Recipe: poached pear, milk chocolate and roasted hazelnut blondies

My beloved brown-butter blondies

My love for blondies is one that goes bone deep. The nutty, caramel aromatics of browned butter and vanilla, the melting, moreish, fudge-like texture, with it’s golden crust, lending a pleasant crumbling crunch – heaven. I trust there is no bad combination of fillings when the base flavours are that of brown sugar and brown butter, but I think that this particular combination is my favourite to date. Fresh pear, poached until tender, gently spiced with cardamom, cinnamon stick and lemon. Hazelnuts roasted until a deep golden flesh lies beneath a burnished, crumbling skin. Both work beautifully with creamy milk chocolate. A glorious trinity of flavours and texture.

This recipe is one of my most frequently used, and the base blondie recipe can be used as a foundation into which you put your own choice of add-ins – these ones are just a suggestion.