Blonde?

Hello everyone, and welcome back again! I can't believe it's been an entire week already, it feels like I only just posted last week's post. I can't believe it's February, where did January even go?! Didn't we only just have New Year's Eve!? Anyway, this week, we're gonna be taking it nice and easy as last week's post was a pretty hefty one (for you and me both!) so this post is going to be a nice little step by step recipe. I really enjoy baking, if that hasn't already been made evident from the other couple of cooking-based blog posts, but one of my new favourite things to do is to pretend I know what I'm doing and attempt (key word here is attempt, you'll see in a minute) to take really profesh looking photographs of baking and (most of the time) the scrummy yummy baked goods. (I say most of the time as like most, or probably more than most, I have had my fair share of not so scrummy baking experiments gone wrong...) This week, my baked good of choice was to try out making blondies, which are basically white chocolate brownies, or sponge cakey squares with white chocolate in them. Why, I hear you cry, would I choose to make something less chocolatey?? Fear not, I haven't lost my mind just yet (not totally, anyway), I made a sort of brownie blondie mix. The 'cake' itself was blondie-flavour (I really need to learn some actual baking terminology if I'm going to blog like I know what I'm talking about, don't I?) but I added lots and lots of milk, white and dark chocolate to the mix itself, instead of the suggested (pitiful) handful of white choc chips the recipe I was (loosely) following suggested. So, if you'd like to learn how to make these scrummy yummy tummy-filling blondies, come with me, and you'll seeeee... a land of pure imagination... Step 1. Ready all your bits and bobs. I'm a lazy baker, so I used my lovely Kenwood bowl and mixer, so I set that up with the whisky attachment. I also dug my weighing scales out from the back of that cupboard/drawer we all have (or maybe it's just me), the one with all those random plastic tubs with no matching lids and some assorted plastic jugs and the like. A few bowls and spoons, the square baking tin-tray-thing (20cm square is recommended) and some grease-proof parchment, and we're ready to go! Oh, also, maybe pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees (fan ovens) at this point (I always always forget to do this, and usually remember halfway through the actual baking process and whack it on at 40 degrees higher than it needs to be before turning it down again later on, which I know is definitely a big no-no, so learn from me, don't do that!) Step 2. Weigh your ingredients! Firstly, you'll need 225 grams (ish, I used 227g and nothing terrible happened) of (mostly) light brown muscavado sugar (I didn't have enough left so used caster sugar to make up the rest, and again, nothing terrible happened), and 115 grams of butter, softened. Top tip from me - weigh your sugar first, put it into your mixing bowl, then weigh your butter, and that way the sugar doesn't stick the butter remnants in the weighing bowl!

(See what I meant about not being a pro photographer? I tried and that's what counts!) Combine the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. It is at this point I would also like to remind anyone like myself to turn your oven on/turn it down to the correct temp.

(This one however, made me feel like a pro. Look at that focus, oh yeah... )

Step 3.

Next up are eggs and flour. You'll need two large eggs, and 150 grams of plain flour. I put the eggs in a mug, whisked them with a fork, and added them slowly to my butter-sugar mix (wonder if there's a baking term for that?) whilst the mixer was mixing slowly.

Once the eggs have been added, the flour can be sieved in. It's important to make sure the eggs don't curdle the mixture however, and this looks like you've tipped a handful of sand into your mixture. If this happens whilst adding the eggs, add some flour in before adding more eggs, and it should hopefully sort it all out like magic. To prevent it from happening in the first place, just make sure you add your eggs nice and slowly.

Step 4. Add a teeensy drop of vanilla extract. I added about half a cap-full and found this to be every so slightly too much, so a few drops should be sufficient.

Mix it on in, and then it's time for my favourite bit. (Who can guess what that is?)

Step 5. CHOCOLATE TIME! Of course my favourite part is the bit where I get to (eat) add the choccy chips! Now, the recipe recommends a measly 85g of white choccy chips, but personally, I recommend 85g of milk chocolate chips and 85g of white chocolate chips and a small sprinkling of dark chocolate chips. Now, when I say chocolate chips, I actually mean chocolate chunks, as I just bought some cheap blocks of chocolate and then chopped them up. I put about half of the choc into the mixture itself and stirred it in, and kept the remaining pieces to sprinkle on the top of the mix once it's been poured into the grease-proof paper lined baking tin.

Step 6. Pop 'em in the oven, for 20-22 minutes, or until a nice goldy brown colour on top. It's at this stage I like to lick spoons and eat chocolate crumbs from the chopping board, whilst tidying and cleaning to some good music (recommended album of the week/month/ever is the La La Land soundtrack...). Even cleaning is fun if you get to eat chocolate whilst you're doing it! Once 20 minutes have whizzed by and you've burned some calories boogying, check to see how your little blonde pals are doing. Mine were done after 20 mins so I left them to cool whilst I finished tidying, and then cut them and tucked in whilst they were still a bit warm.

They're not winning any prizes for prettiest pudding, but damn, they taste nice. (And they make the perfect-non-rustly-cheeky-sneaky cinema snack when you go to see La La Land...again...)

I hope you enjoyed this week's post, but more importantly, I hope you enjoyed your delicious blondies! Catch ya next week, Rachel x