Being known for a recipe is a pleasant marker of adulthood. I’m not talking about “adulting” in that “lol omg I paid a bill” way but in the sense of having lived long enough, and done something enough times and with increasing confidence, that others can rely on you for it. It can be something elaborate and impressive, or just something you happen to be good at making. For every birthday party I have a friend who makes incredible, fondant-decorated cakes, and another who makes onion dip from those Lipton soup packets, and both are as respected and adored for their contributions.
What I’m saying is that if you’re of potlucking age, it’s good to have some standbys. It’s even better to hit that sweet spot of making a crowdpleaser that’s not the most common thing you could bring. Mine is blondies.
This recipe was passed down to me from my mom and the back of a Hershey’s bag of mini chips, and became a favorite of high school musical rehearsals and sleepovers. For a long time any invitation to a party at my place would be met with “but will there be blondies?,” and holidays are celebrated with a pan of them sitting on the counter as little squares keep mysteriously being cut out of it all day until it’s gone.
For those of you unfamiliar, blondies are sort of like chocolate chip cookies if you baked them into brownie form. This recipe has been tinkered with some from the original package instructions, mainly in the sugar ratios. You can mess with any combination of white and brown sugar you want, but I’d recommend not going with all white sugar, as you’ll miss out on some of those caramel and molasses notes that make these so good. I have been known to substitute maple syrup for vanilla when I’ve run out of the latter to great success.
Some recipes call for nuts, which I suppose you can add if you’re the type of person who likes to ruin things.
Blondies!
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
3/4 cups butter (1 1/2 sticks), ideally at room temperature but sometimes you need to bake emergency blondies and don’t have time for that
1 cup dark brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 Tbsp milk
1 generous tsp vanilla
2 cups (12 oz. package) chocolate chips (the original recipe calls for mini-chips, but I’ve found that regular semi-sweet chips make them all the gooier)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 13×9 inch pan (glass/pyrex pans work best).
Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, milk, and vanilla to the butter mixture and beat well. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ones about 1/3 of the bowl at a time, until everything is thoroughly combined. Stir in the chips.
Spread the batter as evenly as you can across the pan, and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean and the edges are a nice golden brown. You should probably wait a little bit before cutting into them so the chips set up a bit.
Arrive to a party with great acclaim.
Unfortunately carbonara is a terrible potluck food, but yes it’s nice to have a few things under your belt that heading-towards-drunk friends reliably ask if you will make.
Carbonara is something I have missed a lot since moving in with my vegetarian boyfriend (and restaurant carbonara is nowhere near as nice as when my dad makes it, so profoundly unsatisfying).
I am beyond pleased to see the Toast taking a firm stance against nuts in blondies. I can now freely assume this is the position of the entire editorial staff and can continue to patronize this establishment without shame.
Also, this looks lovely, and I will probably make some next time I feel like baking, which will be soon, because we’ve been watching a lot of Great British Bake-Off lately. (P.S. Does anyone know a legal way to get at the first four seasons in the US? I WANT TO GIVE YOU MONEY, BBC, PLEASE TAKE IT.)
Yes to this. Really nuts in any kind of baked bar item are just not okay.
The entire first season is definitely on YouTube, and assorted other episodes are as well. It is SO soothing and has ruined me for all other (read: American) cooking competitions.
*note to self: nuts in baked items are unpopular. Add nuts to all baked items that I want to keep to myself.*
YES. I love nuts in my brownies and can never add them because everyone else looks at me with horror as though I have committed some crime and not added deliciousness to the gooey chocolateness.
yes I am all for ruining everything with nuts. We can sit in the corner and eat all the more delicious things alone, apparently!
Wait wait don’t start without me!
EXACTLY. You should eat the delicious nuts ALONE, not in brownies.
I made some blondies this weekend! With pine nuts *and* walnuts, and they were amazing. I wish I hadn’t eaten them all yet, just so I could eat another now! Maybe I’ll make some more with even MORE nuts!
Ooooooh but let’s put some raisins in!
*stirs the pot*
I would, but I used them all up in my oatmeal cookies.
If you have premixed self-rising cake flour then you are a stick of butter and some milk (ideally buttermilk but whatever) and 15 minutes away from always having fresh biscuts on hand always.
If you have some milk and some white vinegar, you are five minutes away from having workable buttermilk! My spontaneous biscuit habit took a real upswing when I acquired that knowledge.
Now no one has an excuse not to have biscuts on hand at all times.
Grain-, dairy-, and egg- free blondies for those of us with those food allergies (sorry, nut-allergy sufferers, I got nothing for you). I can attest to the deliciousness of these. I think I ate four pans of them (with some small help from the Burgomaster) during the holidays.
These look AWESOME. I’m a Celiac with a lot of nut allergies, but I feel pretty confident that you could sub the peanut/almond butter for SunButter (just mashed-up sunflower seeds, but it has CHANGED my LIFE) and it wouldn’t affect the taste or consistency. Thank you so much for sharing this!
You’re so welcome! I hope they work for you with the SunButter!
I keep meaning to try making these! I still need to measure out exactly how much beans are in a can, since I’m cooking all my own beans now.
1 1/2 cups (cooked [I think thats ~2/3 uncooked]) of black beans is one 15oz can. the cooked:canned ratio is probably the same for chickpeas but I’m not sure about uncooked.
For soups and salads I use 1/2 cup uncooked to equal one 15 ounce can once they’re cooked and that seems to work pretty well for most any type of bean
I often use a little less sweetener and a little more almond butter–nothing big, I just sort of eyeball the amounts if I don’t feel like dirtying a measuring cup–and they come out fine. Being a tad off on the garbanzos probably won’t kill the recipe, either.
BLESS YOU. My consort is allergic to wheat, eggs, and dairy, and I miss blondies.
THESE ARE THE BEST. I started making them for a friend who was dairy-free and then I ate the first batch and had to make another and to make a long story short (too late) they are now my most favoritest dessert.
Woohoo! So cool that someone else is already making these!
Bless you for not defiling these with nuts.
Yes, Amen a thousand times over!
Upon moving to the midwest, I have become known in my workplace for…tzatziki? Gyros were agreed upon for the most recent lunch meeting we had because then I would my* “yogurt dip.” I like being appreciated, but dudes, we’ve got to set the culinary bar a little higher.
*the internet’s
Ha! No offense to your tzatziki because I’m sure it’s good but what is the taste difference between a three-star and a five-star tzatziki? It seems like one of those foods that is either good enough, or bad (probably bad because it’s spoiled? Or you put nuts in it which is apparently Not Official Toast Stance?).
Once I got critical acclaim at work for putting cream cheese and raspberry jam on Ritz crackers.
I was similarly startled upon moving from East to Midwest that tzatziki is apparently an uncommon thing. Lots of mustard and kraut around here, though.
I live in Portland, Oregon, and was once shocked to find out a couple of my coworkers (at a temp job in the ‘burbs) had never heard of hummus. HUMMUS. Even Safeway and Albertsons have hummus, come on.
my mom always makes blondies with m&ms in them! I will have to try this recipe to see how they compare to hers.
I love any baked good containing m&m’s, they are the best.
My roommate is from the town in NJ where the m&m factory is located, so I don’t think we’ve run out of them once. It’s pretty great.
There is no greater feeling on Earth than putting your Mac and cheese next to 3 inferior Macs and coming back to find yours is the one everyone devoured.
Care to share that recipe? 😉 I have never been able to produce a homemade Mac and Cheese that pleased me greatly.
This one from Fine Cooking is superb. It’s a little labour intensive but the results are SO WORTH IT.
http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/armentrout-cla…
That looks incredible!!
The main principles are:
-Make a roux for the sauce as it adds depth and butter.
-Velveeta is insipid, so use a good strong Cheddar (or whatever) for full flavor.
-SEASON THE SAUCE, with some garlic and Paprika (and a little cayenne for Southerners).
-Elbow macaroni has no backbone. Rotini al dente has a better texture and doesn’t go mushy.
-Bake the product in a casserole dish with a shitload of melting cheese over it. You want a crisp top and lots of oozing.
-Use full-fat cheese, actual butter, and at least 2% milk. This is a dairy fat orgy on a plate, and if you can’t stomach that reality then you won’t be stomaching this delicious food either.
I definitely use many of those elements, (lots of good cheese and butter) but have always fallen into the elbow macaroni trap! Also, I don’t think the recipes I used started with a roux…. Hmm, this may be my weekend project!
Ground mustard is very important, it cuts any hint of flour from the roux and/but isn’t distinguishable from the sharp cheese when eating.
This is how my partner makes macaroni cheese, except for seasoning the white sauce with nutmeg and sometimes sprinkling pine nuts and/or breadcrumbs on top. It’s glorious. (How do you make macaroni cheese without starting with a roux?)
The secret, in my experience, is right there in your username. It’s amazing how much cheese you can cram into a Béchamel sauce!
The Homesick Texan has a couple different recipes for mac & cheese, including this one with poblano and bacon.
Seconding this one. At one potluck I didn’t get to eat any of the dish I brought.
This one http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015825-creamy… is my favorite. Close to inedibly cheesy without crossing that line, wonderfully easy, and the nutmeg + mustard gives an amazing depth of flavor.
I take pride in very few things, but my mac and cheese is one of them. It is my signature dish, and that makes me feel like I have my own Food Network show, which is The Dream.
Every year at Christmas my aunt wants to argue with me about how her mac and cheese is better. But lo and behold, whose is fully consumed by the end of the night? MINE, AUNT LINDA. MINE.
Like when I made oyster stuffing and people were like “oyster stuffing????” and then it was all ate up and the other stuffings were left bereft.
My staples to make for parties are cheesy biscuits (yes, like the Red Lobster ones), and spicy buffalo chicken dip. It really is a good feeling to see someone excited about the thing you brought!
And these sound amazing. My mom used to make blondies (I think with the somewhat misguided thought that they were a healthier kind of brownie?) and I miss them.
Buffalo chicken dip is such a party pleaser! One time my friend made spicy cheese dip, and I made buffalo chicken dip, and we combined them to make the ultimate dip that made everyone have really liquid-y shits but it was totally worth it!!!
My guacamole has become this in my family. The warm feeling I get from people asking if I’ll make guac is almost enough to outweigh the irritation I get from having to make two batches, one good one and one sad one for mutants who don’t have the gene that makes cilantro delicious.
As an Anti-Cilantro Activist, I invite you to shove your gene-shaming. Cilantro tastes like detergent the end.
Lemon bars and a great smoked-trout dip/spread here. I also have a kickass eggplant-spinach-mushroom lasagna, but that sucka takes hours of fussing so it’s saved for dinner parties.
Would you be willing to share the smoked trout dip recipe? As that greatly appeals to my primary interests, which are smoked meats and dips.
Not the original poster, but I have had the below recipe and can attest that it is excellent:
http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/lemony-smoked-tr…
All through my childhood, my mother made these amazingly thick moist butterscotch brownie things that we called blondies, and I have just realized that we have been misnaming them all these years. But now am also pining for a pan of those . . .
I think that is also a perfectly crumulent blondie, IIRC.
I, too, suddenly realized I’ve been misnaming blondies all my life as well. I thought blondies required white chocolate chips, and my family always called the recipe above “toll house bars” (likely because my mother got the recipe from the back of the Toll House brand chips).
My family called them “cookie bars.” I had totally forgotten that until just now 🙂
Our blondies required a batter that depended heavily on the inclusion of butterscotch pudding mix and also a million butterscotch chips. But now I want to make something like that with white chocolate!
Could you maybe put that recipe here, because it sounds amazing, please?
Please please recipe please?
thirding the request for the recipe.
I think that is a more typical form of blondie.
It must be one of those regional things, because I have never heard the term blondie to mean something with chocolate chips until today! I also think of blondie meaning butterscotch brownies, which I love. I would call these chocolate chip cookie bars, or something like that.
I think of a blondie as any sort of brownie made without chocolate? so both would fit the term.
The ones my mom makes are similar to the recipe above, and they are definitely butterscotch-y, if not on the same level as Theo’s mom’s recipe. It’s brown sugar and butter, it cannot go wrong.
For sure. These sound like delicious bar cookies, but a blondie has butterscotch chips, not chocolate.
I once made a noodle salad (copied from an “Asian” noodle salad at Whole Foods) for a potluck and people liked it enough they asked for the recipe. That was gratifying.
My whipped shortbread have been known to make grown men weep, mostly because they got to the party too late to snag any.
I am intrigued! More details please — about the recipe, though I wouldn’t mind a vivid description of men weeping.
They’re actually super easy! Beat the living daylights out of 1/2 c butter 1/2 c icing sugar and 1 1/2 c flour (about 7-8 minutes on high in a stand mixer, 10 minutes with a hand mixer), decorate – male tears will do nicely – and bake
~17 minutes at 350F or until edges are golden. The recipe doubles and freezes really well.
oh thank you! I will have to pick up some male tears on my way home from to ensure that these are not only delicious, but beautiful
Pro tip: male tears also freeze well, so you can collect them from one set of party-goers and use them in future batches. It’s the cycle of life!
All through my childhood, my mother made these amazingly thick moist butterscotch brownie things that we called blondies, and I have just realized that we have been misnaming them all these years. But now am also pining for a pan of those . . .
Friends, I am pro-nuts and can I JUST SAY that one time i accidentally ground my almonds too fine for my blondies, so instead of almond slices it was more almond powder, and it ADDED SO MUCH FLAVOR TO THE BLONDIES AND THEY WERE THE BEST I’VE EVER HAD.
Anyway, I make killer chocolate chip cookies. Tips: melt the butter (but let it cool before adding the mixture), brown sugar > all other sugars, bake at a low temperature so things have time to caramelize.
Nutty powder would probably be fine! It’s not the taste for me, it’s the texture. You’re trying to shove your mouth full of delicious moist gooey wonder, and suddenly there’s just a big ol’ walnut in the way. You may as well just put styrofoam packing peanuts in there too, while you’re at it. But if the nuts were pulverized, then you could get a bit of nutty flavor without the “oh okay suddenly it is nut time” sensation with every bite.
Yes! I have one gluten-free sister so when I do Family Brownies I use Nigella’s recipe that has ground almonds instead of flour, and that is lovely.
co-signed! and walnuts are the worst offenders, it’s like biting down on a pebble with no warning, why would you want that in your brownie
Walnuts are pretty much the worst nut, in general. Why would you ever use walnuts for anything, when pecans exist?
yes but cashews are the king of nuts.
“oh okay suddenly it is nut time” sounds like something Mallory might have written in the “Women Having A Terrible Time At Parties” post, particularly for a painting of a woman looking irritated while some rando tries to tell her about paleo.
YUP I co-sign this awesome accident- I do this on purpose with hazelnuts when I make chocolate chip cookies. Adds so much depth to the flavor!
Have you ever made chocolate chip cookies with browned butter? http://theapronarchives.com/2011/05/08/americas-t…
This recipe changed my life. The browned butter is very obvious in the raw dough, but when the cookies are baked it changes to a subtler, caramel-y flavor. So good.
As a pro-nut, anti-chocolate chips hardliner (come at me, chocolate chips ruin everything), I have to offer an alternative blondie recipe that people lose their fucking minds over: http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2006/11/blondies-f…
I brown the butter first and add toasted coconut and pecans.
I use that one too! My favorite version was when I added caramel extract (although I also put in three kinds of chocolate chips).
Oh my god I thought I was the only person who was always disappointed in chocolate chips.
I found this recipe for homemade Moose Munch with a caramel sauce made from honey instead of corn syrup and it is the most delicious thing (and that’s saying something because I don’t actually like caramel normally but I will eat an entire bag of caramel corn made with this super easy and fast caramel) and I give it out at Christmas. This year I was handing it to a husband and the wife yelled from across the room “THAT’S MINE” and it made me feel all warm and toasty inside.
I always thought blondies were brownies made with white chocolate. I am educated. Also, planning to bake.
Well if they WERE then I would like them and eat them.
“Hey, guys, I know how to ruin cookies on purpose- let’s make them square and thick and weird!” is how I feel about blondies.
But a good brownie is heaven on earth. And I love white chocolate. So I hope you figure this out and post the recipe.
Nigella lawson’s blondies are white chocolate brownies and they are the BEST. This is her recipe https://bakeandbemerry.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/w…. The buttery chocolately goodness is amaaaaazing. This person is in tune with the Toast readership in hating nuts in their baked goods, but I totsally recommend adding the macadamia nuts as the original recipe suggests. They have a particularly lovely, sort of creamy texture and are just enough to ‘lift’ the overwhelming sweetness of the white chocolate.
I may have to do sonme baking tonight.
I just bought 8 packets of Milky Bar chocolate buttons because my local shop didn’t sell any other form of white chocolate. I refuse to examine my life choices.
Can this become a Toast series? I want everyone’s best recipe (and everyone wants to get published)!
I’ve recently mastered Smitten Kitchen’s Feta Tapenade Tarte Soleil (or as I like to call, Sun Tart): http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2015/12/feta-tapen…
It’s delicious, fancy-looking, and actually not too labor intensive. I always tend to over-reach when serving food and end up going too fancy for my audience, but I’ve found that the twisty rays of this are inviting and it gets devoured!
I’ve been thinking about making that in a couple weeks for a “Fast Talking Dames” brunch that a friend invited me to. Perhaps I’ll do a practice run this weekend.
I found that it took me about an hour to assemble, but that was with rolling out and combining two sheets of puff pastry into one for each layer. If you wanted to make a smaller tarte and not devote as much time, I would use only one sheet per layer.
Thanks! I’ll definitely keep that in mind.
this sounds like the best type of brunch.
Omg I made that last week for a dinner party at my house! Everyone lost their minds. It ended in a hilariously Canadian way, with one little arm sitting on the plate which everyone politely ignored while desperately wanting to eat it.
Related: Pre-rolled puff pastry is my new beloved.
Just before Christmas there was a post going around on facebook, with a recipe similar to this but shaped like a Christmas tree, which I made to take to a family event. It was received with much excitement, and devoured 🙂 Also, pretty easy to make!
I’m pretty excited about this recipe but also kind of disappointed this wasn’t actually about the band. Parallel lines was the first CD I bought with my own money and I went as Debbie Harry for halloween in high school because I was So Cool.
Anyway, nuts are terrible in desserts and I’m glad to be among friends on that stance.
I just saw her in Whole Foods the other day! In fact, I *annoyed* her in Whole Foods, by taking my damn time going through all the cookie packages in the cookie package bin, looking for chocolate chip. All they had was sugar. I backed away, stunned and must say she looks wonderful (even while annoyed!). By far, the most excited I’ve been at Whole Foods in years.
if you see her around again tell her I said hi
Also, just now realizing that this story would’ve been better if we were standing over a bin of blondie bars. Alas.
Welp now I need some fuckin’ emergency blondies.
The emergency is that I’m PMSing and depressed at the same time.
I am good at cheesecakes but unfortunately no one likes them as much as I doooooo. I live among Pie People (ugh).
Let’s get together, since I can muster some Golden Girls-level of cheesecake enthusiasm, yet do not own a mixer or a springform pan.
Yesssssss!
Come and live with me and feed me cheesecake and I will make white chocolate brownies.
WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE WHO DON’T LIKE CHEESECAKE?!
I come from a cheesecake family. I’ll come to you. I can bring my nephews, nobody loves cheesecake like those kids.
Cheesecake pie. I had an amazing cheesecake pecan pie at Thanksgiving–it basically had cheesecake instead of the weird Karo syrup filling that normal pecan pie has. You could probably do something similar for all types of pie.
Ooo, that sounds good. I like the Karo syrup filling but I can feel my pancreas curling in upon itself when I even so much as look at a pecan pie.
I think there was still some Karo filling, but it was thinner on top of the cheesecake. I did not make the delicious pie, so I am very vague on the details.
In other magical food combinations, I had a delightful apple praline dessert bread over Christmas. Also A+ would encourage someone to figure it out so I can have the recipe.
I made this pie! It’s called Mystery Pecan Pie and it’s really easy to prepare. It was a big hit at the work Thanksgiving Day dinner.
“of potlucking age”.
Outstanding.
Lipton soup packet onion dip is amazing, in case anybody reading this article is now worried about not having a go-to potluck item.
Plus it’s so old school now that there are adult human Americans who have never tried it and will demand the recipe!
I actually love fiddly labor intensive recipes but some of the most popular things I’ve ever made were onion dip and a layered dip that’s basically buffalo chicken with extra cheese.
I just donated blood today and they always have a big bowl of chips and onion soup packet dip. It is my favorite part of donating blood!
Also the Knorr’s vegetable soup packets turned into spinach dip!
I’ve won more than one deviled egg contest, probably to the chagrin of many a significant other the following day.
My thing is pies from scratch. It is very satisfying to be considered a pie-witch of great power, but I will be filled with a very ungenerous rage against anybody who brings a lazier competing dessert. FUCK YOUR SAFEWAY SNICKERDOODLES, AND I HOPE THAT SHEET CAKE DIES IN ITS SLEEP.
omg this is exactly how i feel 92% of the time; pie 5eva
I am quite good at pie. It turns out that if I put cold quarter sticks of butter in flour and just cut/squeeze/work it with my hands for precisely until-I-am-bored minutes then add ice water it creates the perfect crust.
One of my friends tried ice-cold vodka instead of water once. She claimed it maked the curst lihgter and flaklier.
+1 for the inventive spelling, which I assume was intentional and also I have had half a bottle of wine myself, so yay. (But my computer is autocorrecting things so my comment is not as awesome)
Seriously, fuck grocery-store cake. It’s called BUTTERCREAM, not “whipped-hydrogenated-oils-with-god-only-knows-what stablizers-and-sweeteners” cream.
I used to be the ONLY vegan contributor to my partner’s Thanksgiving holiday party at work, so I would make a huuuuuge dish of roasted winter vegetables with rosemary that would get snarfed and have people staring with naked longing into the empty pan. Is there any balm to the ego so good as that?? (I am not vegan; I just realized that there were vegans there and few vegan dishes showing up.)
I tend to live and die by my baked goods. My pecan pie by mention alone makes people speak in hushed, reverent tones. I also do a ridic pumpkin-sweet potato recipe I stole shamelessly from Smitten Kitchen and serve with a very, very boozy whipped cream, but it is some work, so I only make it at the specific request and accompanying sexual favors of Mr. Catherine. (Can you tell I get a lot out of having other people consume my food? This is a thing, apparently. The Toast: when you didn’t know you were making the world your therapist.)
More commonly, and on topic, I make a ridiculous cookie bar with toffee bits and m&ms and oatmeal and the thinnest coating of milk chocolate chips on top, and a peanut butter glaze, and it is So Damn Easy… which makes it all the more enjoyable when I lounge smugly while there are fisticuffs over who got the last bit.
I went through a major cupcake phase, and now get hopeful inquiries before events regarding whether there will be any cupcakes making an appearance. My personal favorite is the Manhattan Cupcake, which is basically a chocolate cake recipe with lots of good bourbon and chopped cherries, a delicate vermouth/cherry brandy wash, and a bourbon chocolate buttercream with a bit of the syrup from preserved cherries (Bada Bing by Tillen Farms). In case you wanted to eat a chocolate cupcake that had been, you know, marinating in a Manhattan. When I’m feeling saucy I throw some disco dust on the top, otherwise, I just go with a cherry.
Wow, I was having such a day, and this has cheered me up so much! I love hearing about what people love to make and that people enjoy eating. I have saved many recipes to try. Thanks, Toasties!
Would you be willing to share your cookie bar recipe!?
You better believe it. I warn you that I write the worst recipes ever. I love details. So, sorry about that.
Go forth and cookie bar! I love these. If you have everything near at hand you can have them mixed, baked, waiting for glaze, and the kitchen cleaned in about a half hour. I do prefer them chilled, but you can chill to cut them then allow them to be room temperature.
Chris’ Cookie Bars
BAR:
1 1/3 c. flour
1 c. oats
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c. softened butter
1/3 c. peanut butter
2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
OPTIONALS:
Heath toffee bits
chopped pecans
dried cherries
M&Ms
toasted coconut flakes
etc
(I usually use a third of a bag of toffee chips and a small handful of chopped pecans. Note that if you add too many optionals, they get crumbly. Delicious, but crumbly.)
chocolate chips (I use a bag because yay chocolate!, but you can use half a bag and have a nice kiss of chocolate for contrast and not overwhelm people — here is also a moneymaker: use the good stuff. You can even chop up your favorite chocolate bar, in whatever darkness suits you.)
GLAZE:
3/4 c. powdered sugar
3 tbsp peanut butter
3-5 tbsp milk (You can use however much liquid you want. Make it a consistency you want to work with. Thinner won’t set up as gooey but it does do that nice crusting over thing – it’s a personal choice. I make mine with tons of peanut butter and powdered sugar, a dash of large ground sea salt, and as little milk as I can manage, so that it’s like a faux icing in bites and just a hint in other bites.)
Heat over to 350 degrees.
Grease a 13×9″ pan. (Butter will suffice.)
Combine everything but the chocolate and glaze ingredients.
Bake 15-20 minutes. (The top can be a little squooshy, just make sure the edges are browning and then take them out or they will be dry.)
Sprinkle chocolate over the top; allow to melt.
Spread melted chocolate and allow to set up while you mix glaze.
Apply glaze in lines going in one direction only. Then use a butter knife and draw perpendicular lines through chocolate and glaze lines. Clean the knife after each pull. It will make pretty pretty patterns that way. I sometimes go nuts and go diagonal with my knife-drawings. Then I like to sprinkle some finely chopped nuts or festively colored M&Ms. Chill, cut, devour.
I do a variation on this as a breakfast/tea cookie with whole wheat flour, twice the peanut butter, only the brown sugar (thus, half the sugar), and only dried fruit optionals. No chocolate on top and no glaze. Still very tasty but it feels so virtuous, and if you use dried fruit you rehydrated with Grand Marnier it is beautiful with Earl Grey tea.
Thank you for posting this!! I may make a version tomorrow. Quick question: In your note for the breakfast version, you say that you use only the brown sugar and so only half the sugar, but i am not seeing any white sugar in the original recipe. Should there be some there? Thanks again!!
wow, good catch! thanks. Yes, original version has 1/2 c white sugar and 1/2 c brown sugar. You can sub either way, but the brown sugar has great flavors that play well with the peanut butter and toffee.
At my workplace we have many, many shared morning teas, and the only thing I have ever attempted that is consistently finished is a weird sausage-roll type thing that I still don’t have a good name for. It’s just a sundried tomato chutney, baby spinach leaves and feta, rolled up in flaky pastry and chopped up to look like a sausage roll, and it’s super easy, especially if (like me) you buy pre-rolled pastry.
Details oh please oh please.
Oh, there aren’t really any more details than that!
Pop your piece of pastry down, spread about half of it with a chutney of your choice (I use sundried tomato and olive), spread baby spinach leaves and crumbled feta across the middle, making sure to leave some space at the end so it doesn’t overflow. Roll it up into a long tube, chop it into pieces of your preferred size (I use eighths, but it doesn’t really matter). Pop it into the oven at 180 Celsius (or the equivalent in Fahrenheit) and cook until the pastry is golden.
I prefer them warm, but they’re pretty good cold, and they freeze really well. The perfect recipe!
This fudge. It’s the best ever and will make you so many fans. Secret is to not rush – wait for it to slowly come to a boil over a low heat, and then get to the right temp (soft ball stage – I use a candy thermometer), and then beat it for a minute or two longer than you’d expect (5-8 minutes, depending)
http://whatkimate.co.nz/2009/07/31/russian-fudge/
My go-to recipes for taking food to share are cheese straws (so easy! Just roll out ready-made puff pastry, brush with beaten egg, add lots and lots of grated cheddar, fold over, brush the top with more egg, cut into strips, bake. Sometimes I add oregano or paprika) and carrot hummus from this Guardian recipe (http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/may/25/carrot-recipes-hugh-fearnley-whittingstall), which gets loads of compliments.
You better believe it. I warn you that I write the worst recipes ever. I love details. So, sorry about that.
Go forth and cookie bar! I love these. If you have everything near at hand you can have them mixed, baked, waiting for glaze, and the kitchen cleaned in about a half hour. I do prefer them chilled, but you can chill to cut them then allow them to be room temperature.
Chris' Cookie Bars
BAR:
1 1/3 c. flour
1 c. oats
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c. softened butter
1/3 c. peanut butter
2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
OPTIONALS:
Heath toffee bits
chopped pecans
dried cherries
M&Ms
toasted coconut flakes
etc
(I usually use a third of a bag of toffee chips and a small handful of chopped pecans. Note that if you add too many optionals, they get crumbly. Delicious, but crumbly.)
chocolate chips (I use a bag because yay chocolate!, but you can use half a bag and have a nice kiss of chocolate for contrast and not overwhelm people — here is also a moneymaker: use the good stuff. You can even chop up your favorite chocolate bar, in whatever darkness suits you.)
GLAZE:
3/4 c. powdered sugar
3 tbsp peanut butter
3-5 tbsp milk (You can use however much liquid you want. Make it a consistency you want to work with. Thinner won't set up as gooey but it does do that nice crusting over thing – it's a personal choice. I make mine with tons of peanut butter and powdered sugar, a dash of large ground sea salt, and as little milk as I can manage, so that it's like a faux icing in bites and just a hint in other bites.)
Heat over to 350 degrees.
Grease a 13×9" pan. (Butter will suffice.)
Combine everything but the chocolate and glaze ingredients.
Bake 15-20 minutes. (The top can be a little squooshy, just make sure the edges are browning and then take them out or they will be dry.)
Sprinkle chocolate over the top; allow to melt.
Spread melted chocolate and allow to set up while you mix glaze.
Apply glaze in lines going in one direction only. Then use a butter knife and draw perpendicular lines through chocolate and glaze lines. Clean the knife after each pull. It will make pretty pretty patterns that way. I sometimes go nuts and go diagonal with my knife-drawings. Then I like to sprinkle some finely chopped nuts or festively colored M&Ms. Chill, cut, devour.
I do a variation on this as a breakfast/tea cookie with whole wheat flour, twice the peanut butter, only the brown sugar (thus, half the sugar), and only dried fruit optionals. No chocolate on top and no glaze. Still very tasty but it feels so virtuous, and if you use dried fruit you rehydrated with Grand Marnier it is beautiful with Earl Grey tea.
THANK YOU. These sound decadent and delicious and I am making them this weekend. One question: In your note about the breakfast version, you say you use only the brown sugar and thus half the sugar, but I'm only seeing the brown sugar in the original recipe, no white sugar. Should there be white sugar in the original?
Ugh, couldn't even get my own username right!!
Okay, so when I saw the title I thought that this was a tutorial for a Blondie cover of ‘My Way’. Which would still have been cool, but impractical and not half as tasty.
wow, good catch! thanks. Yes, original version has 1/2 c white sugar and 1/2 c brown sugar. You can sub either way, but the brown sugar has great flavors that play well with the peanut butter and toffee.
"Bring a plate" has been a big cultural convention in Australasia since forever (basically any informal or even semi-formal gathering may be expected to be a potluck), and there is often STRONG competition about whose plate is cleared off first and borne smugly away by the "winner". Shuffling some lonely uneaten items onto an adjacent plate is "cheating", unless you're packing up the event.
I have had good success with hand-made sushi at post-uni-house parties, and more recently, with my witty, retro, cute AND tasty cheese-and-pineapple hedgehog at my partner's exhibition opening.
<img src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/ee/23/91/ee2391e1dead4e7c49b804c9906171b8.jpg">
(not mine – but an example of the breed)