Smitten with Blondies

I AM SO BEHIND IN BLOGGING, AND IT IS MILDLY STRESSING ME OUT. Let's pretend that you've read all about:

• Sportello's fantastic whoopie pies,
• a pie-making extravaganza at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts,
• the pumpkin-y treats at CBC's Great Pumpkin Festival, and
• desserts for Thanksgiving and tree-decorating.

Now that those are done, let's talk about rainy-day baking! Yep, today's weather provided the perfect excuse to stay indoors and make something cozy and delicious. I searched a favorite source for something easy, quick, and filling; needless to say, I found something I wanted to bake in less than a minute. Friends, meet the Smitten Kitchen's blondies.

Blondies are, in some ways, more challenging than brownies. The dough is so basic that it could easily turn out bland, and the quality of your chocolate - if you're like me, you always cram your blondies full of chocolate chips - is significantly more exposed in that dough. I expected to save some experimentation toward the perfect blondie by going with Deb's selection. As you'll see, that expectation wasn't really met. Here is the recipe, with my commentary in italics.

• 1 stick butter, melted
• 1 C brown sugar. Once you've used Whole Foods' light brown sugar, you can't go back to Domino's. I was pretty certain that this strong, molasses-y sugar was the key to a flavorful blondie dough.
• 1 large egg
• 1 t vanilla
• a pinch of salt
• 1 C flour
• 1 C chocolate chips. I used Whole Foods' organic semisweet chips, due to their past versatility in my (mom's) brownies.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter an 8x8-inch pan. The buttering wasn't enough; the finished product still stuck formidably to the pan. Use buttered parchment next time!
2. Mix the melted butter with the brown sugar until smooth.
3. Beat in the egg, and then add the vanilla and pinch of salt.
4. Stir in the flour and the chocolate chips.
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes, keeping in mind that under-baking the dessert will yield more of a cookie-dough-like result. I took the blondies out after 23 minutes, and they took hours to solidify. I wonder if the 25-30 minutes you usually see on brownie recipes would be a better timeframe here.

I admired the blondies' smooth, porous surface as I waited for them to cool. They really reflect my kitchen's garish light.

Now, behold them all cut up and ready to eat!

Don't they look appetizing?
 

Looks aren't everything. These look much better than they taste or feel. Let's start with the texture. Even after hours of cooling, they were more gelatinous than cakelike, as if cookie dough had been slightly melted, (UPDATE: The next morning, after sitting overnight at room temperature, they're as dense and hard as a cold stick of butter.) Odd. Also, they're very oily, thanks to an actual stick of butter that's mixed into relatively little batter. Neither of those characteristics are bad per se, but they weren't what I wanted when I set out to make blondies. Also, they could be tastier. The brown sugar's robust flavor came through, thankfully, but it would have been much more enjoyable in a properly chewy, cake-like substance than it was in mush. The chocolate chips' flavor also came through, which, I realized, was not as good as I had anticipated. I've used Whole Foods chips before, but I always melted them - and never dealt with them intact, apart from the token handful enjoyed while mixing batter. They're rather waxy, and the cocoa seems really flat. These blondies really brought those qualities - or lack thereof, ha - to the forefront. I guess there's a reason I've increasingly used Ghirardelli, Guittard, and Valrhona chocolates when I need chips to stay chips. I'll know to use such brands in my next blondie foray. Forgetting quality for a moment, I managed to get the quantity of chocolate right. One cup of chips guarantees this batter is nearly bursting with the stuff!

It's going to take a while to get through these.

I hope I have better luck the next time I make blondies - and whenever I next turn to Smitten Kitchen. Speaking of which, did you know there's a Smitten Kitchen cookbook? I haven't bought it yet, since I haven't come anywhere close to exhausting Deb's online repertoire. Also, I've never been able to perch bound cookbooks near work surfaces in a way that they stay open. Still, if any of you would like to gift me with said cookbook, I wouldn't say no. 'Tis the season, after all... ;-)

Lastly, I have a new social media obsession. I just started using Instagram! I've edited and posted many more photos than I would usually add to Facebook in the equivalent timeframe. You can probably tell that the above photo is from Instagram; follow @somuchdessert for more drool-worthy pics, as well as visual insights into your blogger's "real" life. Happy snapping!