Brownies are probably one of the most popular sweet treats around but I’ve always found them to be the opposite of what I expect and want. They are dry and crumbly when they should be moist and gooey, and dark and bitter when they should be sweet and chocolatey. I can honestly say I had never heard of a blondie but heard them mentioned on a baking show I was watching and had to Google what they were. I was surprised to discover that they were around before brownies.
I decided to have a crack at making some but then came the question of flavours. So many ideas came to mind but there was really only one I had the bits for. As I’m sure you’ve gathered if you’ve been reading for a while, I am a great lover of berry and lemon combos so it was the obvious choice. And what could make raspberry and lemon even better? Some of the meringues I had leftover from a few days before!
The next question was how on earth to get raspberries into the blondies without losing them completely. It took a few failed attempts of trying to incorporate them into the batter before inspiration struck and I came up with the idea of the puree swirl on top. It took a few more tries to get the raspberry/lemon balance perfect but we got there in the end.
You might want to go easy if you’re watching the scales as these are definitely not diet friendly (although to be fair they do have one of your 5-a-day in!). They are very sweet but this balances nicely with the fresh raspberry puree and the lemon flavouring – you can omit the meringue if you wanted them a little less sweet and they are still delicious! They also keep well in an airtight container for up to 3 days if they last that long!
I make the blondies in an 8 inch/20cm brownie tin – lined with baking paper up the sides. As you see in the pictures below, if you draw around the base of your brownie tin and then extend the lines out and cut out the corner squares, you can literally lift the blondie out when you are ready to cool it – it’s a really good trick that just makes life so much easier!
I’m planning to test some variations on these over the next few weeks so you may well see more blondie recipes appear in the not-too-distant future– they worked so well it seems a bit rude not to at least try some other flavours!
So let me know what you thought via the comments or by using the Contact Me form or tag me in pictures of your swirly whirly blondies on social media! Enjoy DDx!
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Raspberry and lemon meringue blondies
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 16 1x
Description
Lemon blondies with meringue pieces and a fresh raspberry puree swirled over the top
Ingredients
- 120 g white cooking chocolate
- 120 g unsalted butter, softened
- 100 g caster sugar, plus an extra 1 teaspoon for the raspberries
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons lemon extract
- A pinch of salt
- 125 g self raising flour
- 150 g raspberries
- 2 meringue nests, crumbled into large pieces
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180℃/ fan 160℃ / 350℉. Line a 20cm (8 inch) brownie tin with baking paper – line the bottom and up the sides to help you get them out at the end.
- Put the raspberries and 1 teaspoon caster sugar in the food processor and blend to a puree. Put the puree through a fine mesh sieve and set aside for a moment.
- Put the white chocolate and the butter into a large heatproof bowl and place over a pan of gently boiling water. Stir constantly until melted and then remove from the heat.
- Add the caster sugar and eggs and mix.
- Add the flour, lemon extract and salt and mix until you have a smooth blondie batter. Gently fold in the crumbled meringue pieces
- Pour the blondie mix into the prepared tin and gently move around to even out the mix in the tin.
- Use a teaspoon to drop small blobs of the raspberry puree evenly over the surface of the batter and use a skewer or toothpick to swirl it through creating a pattern.
- Bake for 30 minutes until lightly golden and there is no wobble to the cake.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
