Today I went on what was essentially a compulsory, yet fully paid, food hygiene course organised by my employer. Apparently it is a requirement as at the bar in which I work we prepare and serve toasted sandwiches. This course wasn’t exceptionally useful as it ended up being a course in how to make use of common sense – by which I mean that it was no harder than it was useful. Still, I suppose if it means I get more/continue to get shifts it was one of the more worthy uses of my time. Anyway, to cut a long story short, what does one do having completed a food hygiene course? Go home and bake blondies following very little of the imparted advice, that’s what.

The weather, the default topic of conversation for any self-respecting Brit, has taken a turn for the worse in the past few days, it is cold, wet and rainy – which is rather annoying since I’d really like to go for a jog. What it also means is that I’m beginning to crave more comforting foods and what could be more comforting that a good ol’ fashioned brownie? However, I soon remembered that I had already posted a spectacular brownie recipe and that only something new would suffice. It was at this point that the lesser-known blondie was remembered and the rest, as they say, is history.

Words cannot describe how delicious these little treats are. I always assumed that they would never taste quite as good as a brownie, but they really do. I’ve also seen recipes that use all manner of extra ingredients, from coffee to alcohol and almost everything besides – blondies are incredibly versatile, probably more so than brownies since they are essentially a blank canvas. Although, it would be best not to go too mad with ingredients, in my opinion simple is always the route best chosen. Doing so would almost certainly impinge on any frugal intentions anyway, and we wouldn’t want that.

Chocolate Chunk Blondies

Makes 12-15

Ingredients:

• 100g melted butter

• 200g light muscovado sugar

• 1 egg

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 210g plain flour

• 70g plain chocolate, chunked

• A pinch of salt

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 170C and grease a baking tray similar in size to the one pictured. Melt the butter in a heavy based saucepan, stir in the sugar before cracking in the egg and adding the vanilla extract – beat until smooth.

2. Add the flour and salt, fold until there are no discernable lumps, then add whatever extra flavourings you like – in this case chocolate.

3. Pour this mixture into the baking tray and bake for 20-22 minutes. Remember, an undercooked blondie is better than one that has been overcooked. Leave to cool before cutting and serving.

Cost: As you can see, this recipe is extremely simple and requires very few ingredients. Therefore, it is relatively cost effective, as one might imagine, at an incredibly judicious £1 for the lot. Please enjoy these and keep in mind that in a café a single blondie could cost as much as double what one should expect to pay for this entire batch.