Tuesday, July 4, 2017

White chocolate and lemon blondies

White chocolate and lemon blondies / Blondies de chocolate branco e limão siciliano

Back in the days when I was still dreaming of writing a book I remember telling my husband that I intended to add as many citrus recipes to it as possible, and had all types of ideas for lemon baked goods and desserts – the thought of the fruit makes my mouth water already.

However, every time I went to the grocery store the price of the lemons made me cringe, and I would go back home empty handed. I was unemployed then, so I went from wanting a book filled with lemon recipes to choosing very wisely which recipes to use the fruit in. :(

That is one of the reasons why I am so proud of these blondies: they are delicious, perfumed with lemon and the tart flavor of the fruit goes really well with the sweetness of the white chocolate. The lemons were expensive, but it was worth spending that money to make something so tasty (not to mention easy): the blondies were gone very fast in each of the three times I made them.

White chocolate and lemon blondies
own recipe

¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar
finely grated zest of 2 lemons
2 ½ tablespoons (35g) unsalted butter, room temperature
200g white chocolate, chopped – divided use
1 large egg
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup (105g) all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Lightly butter a square 20cm (8in) baking pan, line it with foil leaving an overhang on two opposite sides and butter the foil as well.

In a small bowl, rub together with your fingertips the sugar and the lemon zest until sugar is fragrant. Set aside.
In a large bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water (do not let the bottom of the bowl touch the water) combine 150g of the chocolate and the butter, stirring until they are both melted. Remove from the heat and cool slightly.
Whisk in the sugar, followed by the egg and vanilla. With a rubber spatula, fold in the flour, baking powder and salt. Fold in the remaining 50g white chocolate.

Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs. Cool completely in the pan over a wire rack before cutting into squares to serve.

Makes 16


4 comments:

  1. Hi! I just wanted to double check that the recipe uses only the zest from the lemons, not the juice, yes

    Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Susan - that is correct, just the zest. You are welcome!

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJuly 22, 2017

    Hi Patricia,

    I made these today and they are wonderful. The flavors (lemon, white chocolate, butter) are perfectly balanced so you taste them all and they compliment each other beautifully. I used Meyer lemons from our garden. I used the lemon juice to make ginger lemonade.

    Thank you very much for sharing this scrumptious recipe.

    Yours,

    Ellen

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dear Ellen,

    Two Brazilian readers have written to me to tell me that they have made these and loved the result. I am a sucker for white chocolate and citrus, so I am happy to hear there are more people enjoying the blondies. I bet these were extra special with the Meyer lemons!

    xx

    ReplyDelete

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