Monday, August 17, 2009

Blond Brownies With Chocolate Chips and Butterscotch Frosting


I've been making bars again.

Seriously though, you don't even need the hand mixer for these. It makes a reasonably small batch as well, so you won't feel compelled to finish the tray before bedtime...and if you do, what the hell it was only 1/3 cup of butter.

The frosting is very, very sweet. I needed more powdered sugar than the recipe called for to make it spread, which may have accounted for that. It is almost like candy that forms a hard, sugary crust and goes all "squishy-schunchy" against the teeth. Oh, you know what I mean...like when you over-cook fudge and it gets a little granular but is still good enough to eat an entire pound of because you don't want to waste. Is it just me, or does not-quite-perfect fudge always taste better eaten standing over the sink at two in the morning?

From that bloody Pillsbury Butter Cookie Book from the 50's that is the only thing standing between me and my size four jeans which just allllll....most button (OK, I have to lie down and suck in my gut, but that's still almost).

You Will Need:

1 cup AP flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 unbeaten egg
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chocolate chips
(Frosting recipe follows below)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8x8 inch pan. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a saucepan, melt the butter and sugar. Remove from heat. Stir in the eggs and vanilla and mix well. Gradually add the dry ingredients stirring well to combine. Spread in pan and spread chips on top. Bake 25-30 minutes. Cool completely in pan.

Make frosting:

In sauce pan combine 2 tablespoons butter with 1/4 cup brown sugar and 2 tablespoons milk. Bring to a boil over medium heat and cook 2 minutes. Remove from heat and blend in 3/4 cup sifted confectioner's sugar (I needed more) and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract. Thin with milk if needed. Spread on blondies.

4 comments:

Raymond said...

I once made brownie-type cake/bars using Postum (remember that coffee substitute?) and they were freaking AWESOME! I wanna make them again but I don't wanna buy Postum.

Goody said...

Maybe you could get a small amount of ground chicory at the health food store...same thing, I think.

Raymond said...

A quick Google of "postum" finds this on WikiPedia:

Postum was made from wheat bran, wheat, molasses, and maltodextrin from corn. It was discontinued in 2007.

"DISCONTINUED"!!!??! Oy!!

However, the WikiPedia article also says this:

In the wake of its discontinuance, a number of replica recipes for Postum have circulated across the Internet.

such as:

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1630,149185-250198,00.html

Goody said...

If I'd never tasted the stuff I would think that sounds horrible, but the old man used to stir some into the coffee to "stretch" it and really, it wasn't bad at all-hardly noticed it. Can't say I ever drank it straight though.

Now I'm having a flashback to this pulverised, almost powdered coffee/wheat mixture Evelyn used to bring me back from the Middle East. It was light as air and would kind of float on the hot water and you had to let it stand a bit before stirring it in or it would just blob over. She was under some sort of impression L. liked the stuff. I sort of think that would be good for baking.

Bummer about the Potsum though-what the hell are old people supposed to drink now?