chewy chunky blondies - trying to satisfy all parties is impossible

So, do you think my boyfriend was happy after I stole half of his batch of chocolate chip cookies to give to my relatives in California? Hmm, not so much. What about when I told him I was baking another batch of cookies for my family to sample? Probably, but not until he heard they were oatmeal raisin cookies (supposedly one of his most hated type of cookie). So what to do with a grouch pants that is in dire need of baked goodness? Resort to the best- My famous chunky, chewy blondies. Absolutely deelish' and positively going to satisfy my boyfriend.


The recipe is fairly simple and easy to make (well, it also helps that I've made these blondies numerous times before).


Ahh, the familiar look of these little square nuggets of gold. I don't think I'll ever get sick of these blondies. The texture and flavor combined is exactly perfect, and sure to satisfy any chewy chocolate chip cookie lover.


The only real dilemma was how to portion the amount of blondies for each party. I mean, I want to give my boyfriend all the blondies his heart desires, but at the same time I want to have enough presents to give to my family in California. Decisions, decisions.


Well, my boyfriend will just have to survive with half a batch of blondies and half a batch of chocolate chip cookies (damn, I am such a horrible girlfriend). Needless to say, my boyfriend was not so happy about this ordeal, but my family on the other hand, well they seemed to love these blondies just as much as the rest of us.

---RECIPE---

Recipe found here.

blondies - 39 square inches between 2 girls?

Being that my cousin was not used to the "new" me (as in the "baking" and "cooking" me), I absolutely had to show her my new talents. The banana cupcakes were just not doing it for me, so I needed something that I knew was a no-fail and show-off type of recipe. What better to use than my "famous" blondies? My boyfriend and his family seemed to have loved them, so I was hoping that my sweet-toothed cousin would hopefully feel the same as well. And quite honestly, no one in their right mind would dislike these gooey chunky bricks of deliciousness.


I've made these blondies numerous times before, so the recipe was basically ingrained in my head.


My fellow dough-eater and I tested out this batter and concluded that regular cookie dough was much better tasting (especially the white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookie dough). I had to reassure my-blondie-virgin that although the batter wasn't up to par, that these blondies on the other hand would be amazing.


I'm glad she took my word for it, because once she had a slice of these extraordinary blondies, she was instantly hooked. I used the typical chocolate chip, white chocolate chip, toasted walnuts, and toasted coconut to saturate the chunky blocks of cookie.


We could barely keep our paws off these little creatures that by the end of the night, an entire 1/3 portion of the 9x13 inch baking pan was finished. Yes, you heard me; two somewhat-tiny girls ate around 39 square inches of pure blondies.


Our amazing feat did not come without consequences though. We both went to bed with an uneasy stomach (my stomach was particularly unhappy, but I won't get into the gruesome details) and we both decided that a much-need gym trip was to be planned for the following day.


Good new though- I introduced my cousin not only to my newly-found baking skills, but also to these out-of-this-world blondies. She even asked me specifically for this recipe once she got home so that she could bake them for a bake sale. I absolutely love sharing my baking with others; it just makes my life complete.

---RECIPE---
Click here for my famous blondies recipe.

valentine's day - truffles - the perfect way to use up old/hard cookies

After the Super Bowl, I had a few tupperwares left of the excess brownies and chocolate chip cookies. Remember how I cut them into cute little football shapes and whatnot.. Well you may be wondering as to what I did with those odd shaped crumbs. (No, I did not eat them... well, I ate a good amount, but definitely not all of it). I sneakily hid them, to be saved for a later purpose (a.k.a. now). My boyfriend actually caught me... He came across one of these tupperwares and was like "Are those mine?"... lol, what kind of creature have I created! Just because I have baked goods, doesn't automatically mean they are yours! (Well, they indeed were for him, he just didn't know it at the time.)


I only had time to do the neiman marcus cookie crumbs and the blondie crumbs before Valentine's Day (the brownies were to come later). I also bought this cute little container and mini muffin liners for each truffle, to go with the whole gay pink/red theme.


The ones with red candy coating and powdered sugar had the neiman marcus cookie pieces. For that batch, I placed all the excess cookies into the food processor, and dumped some vanilla frosting inside. I'm not sure how much frosting I used, as it depended on how much was needed to make it moist enough.


Then I placed the mushy cookie mixture in the fridge to harden up. Once it was at the point where I could roll them into tight balls, I dipped them in the red coating and immediately sprinkled powdered sugar over them.


They weren't that good to be quite honest. The canned frosting tasted horrible and I was pretty disappointed that the rest of the batches wouldn't come out as good either.


I decided that for the blondies batch I'd use some leftover caramel butter frosting (from the caramel cupcakes) and mix it together.


As for decorating them, I first dipped them in the white candy coating and them dribbled the red coating back and forth. These definitely looked a lot better.


Mmm, these tasted a lot better too. It was probably because I used the frosting, but also because the blondie crumbs were a lot better tasting in the first place. Each little truffle had chopped nuts and small flecks of coconut. These white truffles were eaten up a lot faster than the red ones.

---RECIPE---
Made by myself

ingredients:
any leftover cookie/blondie/brownie crumbs
frosting or something similar
candy coating

directions:
1. Place cookie crumbs in food processor and pulse until tiny crumbs.
2. Slowly add frosting and mix. If it needs more moisture, then keep adding frosting until the batter had clumped until into a single ball.
3. Refrigerate until hard enough to roll into little balls, and then refrigerate the balls on a cookie sheet.
4. Roll into candy coating however desired.

chewy chunky blondies - there's no need to be dainty for these

Crap... Valentine's Day is coming up. I already know what I'm going to give my boyfriend gift-wise, but what in the world am I going to bake for this kid? I already did the whole red velvet cake thing for his birthday, and he already got the Napoleon he has been begging me for... But seriously, what else does this picky-eater like? I think that with him, the best solution would be for me to bake something I know he already likes, rather than to try something new. He's just too set in his stubborn ways where he lives in this illusional world where it's okay to say you hate chocolate (yet devour my brownies) and that you don't like cookie dough (yet refuse to eat overbaked cookies).


If you didn't read the title, then you'd probably think I was making cookie dough batter right now, right?


Au contraire- I am baking him his beloved blondies... But this time I'd doing it right.


The previous two times I baked this recipe, I half-assed it and I broke many baking commandments along the way. First and foremost- Always toast your nuts! This goes hand in hand with toasting your coconut. (Oh, and I should mention that by half-assing it, I mean that I totally omitted these two ingredients because either I didn't have them or I just didn't want to waste precious nuts. Well my baby is getting the lavish treatment now!)


Rule #2: Get the right sized equipment! Sheesh, only now, after how many months of baking, did I finally invest in a 9x13 inch baking dish? Meanwhile, I've been using either a 9x13 pyrex or a 9x9 inch baking dish when I could have easily gone out and bought the damn thing so the recipes wouldn't have came out weird. I digress... Rule #3: Always show your baby some love (Do you get it... I'm using a heart shaped cookie cutter?).


I can proudly say that I did not break one baking commandment; and I would swear it over the baking bible if I could.


If you're like me, and if pictures are worth 1,000 words, then all you'd hear in your head is "omfg" 1,000 times over. Honestly though, tell me this blondie does not look delicious.


Somewhere along the lines of me slicing these blondies, I realized that I could no longer eat tiny cute little heart shaped pieces. No- I could not eat these and be dainty and cute at the same time... I needed thick rectangular chunks of these blondies... in my mouth... now.


Out the window went my original idea of adorable delicate blondies, and in came these thick-gooey-chewy-chocolaty-crunchy-melty-warm (yes I microwave them before I eat one... I microwave almost anything) blondies.


Don't fret- I saved the extra scraps from the few heart shaped blondies I made. To be continued...

---RECIPE---
Taken from Baking Bites.

ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
1+1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup bittersweet/semi-sweet chocolate chips (semi-sweet)
1 cup butterscotch chips or toffee bits (replaced with white choclate chips, of course)
1 cup chopped pecans (walnuts, toasted)
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut (toasted)

directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325F. Grease a 9×13-inch baking pan.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer), cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, waiting until each is fully incorporated to add the next, then beat in the vanilla.
4. With the mixer on low, gradually add in the flour mixture, stirring only until no streaks of flour remain. Stir in the chips, nuts and coconut by hand.
5. Spread batter into prepared pan, using a lightly greased spatula to even it out.
6. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a tester comes out with only a few crumbs. Cool blondies in the pan, but turn them out (and then reinvert them so the top is facing up) before slicing into 32 bars.

thanksgiving - cookies & blondies (of course with white chocolate chips)

So ever since I got the invite to my boyfriend's family's place for Thanksgiving, I've been thinking of yummy treats to bring. Of course- my boyfriend insisted I make cookies (the winning cookies from our Cookie Bake Off- Cooks Illustrated). As usual, these cookies had to contain white chocolate chips. (My boyfriend is so habitual right?). I figured I'd not only bake "his" cookies, but also attempt blondies (also his favorite). Can you tell how much I love him? Hehe.


The blondies really scared me at first. I baked them the night before, and as I was grabbing a slice for myself, it basically leaked out this oozing goo. I was so scared that it'd be too gooey on the inside, so I left it overnight to set. As I cut it in the morning, it was still soft, but it appeared to have slightly hardened.


I had a taste- of course- and they were delicious. It was almost the same taste as the cookies, but much more gooey and chewy.


The recipe already called for coconut flakes, which is great because my boyfriend also loves coconut. And as he always requests- I added white chocolate chips in.


Once I got to his house, I arranged half the cookies and half the blondies in a tupperware and placed them on the table.


Here are the famous semi-sweet-and-white-chocolate-chip-cookies that my boyfriend loves so much. You know what is funny though? After tasting the blondies, he told me he prefers them to the cookies! So after all this time I've been baking him these specific baked goods- which he told me was the best- and now he admits that he likes something more. So now I'm on the quest to find even better things for him to try.

---BLONDIES RECIPE---
Taken from Baking Bites

ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
1+1/2 cups light brown sugar (I used 1 cup light brown, 1/2 dark brown)
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup bittersweet/semi sweet chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet)
1 cup butterscotch chips or toffee bits (I switched for white chocolate chips of course)
1 cup chopped pecans (omitted, only because I think some people going to be there were allergic to nuts)
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut (toasted for about 10 minutes first)

directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 9x13-inch baking pan. (I only had a stupid glass pan, so the sides were curved and the center was undercooked)
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer), cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, waiting until each is fully incorporated to add the next, then beat in the vanilla. With the mixer on low, gradually add in the flour mixture, stirring only until no streaks of flour remain.
4. Stir in the chips, nuts and coconut by hand.
5. Spread batter into prepared pan, using a lightly greased spatula to even it out.
6. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a tester comes out with only a few crumbs.

---COOKIES RECIPE---
Taken from Cooks Illustrated

ingredients:
2+1/8 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-2 cup chocolate chips (I typically use 1 cup semi-sweet and 1 cup white chocolate)

directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Mix flour, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.
3. Either by hand or with electric mixer, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Mix in egg, yolk, and vanilla.
4. Add dry ingredients; mix until just combined.
5. Stir in chips.
6. Drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto cookie sheet and bake for 15-18 minutes. (I usually bake for 13 minutes because I like softer cookies and I also make smaller cookies)

amount:
Makes 1+1/2 dozen 3-inch cookies (I can usually squeeze 2 dozen out)