White Chocolate and Hazelnut Blondies

My Mum used to make these for me many moons ago because we are both white chocolate lovers! We love a good sweet treat. In fact, we once spent all day making a banoffee pie, then one of us (I think me) dropped it on the floor while trying to get it out of the fridge…we looked at each other, grabbed a couple of forks and sat on the kitchen floor and ate it! Maybe I should make a banoffee pie next…anyway, here are our white chocolate and hazelnut blondies.

INGREDIENTS

500g white chocolate
75g butter
3 eggs
175g caster sugar
175g self raising flour
pinch of salt
100g hazelnuts, roughly chopped
1 tsp vanilla essence

EQUIPMENT

9 inch square tin
Greaseproof paper
Small saucepan
Pyrex bowl

METHOD

Pre-heat your oven to 170 degrees C/325 degrees F/gas mark 3.

Line a 9 inch square tin with baking paper, or grease with butter.

Roughly chop 400g of the white chocolate and set aside. Break up the remaining chocolate and put into a heatproof bowl with the butter. Melt over a pan of simmering water (the bowl should not touch the water), then leave to cool slightly.

Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a large bowl until smooth, then gradually beat in the melted chocolate mixture. Sift the flour and salt over the mixture, then fold in the chopped hazelnuts, remaining chocolate and vanilla essence.

Tip the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake for 30 minutes until risen and golden. The mixture will still be soft under the crust, it will firm up as it cools. Leave to cool in the tin and then cut into 9/12 squares. I cut mine into 9 but they're quite rich!