Biscoff Blondie Slice with Burnt Butter Ice Cream

Sometimes all you need is a slice of nutty, buttery, chewy and fudgey baking to brighten up your day.

In our case, Lockdown 4.0 has intensified this need and I wanted to make something quick but new at the same time.

Our criteria:

• nutty, buttery and caramely
• soft and chewy
• using what we’ve got
• something new or a twist
• quickly made
• can be refrigerated or frozen
• easy to serve

I dreamt of recipes that will meet these needs. Toyed with the idea of a layered panna cotta, creme brulee, even cheesecake but all fell away when I found a precious tub of Lewis Road Creamery Burnt Butter ice cream in the depths of my chest freezer. I could picture a glorious scoop of this with some buttery slice!

With that picture in mind I zeroed in on the options.

Brownies? Made recently and too dark.

Chocolate chip cookie pie? Again made recently.

Now I haven’t made blondies for a loooong time and had recently been gifted a jar of Lotus Biscoff Spread. Could this be it? Could this be the afternoon delight I was hoping for?

I’ll leave you to find out for yourself – this is not a goodbye to brownies or chocolate; just time to try something equally addictive (sorry not sorry). For a more dramatic entrance (dinner party or ‘bring-a-dessert’ gatherings, after the lockdown), bake this in a large cast iron skillet pan and warm up in the host’s oven then serve straight from the pan.

Ingredients

½ jar Biscoff spread
300g butter (unsalted, browned and cooled slightly, I used Lewis Road Creamery)
330g brown sugar
130g caster sugar
3 large eggs
1½ tsp vanilla paste
380g plain flour
2½ tsps cornstarch
1½ tsp baking powder
1½ tsp salt
130g white chocolate pieces, I used Valrhona

Instructions

Preheat oven to 175C fan bake mode and line a 40x25cm shallow baking tray with baking paper, ensuring the paper hangs slightly over the top. Set aside.
Line a small metal tray with baking paper.
Using a spatula and teaspoon, place 25-30 small dollops of Biscoff spread on the baking paper and place in freezer until your batter is ready.
Using a large bowl, add cooled brown butter and sugars, mix until combined.
Add eggs and vanilla paste, mix until homogeneous.
In a separate bowl, stir together flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt.
Add flour mixture into the batter in three batches, mix until completely combined.
Fold in white chocolate pieces.
Spread batter into the lined baking tray and push the semi-frozen Biscoff spread dollops into the batter, evenly spaced.
Bake at 175C, fan mode for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Allow to cool in the tray for 10 minutes before carefully lifting out for cutting.
Serve warm with a scoop of burnt butter ice cream.

Notes:

If you are in a small bubble, and want to make a smaller batch, you can half this recipe – use 1 egg and a yolk, bake in a smaller pan for just 20 minutes.

If your trays are too big, you can fit a smaller loaf pan on one side of the large pan, and line the remaining, now-smaller-space with baking paper.