White Chocolate Hazelnut Blondies

If you're a fan of a Kinder Happy Hippo, then these blondies will be your dream come true! Soft and gooey white chocolate blondies, with chocolate chips and hazelnut cream swirl. Topped with the cutest chocolate bars imaginable!

Why you'll love these blondies

• Indulgent white chocolate blondie brownies complete with fudgy center and crackled top.
• Luscious hazelnut swirl - a silky smooth and creamy hazelnut spread gives these blondies a sweet and nutty edge.
• Happy Hippos! These have to be the cutest candy bar ever and one you're sure to love. Wafers in an adorable shape loaded with hazelnut and white chocolate.

Equipment Notes

This is a super simple recipe - you'll need:

• An 8" or 9" square baking pan - you can use other sizes, but the amount of batter here is perfect for an 8" square. The larger the pan, the thinner your blondie batter will need to spread. Likewise, the smaller the surface area of the pan, the thicker the blondies. This will impact your baking times, so while you can certainly bake in other sizes/shapes, just be aware and avoid leaving the batter too thick or they might not bake through before burning on top!
• Parchment paper - I like to line my tray with parchment. This helps avoid the blondies sticking or you scratching your pan as you cut into them. You could also spray well with a non-stick spray if you prefer.
• A medium saucepan - this is a quick one pan batter recipe. You'll mix up the whole thing in the one pan!
• Spatula - a classic rubber spatula is perfect for this recipe. You can use a spoon or whisk, but a single spatula will see you through the whole thing.
• Sieve - best practice here is to sift your flour, salt and baking powder into the batter. I've absolutely skipped this process and just added the flour without issue, but if you have a sieve and the time, it will help ensure the dry ingredients are well combined.
• Bread knife or toothpick - you'll need a tool to use for swirling your hazelnut spread. A bread knife or toothpick/skewer work best here.

Ingredient Notes

For this recipe, you'll need the following ingredients:

• White chocolate chips - you can use a white chocolate bar as well, but you'll want to chop this up into chunks. I'd recommend using a good quality white chocolate here - this will be key to your blondies!
• Dark chocolate chips - or semi-sweet morsels. To echo the flavors in the Happy Hippo bar, this recipe uses dark chocolate chips. You can use white chocolate or milk chocolate instead if preferred.
• Butter - unsalted butter works best here. This doesn't need to be softened first as this will be melted in the saucepan.
• Sugar - granulated or caster sugar are best in this recipe.
• Eggs - a couple of large eggs, ideally at room temperature to make their inclusion into the batter easier.
• Vanilla extract - a good quality vanilla is important in any baked good and really comes through when working with white chocolate!
• Flour - all purpose flour or plain flour will work in this recipe.
• Salt - a bit of salt helps to lift the flavor here. If you opt to use salted butter, you may wish to reduce the salt added as this can leave a slightly overly salty flavor.
• Baking powder
• Hazelnut cream - a good quality hazelnut cream or hazelnut spread will work well here.

Hazelnut Cream versus Nutella

Hazelnut cream, or hazelnut creme is a spreadable hazelnut paste distinct from Nutella. Nutella is a chocolate hazelnut combo that has many devout devotees. For a dessert bar recipe using Nutella, try my Ferrero Rocher Brownies.

This recipe calls for Hazelnut cream, which does not include the chocolate. This means that it is a pale nut paste rather than the dark chocolatey brown. It gives a rich earthy nut flavor with a hint of sweetness and pairs really well with white chocolate.

What's a Happy Hippo

Not to be confused with the old school game Hungry Hippos, a Happy Hippo is a cute candy bar by Kinder. This product is essentially a wafer bar shaped like a little Hippo, complete with adoring little eyes, and filled with Kinder's infamous combination of chocolate and white chocolate hazelnut paste.

How to Make Happy Hippo Hazelnut Blondies

These blondies are a simple one pan recipe. Well, technically two pans if you count your baking dish! Follow these steps:

Step 1: Preheat your oven to 350ºF and line an 8" square baking dish with parchment. Alternatively, you can spray with a nonstick cooking spray - however you prefer to prep your pans for baking brownies or blondies!

Step 2: Begin by adding your butter and white chocolate to a medium saucepan. Heat these over a medium low heat until melted smooth, stirring occasionally with a spatula.

Step 3: Remove from the heat and add the sugar, stirring to combine.

Step 4: Add your eggs and vanilla, stirring to combine into a smooth batter. As the pan may still be warm, be sure to stir while adding the eggs to avoid them scrambling. If concerned, its always good to beat them gently first before adding which makes them quicker to incorporate.

Step 5: Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into the batter. Stir with your spatula until just combined.

Step 6: Add the dark chocolate chips and stir to distribute in the batter.

Step 7: Pour the blondie batter into your prepared baking dish and spread evenly. Add dollops of hazelnut spread on top of the batter and swirl with a butter knife or toothpick to help distribute across the blondies.

Step 8: Top with a few Happy Hippo candy bars. These will sink a bit into the batter while baking, so no need to press down too firmly into the top of the blondies.

Step 9: Bake in the center of your preheated oven for about 35-40 minutes. Use a toothpick to check by inserting in the middle of the blondies. These are done when this comes out mostly clean.

Step 10: Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan before slicing. For best results and cleanest slices, let cool completely (a couple hours).

Tips and Tricks

This recipe is so incredibly easy to master and super forgiving. All you'll need is a saucepan for whipping up the batter and then a baking tray for the oven. But there are a couple of tips and tricks that will help ensure success:

• Once you're finished melting together the butter and the white chocolate, remove the pan from the heat. Your pan will stay hot for a little while - especially if you use something like copper which conducts heat particularly well! This is important because the time away from the burner will help things cool enough to avoid scrambling the eggs when it comes time to add them after the sugar.
• Sifting your dry ingredients will help ensure a better distribution of the leavening agent and salt. It is definitely possible to make this recipe without sifting, but it is best practice to do it.
• Depending on the consistency of your hazelnut cream, you may want to heat this gently before adding to the mix. Heating will help loosen it up, making particularly thick creams a bit easy to swirl. My cream didn't need this step, but its something that can help if necessary.
• Speaking of the cream - the amount you use is kind of up to you. I dolloped about 4 tablespoons onto my batter, but you can get by with less or a bit more. Adding much more than 4 tablespoons may start to impact the baking times (the heavier the batter, the longer to bake) and your final consistency.
• When checking your blondies are done, don't worry if the toothpick isn't completely clean in the center. For a gooey soft blondie, you'll actually want to see some little bits sticking to this as it's a dense and fudgy texture with the hazelnut swirl.
• Letting your blondies cool will make slicing them easier!

Storage Advice

These blondies will last for several days at room temperature. Once they're cooled, either wrap well or keep in an airtight container for best results.

FAQs

More Hazelnut Recipes

• Ferrero Rocher Brownies
• Chocolate Hazelnut Cinnamon Rolls
• Raspberry Nutella Cinnamon Rolls