Brazil Banana Blondies
Ingredients
- 100 g Brazil nuts
- 100 g Caster sugar
- 100 g Unsalted butter
- 200 g White chocolate chips / drops or chopped up white chocolate
- 200 g Light brown sugar (normal or muscovado)
- 1 Egg
- 1-2 tsp Vanilla paste / vanilla extract (optional)
- 2 Ripe bananas (even over ripe are fine)
- 200 g Plain white flour (or ½ plain, ½ spelt / wholemeal)
- ¼ tsp Baking powder
- A little sunflower / vegetable oil (for greasing the baking tray)
Accompaniment
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Description
Really gooey when warm, fudgy when cold, with the surprise of crunchy bits of Brazil nut toffee. A great way of using up brown bananas!
Method
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1
To make the Brazil nut toffee, roughly chop the nuts. You can do this by hand with a sharp knife, or put them in a bag and bash them with a rolling pin.Or use a food processor / mini chopper.
Lightly grease a small baking tray with a little oil.
Put the caster sugar in a small saucepan with 2 tbsp cold water over a medium heat. Let it come to the boil, without stirring, and leave it to bubble until it turns a caramel colour. This will probably take 3 or 4 minutes. Take a teaspoon and drop a little into a glass of cold water - if it sets hard immediately, it is ready. Take off the heat. Add the chopped Brazil nuts immediately and stir to coat well, then tip onto the greased tray. Leave to cool completely (at least a couple of hours).
When set hard, and completely cold, chop up into little pieces. Again, this can be done by hand or with a machine*.
To make the blondies, heat the oven to 180 degrees C. Line a 20cm square tin with baking parchment.
Put the butter and half of the white chocolate in a saucepan over a medium heat and melt together, stirring until smooth. Roughly mash the bananas with a fork (does not need to be a puree - some chunky bits are fine). Tip the melted butter and chocolate into a bowl and leave to cool for a minute, then add the brown sugar, egg, vanilla (if using) and mashed bananas. Stir well with a wooden spoon, sift in the flour and baking powder, and fold in, along with the rest of the white chocolate, and the Brazil nut toffee bits.
Spoon into the prepared tin and bake for 35 to 40 minutes.
Leave to cool in the tin for at least 20 minutes, if serving warm. Otherwise, leave it to cool completely. Cut into 12-16 squares.
They will keep well for a few days in an airtight tin.
Chef's Tips
You can make the Brazil nut toffee in advance and keep in a jar until needed.
If using a food processor / mini chopper, the pieces will be much finer. If you want your blondies to have larger chunks of nuts, do this by hand. Both ways give a great result.
Can also be served warm as a pudding, with toffee sauce and / or cream / ice cream (again, leave for 20 minutes before cutting, or it will be too gooey!).
These freeze well, and even taste great frozen! (I put mine in a plastic lidded box, separated with little bits of baking paper).
I tested freezing these as I had heard others say that brownies and blondies freeze well. It was a success. I tasted one straight from the freezer (another tip I had heard) and it was great! I will certainly freeze things like this again in the future, if I have any spares (but that is rare for me!).