Yesterday I shouted at our two year old. After he repeatedly banged his little sister’s cot with two wooden spoons he was pretending to be ski poles while I attempted to put her down for a nap, I told him he was old enough to know better, shut the door on him and promptly burst into tears. Granted he’ll turn three in February and part of him knew exactly what he was doing, but because he’s so much bigger than Joy I sometimes forget, he’s still so very little. ‘Be quiet’ is a command he can commit to obey for a few minutes max before an exciting distraction sets in and patience is crucial on both our parts if we’re going to survive. In my three short months of parenting two, I’ve discovered that frustration can be high on the list of emotions for all parties involved, but raised tempers rarely improve anything. Certainly not the likelihood of babies to nap. But blondies? I have scientific proof that blondies improve just about everything. 

The blondies in question are made with both browned butter and peanut butter, giving them a doubly nutty note. Toasty, fudgy, crackly topped showstoppers with chunks of white chocolate and a beautiful caramel hue. Both the process of baking and the act of eating are therapeutic in their own ways and exactly what the doctor ordered after a frantic start to the morning. Whenever I tell Nino we’re cooking, whether it’s a specific recipe we’ve decided to bake or simply blending up a smoothie or cracking eggs at breakfast time, he races to the bathroom to grab his little steps so he can better see what is happening. He loves to help, if you accept a one step forwards, two steps back approach to ‘helping’ with ingredients disappearing either into his mouth or onto the floor, but the sheer joy on his face when we get together in the kitchen cancels out any extra work involved on my part. I love that he loves food as much as we do, both the preparation and the eating.

I serve these blondies warm with scoops of chocolate ice cream, but they’re equally delicious just as they are. This recipe makes quite a few so I bake and freeze them in parcels of two – Luke likes to eat them straight from the freezer if that kind of thing floats your boat with emergency supplies left over for those mornings when parent life attempts to get the better of me. Less shouting, more blondies is my mantra for this week. Hope it’s a sweet one for you and yours.