Sunken fudge

Hurrah...the second browniebabe of the month is here! I was gutted to miss the first one hosted by Myriam but have made it in time for this one. Brownies have always been a permanent fixture in my family. I've been making them since I was little, they would be the cake I would bring to school on my birthday for the class (Dutch tradition), bake on holidays and pretty much any occasion I would get the chance. The original recipe came from a German colleague of my Dad and the proportions are etched into my memory. Sometimes I would add some walnuts or perhaps some crystalized orange but in general I was a purist brownie person. Why change the best recipe there is?

Then about a year ago, I had to eat my words and another brownie. One of the girls in work brought some in and they were delicious! So I got over my pride and asked her for the recipe. It was an old news paper article with many vairations. I moved it around, put it in different folders but never quite got myself to make them. Then I figured this would be the perfect event, I would experiment and use this basic recipe. To feel a bit less like a traitor, I opted for a blondie variety. I decided on a lemongrass blondie with fudgy bits inside, a great idea in my head but it still needs some tweaking. The taste was great but they were a bit too springy. Probably something to do with too much baking powder as I only had plain flour. In addition all the fudgy bits sunk to the bottom making it tricky to get them out of the pan. Next time I will add these halfway through the baking process along with some of the lemongrass. I grated 5 sticks (with my amazing new microplane grater!!) and even though it tasted lemony I think I would like the taste to be a bit more pronounced. So all in all, a good first attempt, but not quite enough to make me leave my old and trusted recipe :-)

Lemongrass blondie with fudgy bits
100g white chocolate
100g butter
225g sugar
130g flour
1 level tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
tube of sweetened condensed milk (300g)
salt to taste
5 stalks of lemongrass, grated

Heat a frying pan over medium heat, when hot, pour in the sweetened condensed milk along with the salt (depending on how salty you want your caramel-I used 1 1/2 tsp to counteract with the sweet white chocolate). Stir continuously until it becomes a caramel colored ball that comes clear from the sides. Test a little bit on a plate to see how solid it is, if too hard, add a bit of water. Allow to cool and cut into pieces. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Boil water in a pan, take off the heat and put the butter and chocolate in a bowl over the pan and stir to melt. Stir in sugar, sift flour and baking powder on top and add 3/4 of the lemongrass. In a seperate bowl, beat the vanilla extract with the eggs and stir this in. Pour into a greased tin and bake for 15 min, then add in the fudge and bake for another 15-25 min. If necessarry, cover the brownies with parchment paper when they get too brown. Take out of the oven and after 10 min, turn out onto a cooling rack