SHF#10 - Oh my Honey and Roast Cashew Blondies!

It's Friday again and what better sugar high to get on than HONEY? The appropriate ingredient was chosen by our host, Nic from Bakingsheet, who tempts me with posts of her own baking but at the same time, encourages me to try new things!

I actually had a tough time finding a recipe to make because I wanted to showcase the main ingredient and not use it as a supporting role. Searching through my trusty list of recipe finders, I stumbled upon a tantalizing recipe “Maple and Roast Macadamia Blondies”. How delicious is that? Seeing the short list of ingredients and simple steps, I thought these blondies should be able to elevate the character and depth of honey. Immediately after, my mind started thinking of all the substitutions necessary to make this work. Of course, maple syrup would be replaced with honey and I would use have to replace the macadamia nuts too because I had none at hand. Honey and cashews sound like a binding pair so nothing too difficult in making that change.

Now I must share something on the honey I have. They came from these beehives. Those were from Oman, and not-for-sale. They came from the kind tribal people who lived amongst the mountains. We had the privilege of knowing a family friend who had good relations with those mountain folks so we had a chance to taste fresh honey, just cut when we arrived and also jars of honey to bring home to Singapore. The honey is extremely flavourful and really brings the truth of the saying “a little goes a long way”.

Ok, storytime over. Everything else followed suit and no problems. The recipe called for baking at 190C but there was no such option on my inflexible convention microwave oven so I baked it at 180C for slightly longer time. When the cake looked firm, I took the cake out and wow, an intense aroma of honey just bombarded my senses. It was amazing and truly worthy of the use of such a premium and rare honey!

The lack of any rising agent created the impression that the cake would not rise as much and would remain dense and sticky, as described on the recipe. However, the cake did actually volcano a little in the middle and despite the longer baking time, the cake did not bake through evenly. You can see the top corner still slightly damp and sticky but the rest of the cake was crumbly and moist. It was sooo delicious warm out of the oven! The nuts were grounded a little too fine so I can’t really taste it texturally but it was a good move because I would not want to distract myself from honey J This is definitely a keeper recipe, albeit I must stress, use of good quality honey!

Honey and Roast Cashew Blondies
(makes 12)

100g unsalted cashews, roasted and roughly chopped
170g unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing
150g caster sugar
180ml good-quality honey
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
Pinch of salt
180g plain all-purpose flour

Method:

1. Preheat oven at 190C.
2. Line a 9”x9” square pan with parchment paper and butter the sides.
3. Melt the butter in a saucepan large enough to hold all the ingredients, on low heat.
4. Remove butter from heat and whisk in the sugar and honey.
5. Next, whisk in the eggs one by one, lightly incorporating it.
6. Then add in the vanilla essence.
7. Finally, sift in the flour, add in the cashews and beat quickly.
8. Pour into prepared tin and bake for 25-30mins until the top is firm and a skewer comes out of the middle quite clean. Small bits of crumb on the stick is normal because the cake should remain dense and sticky.