Tuesday, July 27, 2010

There's no wrong way to eat a blondie



If I had to pick a favorite dessert, it would be brownies.  Just the fudgy or chewy kinds, not the cakey ones.  I have a favorite recipe, but I'm more than willing to try new ones, because you never know when you might find something else that's great.  There are times, though, when I want something not as chocolatey.  Lemon bars are another favorite bar cookie, but they're a little more fussy and time consuming (it always seems to take me forever to juice the lemons; my favorite recipe uses a lot of juice).    Things with brown sugar are something else I like, so sometimes I just make blondies.

My favorite recipe (which I really need to blog one of these days) uses melted butter, lots of brown sugar, and no chemical leavening.  So the texture ends up being rather dense and fudgy, a lot like the brownies I prefer.  This weekend, though, I got to try a new version, thanks to Tuesdays with Dorie.  Our hostess this week is Nicole of Cookies on Friday, and she picked Chewy Chunky Blondies for us to make.  Dorie's version of blondies reads a lot like a chocolate chip cookie recipe (it uses the creaming method), but as usual, she adds all sorts of interesting things, to the point where there's almost more stuff than batter. =)


I decided to halve the recipe--in case we didn't like them that much, or we liked them too much. =)  For the additions, I immediately eighty-sixed the coconut (if you've read my blog for any length of time you'll know why).  I also decided to skip the nuts, since I wanted Brianna and Gillian to actually eat these.  They don't seem to like any nuts but cashews and pistachios, and prefer to eat those out of hand, not in things.  That left me with the chocolate chips and butterscotch chips.  For the chocolate chips, I went with bittersweet (Guittard 63%) since I knew the batter would be sweet.  That made me worry about the butterscotch chips, which tend to be incredibly sweet.  I wasn't up for that, but still wanted to add something besides the chocolate chips.  I recently reorganized my chips collection (yes, I think it qualifies as a collection--I can think of about ten different kinds in my pantry right now) and I remembered that I had a bunch of peanut butter chips.  Perfect!  I used 100g each of chocolate and PB chips for my half recipe.

I mixed the dough by hand, like I do with chocolate chip cookies and my usual blondie recipe.  The process was pretty straightforward.  Cream together the butter and sugars (white and brown), then mix in the egg and vanilla.  Next up, dry ingredients (AP flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt).  I kept the original amount of salt even though I cut everything else in half, to help combat the sweetness a bit more.  Finally, I stirred in the chips.  The batter was very stiff, and was a bit of a challenge to spread evenly in the pan.  I used an 8" square Pyrex pan (I really need to get a metal 8" pan one of these days), but left the  oven temp at 325F.  To make sure I'd be able to get the blondies out of the pan without a problem, I lined it with non-stick foil (I love that stuff!).  I ended up baking them for 30 minutes or so (might have been a minute or two longer--I was upstairs and didn't hear the timer right away).


The verdict? I was prepared not too like these that much.  After all, I messed with the add-ins, guessed at the baking time, and was worried about the texture, since they seemed to have puffed around the edges.  I was thinking they'd be cakey, or dry.  Well, I shouldn't have worried.  Gillian pronounced them one of the best things I've made.  Brianna inhaled hers as well.  Jamie enjoyed them, too (especially the peanut butter chips).  I liked the texture quite a bit--the top was crunchy and the inside chewy without being overly gooey.

If you'd like to try these for yourself (and have fun deciding what to mix in), you can find the recipe over at Nicole's blog.  And be sure to check out this week's links to the other TWD bakers.


22 comments:

  1. Next time I'll have to try peanut butter chips.

    And only chewy fudgy/gooey brownies are the best.

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  2. Next time I will add mini reeses pieces. I also have a large 'chip collection'!

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  3. Next time I will leave out the nuts. I am with your kiddos. :) Your blondies look delicious.

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  4. Peanut butter chips sound great with these blondies. I used butterscotch chips are they are very sweet but delicious :-)

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  5. I used PB chips, too. I think they were a great addition!

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  6. Beautiful blondies. But then blond(ie)s do have more fun. (That sounded better in my head!)

    Next time - PB chips.

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  7. Love those big chocolate chunks! Great pics!! :)

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  8. I think the peanut butter in them sounds delicious. And we must be twins in the cookie category because I love brownies and lemon bars too!

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  9. I love the idea of peanut butter chips, maybe with espresso powder to cut the sweetness. Thanks!

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  10. Oooh yummy - I too would have loved the chocolate peanut butter combo. Great idea!

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  11. I love your photo composition - the last one. So cute every which way. Yep I was surprised as well. Nicely done and I love how you always share your methods and variations. Nicely done.
    AmyRuth

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  12. your blondies look wonderful! So glad the girls loved them so much! These are my favorite dorie recipe! They are incredible!

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  13. These look great! The fudgey blondie recipe sounds great too. I definitely prefer dense, fudgey brownies and bar cookies.

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  14. I thought about adding pb chips instead, but went with the butterscotch instead. And I agree, crunchy top and chewy inside! Great photos.

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  15. i'm envious of your chip collection:) these sound delicious!!!

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  16. Those look great! Great idea to add the pb chips. Will have to try that the next time.

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  17. Great photos of all the results of your messing around...I come to depend on your messing around with things to coax out my non-creative tendencies and give me some ideas to play around with. Love that brown parchment, my favorite!

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  18. This recipe is perfect for personalization to individual tastes, and your version looks delicious!

    I've come to realize that most chips are way too sweet for me but I can tolerate pb chips and chocolate ones. I've made a version of Dorie's Peanuttiest Blondies and they were outstanding.

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  19. Yours look perfect. I think I would really like these with peanut butter chips! I think this is the perfect recipe because you can just add what you want and leave out what you want.
    Thanks for baking with me this week!

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  20. Great presentation, Di! That last photo is so pretty. I'll have to remember the PB chips for next time!

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  21. No doubt these were good, just look at all those luscious chunks of chocolate and peanut butter! I'm glad everyone liked them (and I can't wait to see your recipe!)

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  22. i wanted to make these but ran out of time. will have to go back and make them now, after reading your rave review :)

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