Boozy blondies – toffee-textured; whisky-laced – to raise the spirits

In my day job, and in normal life, regular readers will know that I travel up to Lincoln about every six weeks, taking with me a variety of baked goodies, unashamedly using my colleagues there as, albeit willing, guinea pigs.
Obviously, in this Covid year, all that travelling has had to cease; but we finally made it back shortly before Christmas, and we took these whisky-laced blondies to boost their spirits.
If you want to add a flourish to these blondies, you could add a little tahini.
The ones around the edge tends to be best…. cook’s perks!
Recipe for boozy blondies – toffee-textured; whisky-laced
Ingredients
- 200g/four-fifths of a brick/7 oz butter
- 200g/1 cup golden caster sugar
- 200g/1 cup soft dark brown sugar aka muscovado sugar
- 2 tbsps whisky
- 1 tsp vanilla paste
- 2 eggs
- 250g/2 cups rye flour
- 150g/5 oz white chocolate, chopped small
- 2 tsp Maldon salt flakes
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C. Butter a roasting tin approximately 20 cm/8” x 30 cm/12”.
- Gently melt the butter in a large saucepan. Get it foaming and then retreating back into itself (this evaporates any water in the butter). Then it will begin to turn darker, becoming golden brown. Take care, you don’t want it to burn.
- Add the golden caster sugar first, stir in, then add the soft brown sugar. Use an electric whisk to mix and dissolve the sugar and simmer for a couple of minutes. Add the whisky and the vanilla paste and whisk again until glossy.
- Take off the heat and leave to cool for a few minutes.
- Break in both the eggs and whisk again, until they are completely incorporated into the sugar and butter.
- Then, carefully, whisk in the flour.
- Stir through the white chocolate.
- Bake for 25 minutes. You can leave them in the tin (covered in foil) – they become fudgy.
For an alternative blondie recipe, try Precocious Pink and Whities.