Maribel's Kalamansi Blondies
To celebrate the upcoming release of Maribel’s Year on May 9, I’m sharing something special — it’s a recipe inspired by the story.
Kalamansi blondies are one of Maribel’s favorite after-school snacks. They combine Filipino and American food traditions to create something wholly unique. Maribel loves them because chocolate chip blondies are like a warm hug after a cold, wintry day at school, and the bright, refreshing notes of kalamansi remind her of the Philippines.
In order to create them, we used America’s Test Kitchen’s recipe for chocolate chip blondies reprinted on Hip Foodie Mom’s blog, and made these adjustments:
— Reduced butter to 8 tbsp.
— Added 2 tbsp. of kalamansi juice to the sugar-butter-eggs-vanilla mixture
— Used white chocolate chips
A couple of notes. Although the blondies tasted absolutely delicious with white chocolate chips, we have a feeling that milk chocolate chips or semi-sweet chocolate chips would work well, too. For kalamansi juice, we like using Sun Tropics Pure Calamansi 100% Juice, which you can find at Filipino supermarkets or select Asian markets. It can also be ordered online from SarapNow.
Happy baking and hope you get a chance to check out my new book illustrated by Sarah Gonzales, Maribel’s Year, which comes out in one week on May 9!
Click here to watch a video of me making kalamansi blondies!
How to Make Pineapple Cakes
Watch the extraordinary Bonnie Eng of @thirstyfortea make her pineapple cake recipe from A SWEET NEW YEAR FOR REN! Click here to watch.
Literary Eats
These were some of the literary snacks we brought to Avery’s class to celebrate some of the books that were read throughout the year:
—Charlie and the Chocolate Factory — Wonka bars with golden tickets hidden in five of them (golden ticket finders each won a book of their choice to take home)
—The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe — plain and rose-flavored Turkish delight
—BFG — frobscottle — two kinds (first version: limeade, lime sparkling water and strawberry sparkling water and second version: lemonade and strawberry sparkling water)
PS. I’m sharing photos of the picture books we’re reading aloud during the summer on Instagram stories and saving them on my Instagram page in Highlights section under #bookaday in case anyone’s interested. Happy summer, all!
The Little Library Cookbook
We’ve been following Kate Young of The Little Library Café for some time now and were thrilled to hear about her new cookbook with 100 recipes inspired by classic and modern works of fiction. Whether it’s Paddington Bear’s marmalade, lamingtons from Mem Fox’s Possum Magic or a farmhouse lunch for five inspired by Enid Blyton’s Famous Five, you’ll find something nostalgic and comforting — and redolent of some of your favorite stories, past and present.
The Little Library Cookbook: 100 Recipes from Your Favorite Books was written by Kate Young and published by Sterling Epicure.