Chocolate Chip Pecan Blondies...With Booze!

The Good Cookie is a book I bought a few years ago and have not used enough. It's not that it doesn't have good recipes in it - it does - but I seem to always go back to my tried & true recipes and I seem to overlook it. But, in an attempt to reassess what cookbooks belong on my dedicated bookshelf and which ones I can do without - because I'm moving - I revisited the book to look for inspiration. And I found this recipe, which turned out to be just killer. The rum is essential, let me tell you! In fact, I doubled the amount to make these extra boozy! Yeah, I'm keeping this book. I gave the blondies, again, to family members because, again, what is a single gal trying to watch her waistline going to do with a big pan of blondies?

Chocolate Chip Pecan Blondies, adapted from The Good Cookie, page 119, by Tish Boyle

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup butter
2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup amber rum
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350F and line a 9x13" baking dish with parchment paper, or grease & flour it very well.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.

3. In a mixer, beat butter & brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Beat in vanilla and rum. At low speed, mix in the dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in the pecans & chocolate chips.

4. Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 35 - 40 minutes, or until just golden brown and the centre is set. A toothpick should come out clean but not dry. DO NOT OVERBAKE THESE!

5. Cool completely, portion, and serve!

Magazine Monday #61: Chocolate-Orange Brownines

For once, a non-Canadian Living recipe!

We have having some serious renovations done around here and I have baked a few things for the contractors, who appear to all have sweet tooths. This works for me! I get to bake and not have to have any sweet stuff hanging around my place tempting me, and they get to have nice treats after a day's hard work.

This recipe for Chocolate-Orange Brownies comes from the March 2010 issue of Bon Appetit. Apparently, the recipe originated at Homepage Cafe in Bozeman, Montana, and it was included in the RSVP section of the magazine, where readers write in asking for recipes from restaurants and other eateries - hence it's not included in the recipe database on Epicurious.com. Gr!!!

Anyway, here it is.

Chocolate-Orange Brownies

non-stick vegetable spray
1/2 cup boiling water
6 tbsp natural unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/4 cups packed dark brown sugar
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup pecans, chopped
2 large eggs
10 tbsp (1 1/4 sticks...God I hate how US recipes do this! This is 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp for you Canadians out there!) butter, melted & cooled
1 tbsp grated orange zest
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Spray 9x9x2" metal baking pan with spray. Whisk 1/2 cup boiling water with cocoa powder in a small bowl to blend. Whisk sugar, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl to blend. Stir in pecans. Whisk eggs in a large bowl. Add butter, vanilla, and orange zest. Whisk cocoa mixture into egg mixture. Add flour mixture, stir just to blend. Transfer to prepared pan.

2. Bake until tester inserted into the centre comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, about 30 minutes. Let cool completely in pan on rack. Cut & serve.

These were a huge hit with both the contractors (we took them out on a big platter & my SIL provided them with cold beer!) and with my family. They were perfectly-textured and delicious! Definitely a keeper recipe!

Magazine Monday #57: Two-Tone Chocolate Shortbread

I know it's not Monday, but I am going to be away on the weekend, so I want to get this MM submission published before that.

OK, this isn't technically a magazine recipe, but it did come from a magazine. I've made these shortbread squares many times and I got the recipe way back in 1998 from the Bake Fest insert that comes in the December issue of Canadian Living. I always used to look forward to the Christmas issue of CL just because of this insert, but in recent years I think it's gone down quite a bit. The recipes aren't as interesting and it's more about advertising than it used to be.

But these shortbread squares are excellent and very, very simple! I encourage you to try them. I doubled the recipe this year so I got a huge whack!

Two-Tone Chocolate Shortbread

1 cup softened butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
2 squares (2 oz) semi-sweet chocolate, melted

1. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, or in a stand mixer, beat butter & sugar until fluffy. Sift in flour & cornstarch and beat into butter mixture until just combined.

2. In a parchment lined or well-greased 9" square pan, drop 1/2 the dough in small portions, scattering randomly. Combine chocolate with remaining dough. Drop chocolate dough between the non-chocolate dough in the pan. Press to flatten.

3. Bake @ 3o0F for about 25 minutes or until firm to the touch in the centre. Let cool & slice into squares or bars.

Magazine Monday #31: Toasted Oat Granola Bars

A while back, I posted about the granola bars from Whitewater Cooks. These bars are totally awesome! When I got my latest issue of Canadian Living, there was a homemade granola bar recipe in there, too, and it looked very good. So, I decided to make them the other day.

The recipe for Toasted Oat Granola Bars is here.

Well, you'll definitely work off some of the calories in these bars just by chewing - because they're very chewy. They turned out OK, but they're definitely not as good as the Whitewater Recipe. I might make these again if I varied the ingredients somewhat. As it was, I didn't have any dates so I just added more cranberries, and I didn't have any sunflower seeds, so I added some sliced almonds instead. I think the whole oats made these bars way more chewier than they needed to be, so maybe quick oats might be a bit better. I don't know.

Anyway, not a failure per se, just not my favourite recipe for granola bars. If you make these, let me know what your experience of the recipe is!