I’ve been having a really good poke around on Pinterest and other food blogs, at all of the many, many St Patricks day themed recipes out there.  As ‘untraditional’ as most of them are, I have stumbled upon a few, that I really wanted to try, all in the spirit of St Patricks Day – rather than tradition (mostly because they look so absolutely delicious!)

This one, I saw on Twitter from the lovely ‘Butter cream blondi‘, it has one of my favourite drinks in it (Magners) as well as browned butter, (something I recently discovered, but fell madly in love with on the first go), I was ‘in’, in spite of the fact that I’d never before seen a blondie and had no idea what such a thing was!

I found the Magners (in case any of you expats from home are curious,) in my local Specs store (in the fridges along the back), and, surprisingly enough, it wasn’t all that expensive – in fact, it was very reasonable indeed (which means I get to have it more often! yay! LOL!)

This past weekend, I tried the only Cider the bar we were in had, ”Leprechaun” it wasn’t great, in fact, it was pretty nasty, and, as we’d say at home it tasted like ‘gnats water’ or ‘cats piss’ – yes, a somewhat uncouth description, but it made me glad to have some proper Irish cider in my fridge at home.

I’ve never made Blondies and I don’t like Brownies much, so I was a little apprehensive in case the two were similar (just different colours) and unsure what to expect.  However, I had nothing to be concerned about, these were delicious!!

I think my only critique of these is that they’re a smidge too sweet (though I know Americans tend towards a sweeter type of ‘cake’ than my plainer Irish palette), I’d maybe reduce the sugar content my next attempt, but the flavours and consistency are deeeee-licious and they work really well together.  I will definitely be making more of these in the future – you should try them!

I think in my next attempt, I’ll also attempt to reduce the fat etc in these blondies as at 192 calories each (based on slicing your 9×13 pan into 16 slices) they are a bit on the high side for the small slab you get.

But they are a delicious slice of golden heaven and, if you’re having a treat and being naughty – worth every single calorie!

Brown Butter Magners Blondies

From Buttercream Blondi

• 1 & 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
• 1 & 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup Magners (I may have sloshed a little more in there!)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Brown butter over a medium heat stirring occasionally.  Take it off the heat once it gets a nice color. Once you remove it from the heat it will continue to cook and get a bit darker. Keep a close eye on it because once it starts get color it burns very quickly.
3. Once the butter has cooled cream butter and sugars till light and fluffy.
4. Add eggs and vanilla bean paste.
5. Alternate adding dry ingredients with Magners.
6. Line a 9″ x 13″ pan with parchment, spray with non stick spray, and fill with batter.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes rotating once halfway through. (It only took 20 minutes in my oven)

These are definitely on my short-list of things to make for my next International Bake Sale!