Recipes

People too shit? Feel a lot better guaranteed!

Ok ok I know I can’t guarantee making you feel better as everyone is different. For me because I love baking and love eating when people are too shit the way I feel a lot better is baking something sweet and squidgy and comforting. I have a few go tos but the one I’m going to share with you today is both easy, relatively quick and customisable to be gluten free if you or your loved ones need to avoid it.

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Ingredients

6oz/170g Plain Flour. You can sub gluten free if needed. 

GF only heaped half teaspoon of xanthan gum

1 teaspoon baking powder. GF if needed

6oz/170g Light Brown Sugar

3oz/85g Caster Sugar

1 large free range egg

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

6oz/170g white chocolate chunks

6oz/170g raspberries. I use frozen but fresh is fine

Notes

1. You might need to experiment with the amount of xanthan gum because depending on the brand you use different amounts may be needed. This amount gets the right consistency for me but play around to get it as you want
2. Please, please, please invest in decent vanilla extract because it makes such a difference to the taste. I use Nielsen-Massey but see what you can find.
3. Raspberries. If you want to just fresh it’s fine but be careful mixing them through to not break them up too much. I use frozen straight from the freezer. This does almost freeze the batter and makes it hard to stir. I use a free standing mixer so it’s not an issue but you can do it by hand with a bit of elbow grease!
4. Its much easier for this and a lot of recipes if you invest in some silicon bakeware but if you don’t have any just make sure to grease your tin well.

Method

Preheat your oven to 190°C/170° fan/Gas Mark 5

If not using a silicon tin grease and line the base of your tin. Brushing with oil is easier but rubbing a knob of butter over it is fine too. For this recipe I use a 9 inch/23 cm square tin.

Add the butter and both sugars into a bowl/mixer and beat til nice and creamy

Add the egg and the vanilla and continue to beat til smooth

Add the flour, baking powder and xanthan gum, if using, and mix til fully incorporated 

Stir in the white chocolate chunks and then raspberries. (If doing by hand enjoy the bonus arm workout 😉 )

Pour into a square tin and smooth out. If using frozen raspberries you’ll need to press this out and smooth with a knife.

Bake for around 45-50 mins. You want the blondies to be set but still beautifully soft and a little gooey.

Leave to cool a little and then cut into squares. I usually get 16 out of mine but it’s your choice how big you want the pieces to be. You can enjoy these warm with ice cream or just a cuppa or wait til cool when they firm up a little. They’ll keep fine for 2 or 3 days in an airtight container.

These blondies taste wonderfully creamy due to the vanilla and white chocolate but are stopped from being too rich by the sharpness of the raspberries cutting through. The brown sugar gives a slightly toffee-ish feel and the smell that spreads through the house as these beauties are baking is almost like being wrapped in a comfort blanket. It is for me anyway! See now why i said it’d make you feel a lot better?

Thank You!

Thank you so much for stopping by. If you have any comments or feedback please let me know in the comments. If you like what I’m doing and don’t want to miss a thing the you can subscribe at the right of the page 🙂

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