Cinnamon swirl blondies

20 Berkeley, hard times

Food news of the week:

When the world gets dark (in all senses of the word), the spatula is my solace. Chewy, Fall-appropriate cinnamon swirl blondies today, or what is probably my favourite bake so far of the season. Also, not done fawning over Norma’s new autumn menu, but I finally managed to visit Bocca di Lupo briefly last week, and fell in love with their silky pappardelle choked under a mountain of duck ragu, alongside their sweet and sticky roast pumpkin with sage!

Science of the week:

Déjà vu, or the conflict between familiarity and knowing that the familiarity is incorrect, is a familiar occurrence for me. One theory says it exists to pull our attention in and help us search our memories for relevant information. A more scientific recap: Step 1: areas of our brain like the temporal lobe feed information into the frontal parts. Step 2: these frontal regions fact check this information and prevents us from misremembering things.

Insight of the week:

The past week has been extremely hard, emotionally and physically. My first instinct in these circumstances is to downplay everything, isolate a little, and I’m not always the best at reaching out to friends and family. Nevertheless, hard times are good to show you how the right people will proactively pull you out from under the ground, to care, and to help process things. Friendship is a cement that glues your world together.

Recipe of the week:

Cinnamon swirl blondies, adapted from this version that has cinnamon sugar in it (thought the original was way too sweet, so adapt this yourself to your liking!)

Ingredients

For the swirl:

100g (1/2 cup) brown sugar

55g (4 tbsp) softened butter

2 tsp cinnamon

For the blondies:

180g butter (about 3/4 cup), melted

150g (3/4 cup) brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

250g (2 cups) plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp fine salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350F (180C). Line a 9x13-inch baking dish with parchment paper or aluminium foil, or simply butter it well. Make the cinnamon swirl by mixing the soft butter, brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Tear the soft, sandy mixture into chunks and lay them on a plate, before placing in a freezer.

Make the blondies by mixing the melted butter (I usually melt it in a microwave, in 30-second increments, alternatively you can melt it on the stove and make some brown butter out of this if you fancy), brown sugar, egg and vanilla extract, with a metal whisk. Then tip in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt, and fold in gently with a rubber spatula or large wooden spoon until you get no more white streaks of flour. Spread this gorgeous blondie layer into the prepared tin, then press the cinnamon swirl chunks into the layer. Bake for 20 minutes, just until the edges are set. Let cool before cutting into bars.

Restaurant of the week:

20 Berkeley is a shout. Its more discreet opening belies one of the prettiest interiors, gilded and bronzed, from the ceiling to the floor to the toilet. The service, unlike other places, doesn’t meet you with glazed eyes, and the food has a certain spring to its step.