White Chocolate and Pecan Blondies

These are like brownies, but made with white chocolate and lots of pecan nuts, use really good quality chocolate for the best flavour.  They're really easy to make and will disappear fast!

Equipment -
20.5 cm square tin, greased and base lined with baking paper

Ingredients -
175g white chocolate, broken up
115g butter, diced
100g golden caster sugar
2 medium free range eggs
 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
125g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
150g pecan halves

Method -
1. Preheat oven to 180C / 350F / gas 4
2. Put chocolate and butter in a large bowl over a pan of hot water, off the heat, not letting the water touch the bottom of the pan.  Stir frequently until melted.
3. Remove the bowl from the pan and stir in the sugar, don't worry if it looks curdled at this stage.
4.  Leave to cool for 2 mins while you beat the eggs in a small bowl with the vanilla paste until frothy.
5. Add the eggs to the chocolate mixture and beat with a wooden spoon until you have a thick, glossy  batter.
6. Sift in flour and baking powder and mix well.
7. Add 100g of the nuts and mix well.
8. Pour into the repaired tin and spread evenly.  Scatter over the remaining nuts, and bake for 20-25 mins. until a skewer inserted into the cake halfway between the centre and the side of the tin comes out clean.  The centre should still be slightly soft.
9.  Set the tin on a wire rack and leave to cool in the tin.  Once cold, turn out and cut into 16 pieces.