Recipe: Dad’s Malteser Blondies

Whilst I wish, wish, wish I could take credit for this, unfortunately I can’t. I come from a family who all make delicious baked goods. My Grandma’s Treacle Tart is delicious, my mum’s scones are pretty much perfect (I’m hopeful of publishing her recipe soon), and my dad’s traybakes are legendary.

And this is one of his best recipes. The blondie has the texture of that perfect brownie, with the sweetness from the white chocolate. The maltiness of the Maltesers breaks up this sweetness, stopping it from becoming cloying. The drizzle adds an extra chocolate hit. Because chocolate. Obviously. The center is deliciously soft and gooey (my favourite), though the outer pieces have that crisp edge if that’s more your cup of tea. All I know is that these go down extremely well at charity bake sales. At least, the pieces that make it out of the house do…

Weirdly, I don’t actually enjoy Maltesers on their own, but I adore these. Don’t get my wrong, I think Maltesers are damn yummy, but for some reason they make me cough uncontrollably. Baking seems to alleviate this problem, so clearly I’m destined to eat lots of this Malteser Blondie!

When creating the spread for our engagement party over the weekend, we took inspiration from the Bake Box boxes* that I’ve been receiving over the past few months. It’s always a good day for post when I receive one of these! Whilst my dad’s usual way of decorating freehand suits these blondies perfectly, the ‘Spots & Stripes‘ box* helped neaten it up a bit. I think the stripes from the drizzle and the spots from the maltesers fit the theme perfectly! We also used the Flower Power box – stay tuned to hear about that one…

Ingredients

• 100g white chocolate, chopped, plus a little extra for drizzling
• 125g unsalted butter, diced
• 225g light soft brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 eggs, beaten together
• 150g flour
• 4 tbsp Horlicks
• 1 big sharing bag of Maltesers
• 60g milk chocolate, chopped

Melt 100g white chocolate and the butter gently together, stir until smooth and fully mixed, and leave to cool slightly. Add the sugar, vanilla extract and beaten eggs to the mix and stir well to combine. Sift the flour and Horlicks into the chocolate mixture and stir until smooth. Fold in 100g Maltesers and the milk chocolate and spoon into a greased and lined tin (20cm square is my brownie preference!). Bake at 170C for 35-40 minutes. Leave to cool in the tin.

Melt the remaining white chocolate. Meanwhile, lightly crush the rest of the Maltesers. Drizzle over a little of the the melted white chocolate. Then scatter over the crushed Maltesers, and finish with the remaining melted chocolate. Cool, then cut into squares.

Then all that’s left to do is sneak off with a piece or three, hide away on a sofa with a good book and a cuppa, and enjoy. Because these are quite honestly some of the best blondies I’ve tasted…

What’s your favorite chocolate treat?