August 12, 2016
This weekend was one of the first weekends in a while that we haven’t had visitors. I love having visits from family and friends and showing them around Melbourne, but I want to show them so much that I end up not really relaxing, and starting the workweek a little bit exhausted! Totally worth it for having people to share my new city with, but sometimes it is nice after all the sight seeing to have a quiet weekend.
So I did have a quiet weekend, and got a lot of the chores done that I’d been putting off. But then I realised that there was something that I hadn’t done in a long time and was missing in my life: baking. I know I posted a recipe for cookies last week, but those were ones that I tried quite some time ago.
You all know how much I love to bake, and when I thought back I couldn’t remember the last time I had done it! I realised that this was something that I needed to fix stat, and so I decided to put down the ajax and paper towel, and give myself some time to do what I love.
There is something about baking that is incredibly therapeutic and relaxing to me. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is, whether it is the satisfaction of bringing ingredients together, the time spent out from usual tasks to yourself, or just that you get something delicious at the end. It is one of my favourite things to do, other than eating of course, and so when I realised that I hadn’t done it for quite some time, I figured it was the perfect weekend for it!
For some reason we’ve ended up with a surplus of apples in our apartment, we just aren’t eating them fast enough. So I decided that it would be a perfect opportunity to cook with apples and make something delicious out of them. I love the flavours that come with baking with apples; the recipes that lend themselves to this always remind me of winter, including cinnamon and Nutmeg, brown sugar and crumbly deliciousness.
I decided to try a winter take on a blondie. For those of you who look at me with a blank stare when I say blondie, this is like a brownie without the chocolate. I know what you are thinking: who wants a brownie without chocolate? Well I’m telling you now, I am a convert to this way new type of baking. It is absolutely delicious, and you still get that great, gooey brownie texture. What more could you want? The flavours in these blondies reminded me of apple crumble, something that I always want to eat, but get sad about having to eat straight away. This recipe solves that problem by allowing you to enjoy that apple crumble flavour for days after baking, if you can wait that long!
- 116 grams of unsalted butter melted and cooled slightly
- 2 medium sized apples I used one granny smith and one royal gala, peeled, cored and diced into small chunks
- 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
- ½ cup of brown sugar
- ½ cup of caster sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
- ½ teaspoon of baking powder
- pinch of salt
- ½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon of ground nutmeg
- 1 and a ¼ cups of plain flour
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Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit) and line a baking tin with baking paper (I had to use a cake tin because I realised we don’t actually have a brownie tin at home! Guess I know what I’m purchasing this week).
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Place the apple chunks in a medium bowl and pour the lemon juice, tossing to coat evenly. Set aside.
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In a large bowl, whisk the brown sugar, caster sugar, egg and vanilla extract until combined and smooth.
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Gradually pour in the cooled, melted butter and whisk as you do so, until the mixture is pale and smooth.
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Add the baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg to the bowl. Before you add the flour in, remove 2 tablespoons and add to the apple mixture, tossing to coat evenly. Leave these to one side, and add the remaining flour to the batter mixture, stirring until thick and completely combined.
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Add the coated apples to the blondie mixture and fold with a wooden spoon until all apples are coated completely and evenly distributed.
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Tip the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the top with the wooden spoon.
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Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes, or until the edges are lightly brown and the centre is pale. Check that it is cooked through with a skewer inserted into the centre. This should come out clean.
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Leave to cool in the pan for about 1 hour, and then transfer to a chopping board to cool completely. Once they are completely cool, slice into about 12 pieces, depending on how big you want them, and store in an airtight container.
And that’s really all there is to it. I am a huge fan of a recipe where I don’t need to beat butter and sugar together to cream it, and this recipe was so easy in that regard. You just dumped all the ingredients in and mixed them together, and hey presto! You have amazing blondies.
These apple blondies were absolutely delicious, and went down a treat at work. Who doesn’t love a sweet treat to start their week with? They were very popular, and everyone loved how much the flavours reminded them of apple crumble. I had a couple of people go back for seconds or thirds, which is always a good sign of a bake well done!
These blondies are the perfect consistency, and even though I hate the word, the apple made them perfectly moist. Plus, they have apple in them, so that makes them totally healthy, right? I’m gonna stick with that anyway!
What a perfect Sunday afternoon activity. It made me realise that I need to make more time in my week for doing things that I love, and the simple act of baking is one of those things.
Until next time, happy eating!
Ella xx
