Blondies

A couple of weeks ago, a colleague, S,  baked a batch of blondies and brought them to office. It had the richness of a brownie, and the texture of a chewy cookie – absolutely yummy! Best of all, they were cut into little bite-sized squares – just right for nibblies!

S graciously shared her recipe with me, which was similar to this one. It turned out a-okay for me, but I found it a little too dense. I went through my stash of baking books and found this recipe. It is perfect!

Blondies (from David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop)

115g unsalted butter
140g flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
215g packed light brown sugar (I used only 180g)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
115g chocolate chips
75g pecans or walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped (I used walnuts)

1.  Preheat the oven to 175 deg Celsius
2.  Butter an 8-inch square pan and cut a square of parchment or wax paper to fit the bottom.
3.  Melt the butter in a medium saucepan, then let it cool to room temperature.
4.  In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir the brown sugar and vanilla into the melted butter, then stir in the egg.
5.  Stir the melted butter mixture into the dry ingredients, then fold in the chocolate chips and nuts.
6.  Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Smooth the top and bake for 30 minutes, until slightly puffed in the center. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.

Tips:
Let the blondies to cool before cutting helps to keep them in nice clean squares.
To get evenly sized bars, use a long knife with serrated edges to cut the blondies up in to small squares. I used my bread knife for this.
Mixing by hand, and up till the ingredients are  just combined gives a great texture
180g of sugar worked fine for mine – I think i could cut it down to 150-160g actually, since there are chocolate chips added, which contribute to the sweetness too.

The husband loved these, and so did I! These blondies, dunked into a cold glass of milk, are the perfect afternoon snack!

Am submitting this entry to Aspiring Bakers #7 – Chocolate Delight (May 2011) hosted by DG from Tested and Tasted