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!
