Caramel Speculoos Blondies

Over the Anzac Day long weekend (created by taking Friday off as well as the official Thursday holiday), my family and I travelled to Adelaide for a mini break.  My favourite part of that trip was going to Hahndorf, an originally German settlement in the Adelaide hills.  Hahndorf is very beautiful at this time of year with the autumn leaves all yellow and red, and it has been kept cute-sy and touristy to attract visitors.

While in Hahndorf, at the Bavarian deli, I spied what is a very difficult to obtain product here - Speculoos spread (known as Biscoff spread in the US).  I had seen the mania over this product in the blogging world, and I was keen to get my hands on some.  I had tried a Speculoos chocolate bar from Trader Joes when I was in the US last year, but the Speculoos spread had eluded me until now.

Speculoos spread has a similar appearance and consistency to peanut paste, but it tastes of the spicy biscuits from which it is made.  It is rather thick and cloying in the mouth, like peanut butter, so while I am glad to have tried it, it is not a favourite of mine.

To ensure that I don't fall into the trap of eating the Speculoos spread all from the jar (although it tastes very nice on a warm crumpet), I decided to make Caramel Speculoos Blondies.  You can find the recipe that I used here.

I didn't put the soft caramels on top of my blondies, but these were not necessary, as the brown sugar makes the blondies very caramel-like without any help.  These blondies had a chewy quality to them - which didn't surprise me, as the batter was very thick. The verdict at work was that these blondies are rather good.  Though only one person commented on them, the fact that the blondies all disappeared speaks for itself.

In closing, I want to congratulate my friend Craig, who became an Australian citizen on Thursday night:

This lovely photo is courtesy of my friend Steve.  I was firmly wedged into a row of seats, replete with paper Australian flags, so I couldn't really get up to take photos.  Congratulations Craig!!!!!