White Chocolate Blondies

Well, here we are :D Two days ago I woke up in the morning and realized that only two months were left to Christmas. Two weeks ago I would say that it was too soon to think of Christmas. Right now I'm scared that I won't have enough time to buy the gifts and what's even worse - I have no idea what to buy :D Yesterday I went window-shopping and to be honest the Christmas atmosphere cought me. I cannot concentrate on my school stuff and I think about different kinds of Christmas cookies which I am going to bake and how many kinds it should be and so on. In my sidebar there is a survey connected to Christmas cookies and I'd love if you could participate, so don't be afraid to answer, it's 100% anonymous :) And when we are talking about cookies and sweets, it reminds me that I've decided to bring this Christmas atmosphere into my home, too, by making something small and sweet.

Here some short info just in case you don't know :)  What are those blondies? It's a typical American dessert so it means it's sweet, rich and for someone also fulfilling. I'd say that they are quite moist bars served cut into small squares. Yes, they're sweet because their flavour is based mostly on brown sugar, not chocolate (otherwise you'd get brownies). Blondies were invented by a Southern chef in 1982 after watching the MTV video for Heart of Glass by the pop group Blondie.

The basic ingredients are always the same - flour, brown sugar, butter, eggs, baking powder, and vanilla.  The rest of the ingredients depends on baker's creativity. They often contain white or dark chocolate chips, but brown sugar should be the star here and not other components. Their consistency and texture resemble brownies and therefore they are sometimes called blonde brownies. My younger sister asked me to make them and because even I have never ever tasted them I wanted to make the basic traditional blondies :)

The choice of sugar is the most important thing when it comes to these golden bars so don't even try to substitute white sugar for brown sugar - the taste will never be the same. However, in your store there you can find many different kinds of sugar. When I was searching for blondie recipe, I found out one thing: some recipes called for light brown sugar and some called for the dark one. Then I saw the HUGE amount of sugar used for blondies but I decided to give them a try. Now back to the sugar types - I used half of light brown sugar (Demerara in my case) and alf of dark Muscovado sugar - this one is also less sweet which is a big plus when it comes to blondies and by the way I have a lot of it since I bake Speculaas quite often.

Another very important ingredients are butter and vanilla. In this case please do not substitute butter in the recipe! Its taste is pretty noticeable in these bars and gives them great flavour :D As for the vanilla, use either seeds scraped out from vanilla pod or pure vanilla extract. I used my homemade vanilla extract. No matter what you choose to use, it will move your blondies onto a higher level just like it does with Pecan Pie :)

Again I created the recipe from several dozen recipes, which I read through, so that it would meet my requirements for traditional basic blondies. In the end I just corrected the measurements to fit into my square baking pan (25x25cm). Everything went smooth so I suppose my calculations were correct :D

Since blondies are not supposed to be eaten in huge quantities, it's okay that they are sweet a lot. I'd say they a kind of fingerfood :D You eat two (well, okay maybe five :D) small squares and that's enough - just like Christmas cookies :) If don't overeat with them , blondies don't even seem to be overly sweet but be aware - you can become addicted to them easily :D

Ingredients:
195g (1 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp soda
120g (3/4 cup) good quality white chocolate chips
320g (1 2/3 cups) brown sugar (light or dark)
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
165g (2/3 cup) melted butter
1 1/2 eggs

Directions:
In a bowl, combine sifted flour, salt, baking powder, soda and chocolate chips. In another bowl, beat sugar and melted butter until light and frothy (approx. 5 minutes), beat in eggs and vanilla extract. Then gently mix in the flour mixture. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan (25x25cm) and bake in preheated oven to 180C for 20-25 minutes or until the top of the blondies is dry and golden brown. Inside they should be a bit moist and slightly underbaked. Cool completely, then cut into small squares (4x4cm) and enjoy :)

• If you don't know what kind of chocolate you should use, here are some tips (5th paragraph).
• I used half light brown sugar Demerara and half dark brown sugar Muscovado.
• The leftover half of the egg can be used as eggwash for strudels or gingerbreads :)

Verdict:
No matter what others might say, blondies were, are and will be a very tasty dessert. They have perfect butterscotch-like taste with light butter aroma and in my case big pieces of white chocolate. At first you bite into slightly crunchy crust and then your tongue meets smooth silky and moist center which slowly starts to melt in your mouth. Yes, they are sweet, but when you drink a tall glass of full fat milk at the same time, it's so perfect combination that you feel as if you were in heaven :) I bet children will rave about them and so will adults :D By the way, have I mentioned how quickly they are prepared?


Linked to:
Sweets for a Saturday
Sweet Indulgences Sunday
Sweet Tooth Friday
These Chicks Cooked