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Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Toffee Blondies

Last night was a leftover night for dinner. No real cooking was done on my part. Unless you consider heating a plate in the microwave as cooking. Which is exactly what I used to consider to be cooking.

I am very thankful food was ready and that all I had to do was heat it up. My RA has been flaring up a little more these past few days than it has been all week. It makes chopping and stirring impossible. I do have some knifes and other utensils that have rounder than normal handles. If that makes sense. According to reachbeyondra.com larger rounded handles are suppose to ease the pain of gripping. Some days I would agree and some days not so much. Some days my hands are so swollen that the handle would have to the the size of a tree trunk to help. Those days, we eat leftovers or fast food. 

Despite the stiff swollen joints I did make a very simple, yet very delicious, dessert. I made a batch to go with Sunday nights dinner too. That is how fast and simple these blondies are. You won't mind mixing up a batch two nights in a row. Or you can save yourself the time and double the first batch. That is really what I should have done. Sweets in this house don't have a fighting chance. I think I ate a blondie for my breakfast, lunch and after dinner....maybe a late night snack too. Who am I kidding! I know I ate them and am not ashamed! 

                      Toffee Blondies!
                    
Ingredients: 
~1 stick of unsalted butter (melted)
~1 cup of brown sugar
~1 egg
~1 tsp vanilla extract 
~pinch of salt
~1 cup flour
~1/2 cup toffee bits (or more if you're like me and really like toffee bits)

That's it! 

Preheat your oven to 350*F. 

Before you begin line an 8X8 baking dish with parchment paper. I cut two long strips and crossed them. That worked much easier than just laying the parchment paper in the dish. Thanks Mom for that tip!
The parchment paper saves your dish from becoming a huge sticky mess. 

Mix it all up!
Mix the melted butter and brown sugar on low to medium speed. I only have a hand beater. I am sure if you have one of those fancy KitchenAid stand mixer this recipe will be even easier. But I don't have that luxury. Thankfully, I am talented and can mix and pour at the same time. I can also walk & chew gum and pat my head while rubbing my stomach. Or is it the other way around? Yes, I am a woman of many talents. Please tell all of your single, good looking, male friends.

Once you have mixed the brown sugar and melted butter add the egg and vanilla extract while still mixing on medium to high speed. Once thoroughly mixed reduce the speed to low and add the salt and flour. If you don't reduce the speed your flour will poof all over the place. Nope, this does not just happen on T.V. 

Finally, and this is the BEST part, stir in the toffee bits. Don't use a beater to mix these in. You will end up turning your bits into dust and your blondies won't be crunchy.

The tricky part of this entire recipe is transferring this toffee masterpiece into the lined baking dish. Or at least it was difficult for me. You've got to hold the mixing bowl while pouring the mix. It is a thick mix so it doesn't spread real easy and the parchment paper slides around. But come hell or high water it will be done! And hopefully look as wonderful as the picture below.


Bake your blondies for 25 minutes. The edges will pull away from the sides of the dish and turn a lovely golden brown. Also while cooling you may notice they sink a little bit. It may be an error I am making but both of my batches sank. Doesn't matter if it isn't pretty! It tastes glorious!

                             YUM!

Once they have completely cooled use the parchment paper to lift them out of the dish. Cut them up and gobble them down. 

I ate one while it was still a little warm and gooey. Major YUM factor! Once they completely cooled I had another one (for blogging purposes only of course. I wanted to be able to keep you well informed. Your welcome!) and it was even better...

Another great thing about this recipe is it seems that it could be very versatile. I would think that you could add nuts, use the chocolate covered toffee pieces or even add chocolate chips. Although be careful or you will change your blondie into a brownie.









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