So I got Ash to finally go to sleep bless him. My plan was to completely tire him out with an hour of playtime this morning chasing string just never gets old apparently. Adorable as he is, there is nothing I like better than to bake during the day and I’m sure Ash will appreciate that day that I cook some marvellous salmon fish cakes.
‘Blondies’ never fail to make me laugh really, mostly because of their name and the fact that I can’t stop singing Heart of Glass with food puns whenever someone offers me one. Naturally I’ve named this recipe after the Blondie song ‘Picture This’–How could I not? It’s from the 80’s.
I’ve never baked them before. Until I’d seen a raspberry and white chocolate version online; I was tempted to use my last store cupboard cranberries for something different.
The recipe has taken a few attempts to perfect however I added cardamom into the equation. My fiancé has always been a big fan of making and eating curries, and due to my sensitive IBS I have never been able to try cardamom in a dish. An English cook, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (who’s River Cottage programmes I adore) made a fragrant yummy cardamom cake, which conclusively triggered the train of thought to try it delicately in something sweeter.
These Blondies were the perfect solution, the cranberries are sharp and chewy and the chocolate is intense and rich in that chewy cookie cardamom base. In my heart of hearts though, I could not resist dribbling on more chocolate to mimic a brownie, but alas my conversion to these is well underway.
Enjoy with a cup of strong coffee.
‘Picture this’ – cardamom and cranberry , chocolate blondies’
[Substitution notes: You can substitute both the sorghum flour and buckwheat for an all-purpose Gluten free flour blend, or indeed with regular flour if you can handle wheat. Other good alternatives would be millet, quinoa flour, almond flour. The one I’ve chose works best flavour wise with the cardamom as it’s quite earthy and strong and of course, healthier. Feel free to substitute the butter for oil]
Unsalted Butter – 5 tbsp 70g(melted)
Dark Brown Sugar – 3/4 cup (120g)
Eggs – 2
Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp
Ground cardamom (I ground my own with a pestle and mortar)- around 11 pods worth
Sorghum Flour – 1/2 cup (75g)
Buckwheat Flour – 1/2 cup (75g)
Teaspoon of Xanthan gum
Half a teaspoon of baking powder
A handful of Dried cranberries (roughly chopped)
Very dark chocolate – 1/2 cup (50g) chopped into decent chunks
½ teaspoon of sea salt
170 degrees preheat oven.
Grease a deep baking tray (square) with butter or flavourless oil.
Melt the butter and wait till it is cool.
Add in the sugar, vanilla extract and mix until creamy and smooth.
Crack in the eggs one by one and fold them in slowly.
Put the flours, cardamom, baking powder, Xanthan gum, baking powder salt into a separate bowl and mix thoroughly.
Gradually add the dry mixture bit by bit into the wet mixture. Do not over mix keep it gentle!
Stir in the cranberries and chocolate pieces.
Cook for 25 minutes.
Cup of tea , coffee anyone?
