A Blondie for Everyone

I may not be a baker (as I claimed a few posts back), but I do think everyone should have at least one go to dessert recipe in their back pocket, that they can call on if their in a bind. For me it is blondies. This recipe is so easy, quick and won't turn your kitchen into a war zone of flour, dough, batter and sugar, plus they taste really good. These blondies are chewy and sweet and great plain, or with most any other combination of flavors. I've made them with butterscotch chips, chocolate chips, peanut butter frosting, no frosting and they've all tasted great. This time I made four different combinations in one batch, to see if I could create the ultimate blondie.

The four ways I chose were, chocolate and peanut butter chips with a chocolate buttercream frosting, white chocolate chips with a vanilla buttercream, salted blondie with cookies and cream frosting and finally one that was specifically for my dad (since I don't really like nuts in my desserts) chopped toasted pine nuts in the blondie. After I tasted them all, I knew I had a problem, there was no way to decide which was best. They were all really tasty, I guess there isn't a combination that you could go wrong with, when making these blondies. I have a few ideas for some new flavors, I'm thinking maybe some kind of chocolate and bacon topping, or maybe incorporate some toasted coconut, or if I can finally figure out how to not burn homemade caramel I would like to use that somehow. Either way it seems the possibilities are near endless, so if your interest is peaked give these ones a try or create your own and let me know how they turn out.

Blondies

8 x 8 square pan

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup flour

1 egg

1 stick of butter

1/8 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla

pinch of salt

any tasty treat you want to mix in

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and melt the butter in a large mixing bowl, then add the brown sugar and mix together.

Then add the egg and vanilla and stir together again.

After the egg and vanilla is mixed into the sugar and butter add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and stir to combine. If your adding anything else to the blondies, fold it in now.

Finally grease your baking pan and bake the blondies for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick poked into the center comes out clean.

Buttercream Icing

(not much of a science to this I kind of just mix the ingrediants together to taste, the measurements are estimates at best)

1/2 stick of butter

1 1/2 cups powdered

1/2 tsp vanilla

1-2 tbs heavy cream

pinch of salt

Combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir until smooth.

For the different flavors I just divided this base of vanilla icing into thirds. One third I added about a tablespoon or two of cocoa powder to for the chocolate buttercream. Another third I smashed up two Oreo cookies and mixed that in for the cookies and cream. The final third I just kept plain vanilla.

Like I said it isn't much of a science, just start off with the basic vanilla, then you can pretty much turn it into whatever you want.

Eat well, Live well