Brown Butter Salted Caramel Blondies

Ingredients

Makes: 16

Time: 45 mins in total

For the blondies

 ·   175g Unsalted Butter, extra for greasing

·   125g Brown Sugar

·   2 Eggs

·   2 tsp Vanilla Extract

·   125g Plain flour

·   1 tsp Baking Powder

·   1/2 tsp Salt

·   150g good quality White Chocolate, roughly chopped into small pieces (I use Green and Blacks)

For the Salted Caramel

·      200g Caster Sugar

·      150ml Double Cream

·      1 tsp flaky sea salt

To Finish

·      1 tsp flaky sea salt

Instructions

1.     Grease and line a 8” x 8”, 9” x 9”, or 9” x 13” pan with parchment paper.

2.     Heat your oven to 180 °C // 160 °C (fan) // 4

3.     In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. As it starts to heat up, swirl the pan around often. Once it starts to bubble, let it deepen for 3-4 minutes. KEEP AN EYE ON IT – IT CAN QUICKLY BURN. You want the butter to turn a deep brown. The easiest way to do this is to hover over it and once it stops smelling like melted butter and smells like digestive biscuits, take it off the heat and you’re good to go

 4.     Add the brown sugar to the pan of brown butter. Stir it for a minute or so until the mixture is glossy and the brown sugar is dissolved into the butter.

5.      Let it cool for 15 minutes or so. It needs to be cooled before you add it to the eggs – if not, expect a mix of scrambled eggs and sugar.

6.      Mix the eggs and add the vanilla in a large bowl. Add the butter and sugar in to the eggs and vanilla and stir well.

7.      Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt.

8.      Finally, add your chocolate to the mix. Stir until just combined.

9.   Pour the batter into your pan, smooth the top with a spatula.

10.   Bake until the top is shiny and slightly cracked, approximately 22-28 minutes. You can also test it with a skewer or toothpick. If you insert either of these into the middle on a slanted angle, it should come out clean if the blondie is done, if it comes out with mixture on, pop them back in the oven.

11.   Whilst these are cooking, make a start on the caramel.

12.   In another medium saucepan, add the caster sugar. Place this over a medium/high heat. The sugar should start to melt and turn golden around the edges after a minute or two.

13.   Swirl your pan around from time to time BUT DO NOT STIR. You may also need to remove your pan from the heat every now and again, just so your sugar doesn’t burn. Make sure you do this until all of the sugar has dissolved into an amber syrup – you’re after the colour of maple syrup.

14.   Once you’ve reached this stage, turn off the heat. Add your double cream and stir it around. Put it back on a low heat and use a balloon whisk to combine the mix until it is smooth.

15.   Add the 1 tsp of salt and stir to combine. Leave it on the side until it is needed.

16.   Once the blondies are ready, remove them from the oven and let cool on a wire rack in their tins. Once they have cooled, remove them from their tins and cut into squares, you should get about 16.

17. If the caramel has solidified, get it back on a medium heat in the pan and heat through until it is a little runnier. Skip this step if your caramel is able to be swirled around the pan slowly.

18. Pour your caramel over your blondies in an even layer, finish by sprinkling the last 1tsp of sea salt over the blondies.