Blondies

We ran out of chocolate chip cookies, so I thought of baking some. But instead of making cookies, I decided to make chocolate chip blondies or maybe brownies instead.

So I searched for some recipes from my favorite sources: tastespotting and allrecipes. I saw one from tastespotting, which was posted by Mike Lesiuk. The recipe was adapted from Smitten Kitchen.

The blondie recipe posted was a very adaptable, mix-whatever-you-like recipe. It's a basic blondie recipe, just flour, butter, egg, sugar, salt and vanilla. Then you choose your add-ons. It's also simple to follow and not much utensils and equipments needed. I just used one bowl, a spoon and a whisk.

Blondies
from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients

• 8 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla or 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• Pinch salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour

Directions

1. Butter an 8×8 pan
2. Mix melted butter with brown sugar – beat until smooth. Beat in egg and then vanilla.
3. Add salt, stir in flour. Mix in any additions (below).
4. Pour into prepared pan. Bake at 350°F 20-25 minutes, or until set in the middle. (I baked mine for 21 minutes). Cool on rack before cutting them.

Some of the additional ingredients can be the following:

• 1/2 to 1 cup chopped nuts, toasting them first for even better flavor
• 1/2 to 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 teaspoon mint extract in addition to or in place of the vanilla
• 1/2 cup mashed bananas
• 1/4 cup bourbon, scotch or other whiskey; increase the flour by one tablespoon
• 2 tablespoons of espresso powder with the vanilla
• Stir 1/2 cup dried fruit, especially dried cherries, into the prepared batter
• Top with a vanilla butter cream or chocolate peanut butter cream frosting

Since I wanted chocolate chip cookies originally, I decided to add chocolate chips. I used 200 grams of chips (the packaging of the chips I have is in 100gram packs, didn't want to measure them anymore, so I just dumped 2 bags). And, to add a little oomph to that, I added a tiny pack of Starbucks Via to the mix.

I was supposed to mix it the same time the vanilla was added, but I forgot so I added them together with the chips. Not right, I know. But it turned out OK anyway.

Visit smitten kitchen or mike lesiuk for the recipe. You won't regret making them. :)