am now on a quest for something with the texture of these but the flavour of a blondie made with brown sugar. I may have to do some experimenting with amalgamated recipes, unless anyone has any suggestions.
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13 comments:

  1. Alicia Foodycat6 February 2010 at 18:19

    Maybe chop some chunks of vanilla fudge through it?

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  2. Choclette6 February 2010 at 19:16

    Hi Suelle. These certainly look good. Whilst I don't have a butterscotch brownie recipe, I have been really pleased with these two white chocolate brownie recipes. Chocolate Squares uses both white chocolate and dark chocolate which gave it more depth of flavour. It also used brown sugar.
    http://choclogblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/chocolate-squares.html
    The other one is a Nigella recipe.
    http://choclogblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/blondies.html

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  3. Suelle6 February 2010 at 19:51

    Thanks for the suggestions, Foodycat and Choclette.

    I was thinking brown sugar and white chocolate might give the right texture, and then add nuts and fudge chips as in the butterscotch blondie recipe.

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  4. Zeb7 February 2010 at 15:12

    I've been hoping for a blondie recipe and waiting lazily for you to to do the hard work, but can I offer to help you test recipes? I just had a look on Dan Lepard's site and found one from 2007 for banana blondies, I wonder if there are any clues to be gleaned there ? I don't seem to be able to paste a link in here but it's easy enough to find... all the best Jo

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  5. Snowy7 February 2010 at 15:45

    The blondies look so good too.
    I tried a Waitrose recipe for white chocolate, redcurrant and almond brownies and they were awful - really heavy and sickly, so they ended up with the birds!

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  6. Suelle7 February 2010 at 16:19

    Jo - Dan's recipe looked as if it relied on the bananas for texture. Unfortunately, I can't get the Chief Taster to eat bananas. I'm checking other blondie recipes, to find something that is somewhere between the two recipes I've tried.

    Snowy - these blondies are fine in both texture and taste. Definitely worth a try, especially if you like white chocolate. I think maybe our problem is that we all love dark chocolate, and these had little flavour in comparison.

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  7. Zeb7 February 2010 at 18:10

    Suelle - for the last hour I have been stirring three bars of white chocolate broken up into chunks in the oven on a low heat to create 'caramelised white chocolate'. David Lebovitz and many others have raved about it and indeed loved it. I thought that might be the answer. A toffee flavoured chocolate that would give you the texture and some more taste? But what have I discovered? It resembles nothing so much as Caramac! All that fuss and it's Caramac. It even catches at the back of your throat in exactly the same way as I remember when I ate it as a kid. Anyway I will make a batch of brownies and sub it for the chocolate and see what it comes out like and let you know. Now back to my sourdough :) Jo

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  8. Suelle7 February 2010 at 20:51

    That's very interesting, Jo, even if it did seem a waste of your time.

    I wondered whether Dulce de Leche could be used in brownie batter, but thought its softness would adversely affect the texture. Now reading what you've done, it's made me think that perhaps melting toffees or fudge in place of white chocolate would work.

    Do they still make Caramac?

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  9. Zeb7 February 2010 at 21:04

    I asked myself the same thing Suelle :) I think they do, though I haven't haunted the sweetie counters for a few years now.

    I don't think it was a complete waste of time, because it hardens up again once it cools, unlike Dulce de Leche, so it might just work in a bar of some sort. I was thinking of maybe putting some coffee in to offset the sweetness. But I am not very good at making up recipes so will have to find one and do substitutions I think. Celia has a lovely recipe for a cake with caramelised white chocolate on her blog by the way, but I haven't tried it yet....

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  10. Lucie7 February 2010 at 21:57

    Suelle - these look divine! Macademia nuts are so creamy, I am sure this is a wonderul combination.

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  11. Choclette8 February 2010 at 13:25

    Oh Caramac - that brings back memories - mainly of overwhelming sickly sweetness!

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  12. Suelle8 February 2010 at 13:29

    I forgot to look to see if Caramac is still available, when I went shopping.

    I'm giving this project a rest for my next bake, but will try Blondies soon with melted soft toffees.

    Any more suggestions still welcome, though!

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  13. Cynnamama5 March 2010 at 19:08

    I l.o.v.e. it!
    I posted your recipe in my blog and I'm hoping others will try it! Also, for them to leave comment here for you!
    Thanks, Suelle!

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