Lemon Poppy Seed Blondies
Lemon Poppy Seed Blondies is a recipe that just worked out brilliantly… It’s moments like these when life just feels AWESOME and it’s wonder & beauty just hits you afresh.
So I’m BEYOND excited to share this recipe with you today!
Now you’ve heard it said that “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade!” But we bakers can go a bit beyond producing a drink, can’t we? 😉
I got a bag of about 50 huge lemons from my friend Lorraine’s farm the other day! They were bright, super juicy, sweet, tart and perfect! After giving lemons away to most of my friends, I was still left with around 35 of them.
Making Lemonade or lemon bars was the obvious choice, but for some reason I just didn’t get excited about either of those ideas.
A flavour combo that came to mind was lemon & poppy seed. Then my mind jumped to these super delicious cupcakes I bake in my home bakery – Poppy Seed & White Chocolate Cupcakes.
I got the recipe for these cupcakes from a friend who has sworn me to secrecy, so I cannot share it with you. BUT the secret ingredient that makes those cupcakes SO GOOD is coconut 😀
Poppy Seed and coconut pairs brilliantly together and if you add something tart on top of that… the YUM factor is just UNREAL…
So my friend, when life hands you lemons, bake Lemon Poppy Seed Blondies!
Recipe Introduction
I’ve posted a recipe for Blondies once before on my blog, but those were Salted Caramel Apple Blondies. The apples in the recipe provide enough moisture to keep the blondie’s texture fudgy. Lemon Poppy Seed Blondies are a bit different though.
We don’t really want these guys to be cakey, so adding enough fat and moisture is essential for achieving the ideal blondie texture.
For this reason I add a lot of butter, white chocolate and also cream to the batter 🙂
I was also completely set on NOT USING ANY LEMON ESSENCE/EXTRACT in this recipe, but only FRESH lemons.
Adding fresh lemon juice as is to the batter would result in a very runny batter and I just couldn’t see that scenario playing out well… So I decided to reduce my freshly squeezed lemon juice! The only other thing left to do was to add a small mountain of finely chopped fresh lemon zest.
The kick of bright, zingy lemon comes through BEAUTIFULLY in these lemon poppy seed blondies!
With blondies there is always the concern that they will be too sweet. Brownies & blondies are basically cake with DOUBLE the FAT, double the SUGAR and no raising agents.
The bitterness of dark chocolate and cocoa powder masks the amount of sugar used in brownies, so what is there to absorb the sweetness in blondies?
The lemon zest provides some bitterness and the sharpness of the lemon cuts through a lot of the sweetness. BUT my recipe also uses a bit less sugar than blondies usually do. I’ve replaced some of the sugar with white chocolate and cream – which is not exactly second best, right?
As you know I’m all about FLAVOUR & QUALITY – not just a colossal mountain of sugar, because that’s how it’s “usually done”.
These Lemon Poppy Seed Blondies are fresh, chewy, zesty, zingy, buttery, juicy, hearty and creamy all in one bite – SUPER yum and satisfying! And of course, no fake lemon flavourings in sight.
- 100 g Unsalted Butter
- 100 g Baking Margarine
- 50 g Cream (about 33% fat)
- 70 g White Chocolate, super finely chopped
- 130 g White Sugar
- 100 g Demerara Sugar/Soft brown sugar
- 135 g Egg (2 x-large eggs + 1 yolk)
- ½ Tbsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 Tbsp Lemon Zest, finely chopped and packed tightly into the spoon
- 60 ml Fresh Lemon Juice
- 40 g Poppy Seeds
- 45 g Desiccated Coconut
- 200 g All Purpose Flour
- 5 g Salt
- Reduce the fresh lemon juice by two thirds on a low simmer. You should end up with 20 ml of reduced lemon juice.
- Sift flour and salt in a large bowl, set aside.
- Preheat your oven to 180°C/356°F.
- Melt butter, margarine and cream in a stand mixer mixing bowl in the microwave for 3 mins. It must boil before you continue.
- Stir in sugars and 50 g of the white chocolate. Microwave again for 30 seconds. Stir thoroughly and microwave once more for 30 seconds.
- Mix on medium speed with paddle attachment for about 30 seconds. The Sugars should stick to the paddle when you lift it up.
- Add eggs, lemon zest, reduced lemon juice, poppy seeds, coconut and vanilla. Stir until roughly combined.
- Add dry ingredients. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds. Stop mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Beat batter on medium speed for 2 minutes.
- Scrape batter into a greased and lined 27 cm x 16 cm (or 8 x 8 inch) pan. Spread mix evenly into all the corners.
- Melt the reserved 20 g of finely chopped white chocolate in 30 seconds bursts in the microwave. Pour all over on the surface of the batter. Smear the top of the batter so that the melted chocolate is mixed thoroughly into the top surface of the batter leaving no streaks of chocolate behind – this forms the crust on top.
- Bake on top shelf at 180ᵒC for 20 - 25 mins, turning after 13 mins. They are done baking when a toothpick still has a few moist crumbs sticking to it. Do not over-bake these guys!
- Leave to cool in the tin, then remove and slice as desired.
- Enjoy!
I hope you’ll give these Lemon Poppy Seed Blondies a go! I AM IN LOOOOVE with them!! Which is something I don’t say very often.
Chat soon!
Aurelia
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Got a question? Something to add? Let’s chat in the comments section down below! (I respond to every single comment)
