Blondies: A.K.A. The Albino Brownie

A friend of mine recently called sounding desperate, saying she needed a recipe for "those albino cookie bar thingies you  made last Christmas " for her son's 5th birthday party. It sounds like an odd request at first, but it's certainly not the first time I've gotten an odd  description of something I've baked at work or at home that someone wants the recipe for.

     She was lucky I speak the language of weird baked-good terminology, and I instantly knew my pal was talking about the yin to the brownie's yang, the beloved Blondie.

Now, I have always been a bar and cookie girl when it comes to desserts. I love to make and consume them in various capacities, and when I had my first blondie many years ago, it was kismet.  While the classic chocolate brownie will always hold a special place in my recipe box, the blondie has the key to my sweet tooth's heart.

I did some research on this confection, and while it was hard to find an exact origin, it's believed that the blondie originated somewhere  in the Southern United States in the early 1900's. Blondies even have their own National Holiday,which lies on  January 22nd. I say if we can still celebrate some poppycock holiday like Colombus day in this country, and close the post office, the same rules should apply for National Blonde Brownie Day. We should all get the day off to make blondies, and leave them on our neighbors doorsteps. Kind of like Christmas meets May day is what I picture in a perfect world.....

Like most bakers, when I really love a particular dessert and want to find the BEST recipe available, I scour the internet, recipe books new and old and raid my grandma's and mothers recipe box .After a few trials and tribulations, you usually end up with a few really good ones, which is of course ideal.  I can't remember where I procured this exact Blondie recipe, if memory serves it was off the basic one from the Ghirardelli website, but I changed a few things to suit my likings.

Blondies
- 2 1/2  bars 9 10 o.z.) White chocolate ( I use Ghirardelli, it's really one of the best in my opinion) 
-1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
-1 cup chocolate chips ( I used Ghiradelli milk chocolate chips)
-1/s cup cashews, chopped fine
-2 eggs
-1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 T. vanilla
-1 1/4 cup flour
-1/2 t. salt
Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 9 inch square or round pan. Melt 8 ounces of the white chocolate in a double boil (or stirring VERY carefully, white chocolate scorches very easily, use a low heat and stir it constantly.), chop the rest into small pieces and set aside with the cashew pieces. In a bowl, beat eggs until foamy. Add sugar, vanilla, chocolate and butter slowly. Fold in flour, salt and chips until combined. Spoon into pan, bake 20-25 minutes depending on your oven.

    This beautiful behemoth is one fine looking dessert, and it looks like it could hold it's own in a boxing match against a brownie.

Smaller pieces like this are probably a good idea, unless  you're training for a marathon, then eat as many as you want. Or if it's National Blondie day of course.

You can see how soft and chewy they are, and they have a rich and moist texture I attribute to the brown sugar and lack of leavening . And they have a subtle, creamy white chocolate taste that's not quite  as in your face as some blondie recipes that are a bit sickeningly sweet. The chocolate and cashews are an added bonus that are really good.

I've had blondies with raspberries, butterscotch chips and smothered with a maple syrupy butter sauce in New Mexico once, and they all were ridiculously good. I'm sure I'll end up writing about some of the more exotic blondie concoctions as time passes.They're a change of pace for all you hard-core brownie lovers out there  (That means you, Summer ;)) 

You all might actually  reconsider telling that next blonde joke once you've tried one of these awesome chewy treats, having earned a new found respect for the fairer counterpart to the chocolate brownie.