These amazing blondies are packed with the flavor of white chocolate, caramel, and banana, and are exactly as good as they sound!
Every time I get a new cookbook, the first thing I do is go through the recipe index entirely and mark the recipes with my favorite ingredients: bananas, hazelnuts, chocolate, caramel, and peanut butter. So when I saw this recipe on Dan Lepard’s book Short and Sweet, which had ALL those ingredients (except peanut butter), it took me 5 minutes to get to the kitchen and start baking.
One bite and I fell in love. These are probably the most delicious blondies I’ve ever eaten. They are on the sweet side, so they’re mostly for those with an active sweet tooth, but still every single person who tried them said they were amazing.
Caramel
One thing that’s worth mentioning is that the recipe starts with caramelizing nuts. You can read my caramel guide here, or if you haven’t made caramel before and want to skip that part that’s perfectly fine too. You can use store-bought candied nuts or just use regular nuts instead. If you don’t like desserts that are too sweet, the latter might be a better option for you anyway.
Banana and White Chocolate Blondies
Ingredients
Caramelized Nuts (optional):
- ⅓ cup (70 g/2.5 oz) granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons water
- ½ cup hazelnuts
Blondies:
- 200 g/7 oz white chocolate
- ½ cup (113 g/4 oz) unsalted butter
- 1 cup (200 g/7 oz) granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 bananas , peeled and chopped into small pieces
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups (200 g/7 oz) all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
Instructions
-
Note: If you prefer to not make your own caramel, skip to the next step of making the brownies. You can add ½ cup chopped candied or regular nuts into the batter instead.
-
Make the caramelized nuts: In a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan heat sugar and water over medium heat. Let the mixture bubble away until the sugar turns into reddish, golden caramel and reaches 250F/120C. Swirl and shake the pan occasionally (but not too much as this encourages clumping) to cook evenly and prevent the caramel at the edges from burning. Stir in the nuts, and immediately spread onto a tray lined with parchment paper. Allow to cool, then chop finely.
-
Make the blondies: Line the base and sides of an 8-inch/20cm square pan with foil and preheat the oven to 375F/190C. In a medium heat-proof bowl, place white chocolate and butter. Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and stir occasionally until chocolate and butter have melted. Transfer mixture to a large bowl. Add sugar and mix to combine. Add egg, bananas, and vanilla and mix until smooth. Sift flour and baking powder, then fold just until combined. Fold in chopped nuts. Spoon into pan and bake for 30-35 minutes, until wobbly-set and golden on top. Allow to cool completely before slicing.
Recipe is adapted from Dan Lepard’s book Short and Sweet. Note that I did make some adaptions to the source recipe.
