Blondies

Since I made brownies yesterday, it seems only natural that I should make blondies today.  Also from Nigella's newest book, Kitchen, and just as simple as the brownie recipe.

These are slightly more nutritious - with a large amount of whole oats and some dark chocolate - and have a pleasingly chewy, substantial quality to them which makes you feel as though you are eating something more virtuous than a slab of chocolate goo (delicious though the goo may be).

Blondies - adapted from Nigella Lawson's Kitchen

200g rolled oats (not the instant kind - I use Carmen's for preference)

100g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

150g soft butter

100g brown sugar

397g tin of condensed milk

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 egg

180g dark chocolate chips

Also - next time, I'll be adding a small handful of chopped nuts, such as walnuts or pecans

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, and line a cake tin (bottom and sides) with foil or baking paper.  The cake tin ought to be 23cm square or 30x20cm, according to the recipe, however I used the first one I found in the drawer, which was roughly 23cmx33cm - as such, the blondies I made were a little flatter than those illustrated in the book, but no matter.

Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy, then beat in the condensed milk, then add (combined together) the oats, flour and bicarbonate of soda.  Beat in.

When the mixture is thoroughly combined, beat in the egg and the vanilla, then fold in the chocolate chips (and nuts if you use them).

Spread this thick, lumpy mixture into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with a spatula, and bake for around 35 minutes.  When done, the blondie will be quite dark golden brown on top - almost 'too dark' - and the edges will have started to shrink away from the sides of the tin.  It should feel cooked on the top, but you will still have a sense that it is quite 'frighteningly squidgy' underneath.

Remove to a cooling rack, and, once quite cool (or at least just warm-ish), cut into 16 - 24 squares (depending on the size of your tin).  Below, you can see most of the slab on the cooling rack, which will give you an idea of the colour you are looking for on the top:

I imagine this will keep quite well - Nigella suggests five days - in a tin.  Though I don't know about you, but I have never seen baked goods hang around the house for more than a few days.  I eat some, The Daddy eats a lot, and the rest get happily snapped up by various people - The Daddy's work colleagues, my mothers' group, my local Australian Breastfeeding Association, my parents, or whichever friend happens to stop by.