Chocolate Chip and Peanut Blondies

Yesterday I had the morning free, so I decided to bake some treats. Not in the mood for cookies, I hunted for something soft and chewy. I pulled out my file of magazine recipes and decided to try Chocolate Chip and Peanut Blondies from Bon Appetit magazine. One of my favorite treats growing up were the blondies my parents would bake once in a while. We usually had regular brownies on hand (easy to bake since they came from a box), but blondies were always a nice change of pace.

What attracted me to this recipe was that it included peanuts (yum) and bittersweet chocolate. I tend to be more of a semi-sweet girl, but thought it would be good to try something different.

First things first: prepare the baking pan. Butter and flour an 8x8 by 2-inch deep metal pan and set aside. Then, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.


In a bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, and salt.

Then melt a stick of butter in a saucepan over low heat.


Once the butter is completely melted, whisk in the brown sugar.

*My brown sugar wasn't "golden" as the recipe called for, so my blondies turned out to be a "dirty" blond instead of "golden" blond. They were still good :-).*


Take that mixture off the heat and let it cool for two minutes (so they eggs won't scramble when you add them to the batter).


Then, add your eggs and vanilla to the brown sugar and butter, and mix those together. Now you're ready to add the dry ingredients.

Once the dry ingredients are completely mixed into the butter mixture, add half of the peanuts and half of the chocolate chips.

Mix those in...
Pour the batter into the baking pan, and top with the remaining peanuts and chocolate (don't worry, I won't tell if you add more chocolate than the recipe calls for).

Then pop the pan in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes (a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies should come out clean).



Let them cool and then serve.

Recipe for Chocolate Chip and Peanut Blondies from Bon Appetit

My Thoughts: These blondies are good, but mine didn't turn out quite as tall as the one in the photo (maybe my baking powder is losing its lift). These would be great to serve to someone who doesn't have a huge sweet tooth. The bittersweet chocolate and the peanuts make the blondies rich without making them super sweet. As suggested by Bon Appetit, they would make a really good base for a sundae with the addition of ice cream and sauce. Personally, I would have liked to have eaten my treat with a latte or some kind of sweet hot beverage-- something to balance the not-so-sweet dessert.