Brownies and Blondies - GBG Recipes

Ingredients:

• 125g Salted Butter
• 150g Caster Sugar
• 50g Honey, Treacle or Golden Syrup (all offer their own unique flavours)
• 2 Egg Yolks (Some egg white may need to be re-added to achieve a less-stiff mix, but only around a teaspoon)
• 1tsp Vanilla Extract
• 60g Plain Flour
• 50g Cocoa Powder
• Alongside the dry ingredients, add roughly 200g of mix-ins. Here are a few ideas: Almond slices, dark chocolate (or BAKING milk/white chocolate - most non-dark chocolates made for snacking typically don't melt and have a pretty poor texture post-oven), any leftover chocolate from easter (if it made it this far), toffee bits etc.....
• For Blondies: Instead of the cocoa powder, add ~65 more grams of flour (bringing the total to 125g or 1 cup). Then, add 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract in lieu of the single teaspoon - it tastes better. Finally, switch out the caster sugar 1:1 for light brown sugar for a more complex flavour.

Step-by-step Instructions:

1. Browning of butter can be done first, this is essential for some lovely caramel notes, it also has the added benefit of making your kitchen smell amazing. On a low heat, heat the butter until all the extra moisture is driven off, and the butter solids (the white bits) become brown. You'll know when it's done because it'll smell like caramel, just don't let the solids burn. After, add 1 tablespoon of water back to supplement all of the water that was driven off.
2. Whilst waiting for the butter to cool, now is a great time to prepare what you're baking it in, you ideally want to get it into the oven directly after mixing to avoid gluten allignment and a more cakey brownie/blondie. My favourite way of doing this would be to cut out a bottom of baking paper for your vessel, coat the bottom and sides with butter, and stick a baking paper bottom on (leaving the sides buttered).
3. When the butter is just slightly warm, mix it until combined with the sugar/honey or other syrup. Make sure this mix is not too hot and add egg yolks (don't want scrambled eggs). This should emulsify the butter and the syruppy mixture. At this point, add the vanilla extract and mix.
4. Now comes the dry stage, sieve flour and cocoa powder on top of the wet mix, but do not mix yet!! Add around half of your mix-ins directly into the flour/cocoa powder (this helps them stay suspended and prevents over-mixing).
5. With the mix fully prepared, quickly transfer the mix to your prepared vessel and add the other half of the mix-ins. Bake as specified above. Let cool adequately (it'll still be cooking out of the oven.) Store at room temperature in an airtight container, they're especially nice the day after. Enjoy!