I’m a big fan of the unexpectedly great strawberry, white chocolate and basil flavour combination. People tend to go “ew why would I eat basil with my dessert”. But then they try it, and they get it. Hopefully you will too! Maybe next time I’ll garnish with a chiffonade of basil rather than roughly tearing it. This recipe is adapted from Felicity Cloake’s blondie recipe, which has brown butter in it and is truly delicious; she’s a total food hero.

Ingredients

• 165g butter, cubed
• 400g strawberries, hulled
• 175g light brown sugar
• 50g demerara sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 225g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp fine salt
• 225g white chocolate, roughly chopped
• 25g basil, roughly torn
• 150ml double cream

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200°C
2. Melt butter in a wide, light-coloured pan over medium-low heat, swirling to distribute heat
3. Once the foam has died down, watch it like a hawk; as soon as the solids at the bottom turn from white to toasty brown and the butter smells almost nutty, tip into a large mixing bowl to cool until barely warm
4. Grease a square baking tin (about 20x20cm)
5. Chop 300g strawberries into small (about 2cm, but only roughly) chunks
6. Stir sugars, eggs and vanilla into cooled butter
7. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into wet mixture
8. Fold in 170g of chopped white chocolate, chopped strawberries and all but five basil leaves, crushed in the palm, until flour has just disappeared; don’t over-mix
9. Bake for 22-25 minutes, until internal temperature reads 98°C
10. Meanwhile, prepare a shallow sink of iced water and plunge baking tin in when cooked, then leave to cool
11. Also meanwhile, chop remaining strawberries into presentable slices
12. While blondie cools, prepare ganache: heat cream in a small saucepan over medium heat until it reaches the boil then remove from heat and add remaining chocolate, stirring until melted
13. Arrange strawberries over blondie, drizzle ganache then sprinkle with remaining basil
14. Cut into squares and serve