White Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Blondies

"What is a blondie?"

This is what everyone asked me at work. I laughed after the 10th time I heard it and thought to myself that maybe I should stick with brownies. I could just trick people by telling them it is a brownie, maybe then I won't get the blondie inquisition! Not even spell check recognizes the word blondie.

After Hawaii I have found that nothing sounds good. I think it was all the different and fresh flavors we had on vacation that are prohibiting me from craving something back at home. One thing that I couldn't get away from were the macadamia nuts! They were in everything we ate, so naturally I bought a bunch before we left to bake with. An interesting fact about macadamia nuts: they contain the highest amount of monounsaturated fats, the healthy fats, of any known nut. So consider this your healthy snack!

White Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Blondies

2 cups white chocolate chips
5 tbsp butter, chopped into pieces
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup macadamia nuts, toasted and chopped

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. To toast the macadamia nuts, use a small baking sheet and spread out macadamia nuts in single layer. Bake for 3 minutes, shake the pan, and bake for additional 3 minutes. Set aside to cool and chop when they have reached room temperature. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x9 baking pan with parchment paper leaving a small lip over the side. Grease parchment paper and remaining pan sides.

Using a double broiler or a bowl over simmering water, melt butter pieces and 1 cup of white chocolate chips. Continually stir till mixture is combined and smooth. Remove from heat, set aside, and cool to room temperature. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt, set aside. In a large mixing bowl combine sugar, egg, and vanilla till you get a thick yellow mixture. Add in cooled chocolate/butter mixture till combined. Add in flour mixture till combined. Using a spatula add in remaining 1 cup white chocolate chips and chopped macadamia nuts. Spread in pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until edges are slightly browned. Cool completely and cut into 2-inch squares.

I would recommend chopping the macadamia nuts by hand. I used my pampered chef chopper and it did not chop them as evenly as I would have liked. Another thing that I did was bake my blondies in a 9x13 pan. I prefer a little thicker brownie/blondie and these were pretty thin, so in the recipe it says to bake in a 9x9 pan instead. This will make your blondie experience much better.

Your welcome.