White Chocolate Lemon Blondies

So here it is, my very first post!

How exciting - hard work though I must admit! Unlike so many other blogs out there I didn’t use the prefabricated ones. I honestly just wasn’t satisfied with their layouts or design, and I felt limited by not being able to move things freely around the page - I was stuck, so to speak, so instead I opted for the crafty-do-it-yourself iWeb version!

Ah iWeb, ah iLife for that matter - everything just seems so much simpler with a mac and iLife is a must have to fully equip your mac. Ok, Im rambling - I’m zzzhausted! I never have enough time during the day to play with my lovely new blog, so Im always up late at night, well early in the morning, sacrificing sleep for my precious baby blog. So rather than write any more I’m going to turn my attention to creating the conversions page, where (soon) you will be able to find all those handy little kitchen conversions you always need and can never find!! (happens all too often I find!)

Right well, for my first recipe I thought I would feature something I had on hand. I made these blondies - or white chocolate brownies if you like, for a bake sale. You see I LOVE brownies, I mean I could eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner - which I have on several occasions! Dark, dense, fudgy, chocolate brownies - nothing could come close to a perfect bite of brownie, especially the corner pieces!(my personal favourite, though this does result in a very odd looking brownie - no corners... oh well, I don’t feel too sorry!) Well back to the blondies. As much as I love brownies I felt I needed a change, and since I had never had a blondie (which I was told was a serious offense!) I decided this was the perfect opportunity. So, after searching high and low I found this recipe, however originally it called for lime zest - which I was clear out of, so I substituted it for lemon zest. It gave them a nice lift, a nice clean flavour because white chocolate can sometimes be just too sweet. Anyways, for my first attempt I would have to say that these were particularly successful. They were a little more cakey than a normal brownies, but more dense than a cake - sweeter too. Right well here it is, White Chocolate Lemon Blondies.

adapted from Epicurious.com

6 tablespoons butter, room temperature

155 grams white chocolate, chopped (reserve 30 grams)

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 eggs

1 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon lemon zest

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350℉. Line a 9-inch x 9-inch baking pan with parchment paper, letting it hang slightly over the sides.

Melt together butter and 125 grams of white chocolate. Combine flour, baking powder and salt, set aside. In an electric mixer, beat eggs, sugar, lemon zest and vanilla until nice and fluffly - roughly 2 minutes. Fold in white chocolate mixture in batches until smooth. Follow by folding in dry ingredients and mix in remaining 30 grams of chopped white chocolate. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in the centre of the oven for 35 minutes, or until golden brown.