Blondies

Someone at work needed something sweet to make because she was feeling stressed and down in the dumps. She started looking at my Recipe Index and as I looked over her shoulder, I noticed that my list of sweets is absolutely pathetic. I mean, seriously, there is not much in the line of cookies and such. Aren’t food bloggers supposed to have an outrageously over-sized list of cookies, cakes, and other desserts? Aren’t they?

I blame my short list on my chocolate (cocoa) allergy. How many sweets don’t involve chocolate? Not many. It’s really difficult to get excited about making something that one cannot eat. That “one” being me. I’ll tell you something else, too. There is not enough Benedryl on the planet to convince me to take the chocolate plunge ever again.

However, for the sake of the blog and my co-worker, I am willing to post a few recipes with chocolate. Sometime. Today, I am posting this incredibly excellent recipe for blondies. Some people call them “white brownies”. Why? A brownie is a brownie and a blondie is blondie. They don’t have anything to do with each other. You don’t say “white ice cream” just because it doesn’t have chocolate in it, just as you don’t say “brown white ice cream” just because it does have chocolate in it. There’s vanilla ice cream and chocolate ice cream.

Now back to the blondies. (Remember, chocolaties are coming in a future post some day.) Make these. They’re amazing. It took a while to concoct the recipe. I wanted a chewy blondie as opposed to a cake-style blondie. The first recipe I tried turned out to be a bleak cake blondie.  Very bleak. My husband, my daughter Katie, and I all had the same reaction when we tasted them: “Garbage can!!!!!!!” My husband actually said, “Remember that really bad fish that you made back when we lived in Murray (30 years ago)? These blondies are that bad.”

On the second attempt I studied recipes from “trusted” sources, including a text book about baking, took note of the butter/brown sugar/flour ratios, figured out that melted butter was key to a chewy blondie, and confidently made a second batch of blondies. Score! The following people gave them a resounding thumbs up: Katie (24), John (29 forever), Tricia (28), Gavin (6), and Kade (3). I smiled ridiculously big and told myself that I really need to take some baking classes so that I can have KNOWLEDGE! Knowledge is power. Power in the kitchen = world peace.

Print Recipe

Blondies

This recipe is easy to make and produces a soft, chewy blondie. Toppings can be changed according to personal preference, ie: chocolate chips as a substitute for the butterscotch chips.

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time25 minutes mins

Total Time35 minutes mins

Servings: 16 bars

Author: Terri @ that's some good cookin'

Ingredients

For the Batter

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, (spoon flour into measuring cup, then level)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks), melted
• 1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the Topping

• 1/4 cup butterscotch chips
• 1/4 cup toffee baking bits (I used Heath Bits O' Brickle)
• 1/4 cup pecans, chopped

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9" x 9" baking dish. Line with parchment paper, allowing the parchment paper to overhang 2 inches on two opposite edges. Butter parchment paper. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
• Melt butter. I melted the butter in the microwave in a medium sized mixing bowl.
• Whisk dark brown sugar and melted butter together. If mixture is hot, allow to cool until warm. If it is too hot, it will cook the eggs.
• Whisk in eggs and vanilla.
• Add flour mixture to the wet mixture. Stir just until well blended.
• Pour batter into prepared baking pan. Spread evenly. Sprinkle batter with butterscotch chips, toffee candy pieces, and chopped pecans.
• Bake for about 25 minutes or until the blondies are just starting to brown around the edges and the top is firm to the touch. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely in pan.
• Using the overhanging edges of the parchment paper, lift blondies from baking pan and place on cutting board. Cut into 16 squares.

Notes

For best success, use melted butter and room temperature eggs.