For many years, I would use the same banana bread recipe, trusting in my ability to find the recipe online again. Predictably, a few months ago, I tried to find the recipe and found that I no longer remembered which one it is that I […]
This is a recipe that I got from a friend, who in turn found it in a diary left behind in a Zipcar. Apparently it’s a recipe that has been featured in the NYT, but I am too lazy to go and find it, so […]
Blondies are supposedly the non-chocolate alternative to brownies, but let’s face it: they’re basically a chocolate chip cookie in bar form, and you get to cut them into bars without having to portion individual balls of cookie dough. I’ve been using a lightly adapted version of TheKitchn’s deep dish chocolate chip cookies for some time now, swapping out the vanilla for dark rum or bourbon, and using all dark brown sugar instead of light brown and white.
I recently tried Claire Ptak’s blondies recipe (you can find it on Orangette’s blog) and while good, I prefer my version because it’s easier and faster to make — essentially, I don’t find the addition of the caramel to really be a game changer. When I want to make blondies, it’s because I want to eat a chocolate chip cookie right away, and so as long as the basic flavor profile is there, I don’t feel a need to punch it up with anything more sophisticated.
You can make these with or without an electric mixer — the finished blondies will be denser and less soft, without as many air pockets, if you mix them by hand with a wooden spoon. Go for whichever texture you prefer, or choose based on which equipment you feel like washing!
300g (2c) flour
6g (1t) salt (see notes)
7g (1t) baking soda (see notes)
226g (2 sticks) butter
210g (1c) dark brown sugar
145g (2/3c) sugar (or substitute 140g dark brown sugar)
15g (1T) dark rum or bourbon
100-110g (2) eggs
340g (12 oz) dark chocolate, chopped, or chocolate chips (see notes)
1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Beat the butter for 1 minute with an electric mixer on medium speed. Add the sugars and beat for 2 minutes, until fluffy.
2. Scrape down the bowl and add the rum or bourbon and the eggs and beat for 1 minute. Add the salt and baking soda and beat for 1 minute.
3. Scrape down the bowl and add half of the flour and beat on low speed until just incorporated. Repeat with the other half of the flour. It’s fine if there are a few streaks remaining. With a wooden spoon or a spatula, stir in the chocolate, making sure that you incorporate any stray flour.
4. Grease a 9×13 pan (you can also line it with parchment paper). Spread the dough evenly in the pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, until firm around the edges. The middle will still look puffy and a little underdone — this is fine, as the bars will continue to set up as they cool. If you go a little past this, that’s fine — the blondies are fairly forgiving. Cool completely before cutting into (small!!) pieces, or serve warm with vanilla ice cream.
I like to use Guittard baking wafers (as dark as possible) for these — they’re a cheaper approximation of Valrhona feves, which is nice for everyday baking, but are still nice and flat for chocolate chips. I prefer using chips to chopping chocolate for blondies, since it cuts down on prep time and things I have to wash.
If your scale is not sensitive (i.e. it doesn’t measure 1g of anything particularly well), use the volume measures for salt and baking soda.
I’ve provided the weight measure for the eggs just for reference. I see no reason to be precise to the gram for eggs in this particular case (I would when measuring egg yolks for an ice cream base, for example).
When I moved to California, I brought 37 boxes with me, including my collection of pint containers. Yes, pint containers, not pint glasses, procured from an online restaurant supply store. What can I say? I love ice cream, like a proper New Englander, and the […]
One of the tropes of the food blog is the home cook who reviews a recipe despite completely changing the recipe with “improvements.” Well, today is the day that I present to you a recipe that I have, in fact, completely changed — although as […]
At long last, here are the preliminary cookie survey results in poster format! Take a look at them here. More detailed results to follow next week.
When I was in college, I used to open my door during final exams and find a box of cookies underfoot. This meant that Jessica had been hard at work, somehow baking off hundreds of cookies in between studying for and taking exams. For […]
Here’s another cake that’s delicious when unadorned with any accoutrements. This is a cake made with almond paste, which I’ve found makes a cake with a moist but firm crumb. This cake bakes for a long time (as did the other almond paste cake […]
If you have leftover buttermilk, as I did, you should make this cake. This cake is a little lighter than a traditional pound cake, with a bit of tang from the buttermilk. It still has the tight and tender crumb of a pound cake, as well as the caramelized-butter imbued crust on the cake’s exterior. The crust will stay crispy on the first day, then soften after it’s wrapped, so if you like it crispy, plan on eating it as close to baking it as possible. Unlike a traditional pound cake, this one does not taste eggy straight out of the oven (the traditional pound cake I like is best eaten at least a day after baking it). Probably has to do with the leavening depending on both good cake structure and artificial leavening (both baking soda and baking powder). (more…)
I am invariably disappointed by brownies from the store, be they artisanal or made from a box (the sole exception being the gluten-free King Arthur brownie mix). As you know, I already have a favorite brownie recipe, which is more akin to brownie-flavored fudge […]
