Wednesday, January 9, 2013

White chocolate and macadamia bars

White chocolate and macadamia bars / Barrinhas de chocolate branco e macadâmia

Great songs are everywhere to be found, don’t you think? As I was trying on some shoes a couple of weeks ago when a song playing at the store caught my attention – I reached for my phone and Shazam showed me that it was “Boy”, by Ra Ra Riot, which is a band I’d never heard of; I just love discovering things this way – it’s the kind of simple thing that makes my days ever better.
I feel that great recipes are just the same – as much as I try to use my books constantly, I keep my eyes open because one never knows where the next tasty treat might come from – in this case, these delicious and ridiculously simple to make bars come from the Australian Women Weekly’s website.

A quick note before the recipe: I still haven’t heard from all the giveaway winners, and I have to send the info to Zinio as soon as possible – please, send me the info by email urgently or unfortunately you’ll no longer receive your digital magazine subscription.

White chocolate and macadamia bars
slightly adapted from here

½ cup + 1 tablespoon (127g) unsalted butter, room temperature, chopped coarsely
180g white chocolate, finely chopped
½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups (210g) all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
¾ cup (105g) unsalted roasted macadamias, coarsely chopped*
150g white chocolate, extra, in chips or chunks

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Lightly butter a 20x30cm (8x12in) pan, line it with foil, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides, then butter the foil as well.
Combine butter and chocolate (180g) in a medium saucepan; stir over low heat until smooth. Cool for 10 minutes.
Stir in sugar, eggs and vanilla until smooth. Sift flour, baking powder and salt over batter and mix to combine. Mix in the macadamias and chocolate chips/chunks. Spread batter into prepared pan. Bake for about 30 minutes or until set and golden around the edges. Cool completely in the pan over a wire rack. Cut into bars to serve.

* the macadamias I had at home were salted, so I rinsed them in cold water and dried them in paper towels before using; I also omitted the pinch of salt from the recipe

Makes 20

11 comments:

  1. I love the flavor of these bars! Perfectly indulgent with the white chocolate and macadamias!

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  2. It's Ra Ra Riot, haha, but yeah, they're awesome. If you like them, check out Matt and Kim.

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  3. Amy, I don't know what I was thinking while typing this text - corrected! Thanks a bunch! xx

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  4. I love all of your recipes, and was going to ask you "what books do you recommend?", then I saw the Books list at the top!

    But now I will ask - what are your favourite books? I really love baking cake, the best.

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  5. Patricia I love your photos and recipes.Loves from İstanbul..Nutshell

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  6. Laurie, thank you!
    My favorite books are here:
    http://technicolorkitcheninenglish.blogspot.com.br/2012/03/macadamia-crunch-ice-cream-my-favorite.html
    But please add to that "How do Bake", by Paul Hollywood, "Cake", by Rachel Allen, "Vintage Cakes", by Julie Richardson and "Good Things to Eat", by Lucas Hollweg.

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  7. Thank you! I ended up doing the order before I read this, but I bought Heatter's "Cakes" and am hoping it turns out fantastic. I have written these down for future reference.

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  8. Amy, these came out delicious but they came out kinda dry, well as my father told me, I think they are good. Are they supposed to be like that or are they supposed to be like chewy and moist? And if so what can I do to make that happen? Thank you :)

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  9. Hey - they are not as gooey as blondies, but you can get that texture by underbaking the bars.
    Cheers!

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  10. Yeah I was wondering about the texture thank you!!! I will try that next time I make it because I followed the directions and it did seen kinda overcooked!

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