Passionfruit, cheesecake & white chocolate blondies

I was at a bit of a loss thinking of a name for these works of art due to the copious amount of delicious ingredients involved; and although a brain-storming session with my nearly 3 year old nephew [unfairly] resulted in ‘Daddy’s cakes’ as the top candidate, I decided to go with passionfruit, cheesecake & white chocolate blondies.

For those of you who don’t know what a blondie is, it’s a sort of cousin to the brownie. Less famous (which helps me impress as details such as texture are less deeply debated upon), less brown (clue’s in the name), and as it turns out, a fabulous vehicle for passion fruit. And cheesecake. Think part cake, part gooey tray bake, part cheesecake…look, we don’t need to get deep into the description, all you need to know is that they were all eaten. And enjoyed. And smushed into the carpet by my 1 year old niece but I believe that was more her making friends with the carpet than having beef with the blondie.

Having never smothered passionfruit on something before putting it in the oven before, I wasn’t quite sure as to how it would turn out. I’m happy to report, however, that we get a zingy passionfruit flavour that cuts through the white chocolate, and the added texture bonus of crunchy passion fruit seeds. Who would’ve thought?

Passionfruit, cheesecake & white chocolate blondies

Quantities: 15 blondies

Kitchen Stuff: A large baking tray (around 27cm x 18cm x 4cm), greased and lined with baking paper big enough to have a few centimetres overhang (to help you get them out after baking…), mixing bowls, electric hand mixer

Timings: 1 hour + 2 hours cooling time

Ingredients:

230g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

170g unsalted butter, melted

200g light brown sugar

2 medium eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

6 passion fruits

1 orange

100g white chocolate, chopped

For the cheesecake

1/2 medium egg, beaten

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

60g full – fat cream cheese

20g unsalted butter

15g caster sugar

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 200C. Grease & line your baking tray. Melt your butter, chop your chocolate and halve your passion fruits.
2. Add all the cheesecake ingredients to a medium sized mixing bowl and combine using an electric hand mixer. Set aside
3. For the blondies: Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. In another large mixing bowl, mix the melted mutter, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla. Fold the flour mixture into the butter mixture until all combined. Mix in the pulp and seeds from one passion fruit and the zest of half an orange. Fold your chopped white chocolate into the mix. Yum.

1. Pour your blondie mixture into the prepared tins. Spoon two or three lines of cheesecake mixture down the length of the baking tray. Spoon the pulp of 5 whole passion fruits into a little bowl. Using a teaspoon, spoon the passionfruit seeds down the centre of the cheesecake mix. Grab a table knife, drag it through the mixture in swirls, going across the cheesecake channels.
2. Bake for 20-30 minutes until the cheesecake top is set and there is only a slight wobble in the centre (you don’t want too much wobble). Cool the blondies in their tin, then move the tin to the fridge and chill for two hours. When you’re ready to serve, bring it back to room temperature and cut into squares.  Try not to eat too many (I think i had five. I’m not ashamed.)