Page 80: Blondies

I was looking for the perfect treat to take to a beachside BBQ for the fourth of July holiday last week. The pre-BabyCakes me would have simply taken cookies or some other standby, tried and true recipe. But, in keeping with my mission, I picked a yet-untested recipe from the BabyCakes book (in this case one that was simple and did not require frosting... a girl only has so much time to spend in the kitchen...) and went for it - and these were yummy!

I've never made blondies before. Maybe because I am generally of the belief that chocolate should be used in as many desserts as possible. Why would anyone want a vanilla brownie? But these little bites were delicious and had many fans at the BBQ. It might not have hurt that their only competition was a bag of Chewy Chips Ahoy. Oh well, I'll take the credit regardless!

So, the typical players here - garbanzo-fava bean flour, brown rice flour, potato starch (it had been awhile since I had to break that stuff out, actually), arrowroot, etc. When I mixed it all up and tasted the batter I said to myself: "self, this really tastes like chocolate chip cookie batter...". As directed, I made them in mini-muffin tins (which I am beginning to love because they only bake for nine minutes and thanks to my 24-cup tin I'm done in two batches!).

They were delish - right out of the oven they were gooey little nuggets of sweet goodness. Indeed, the finished product was also similar to that of a cakey chocolate chip cookie.

I'm sorry - I am still very lacking in the photo documentation department. And yes, I have regressed to the iPhone. 

The recipe says that blondies are best served warm and you should actually leave them in the tins to preserve freshness. This was a problem for me on two levels: 1) I needed to reuse the tins for batch two (sorry, Erin - most non-commercial kitchens don't have that much bakeware!) and 2) I was going to a BBQ on the beach. Portability was key here.

So, as I tend to do with most baked goods, once cooled I popped them in the freezer to make them stackable in a portable container. Then they went into the cooler and off we went.

When I took them out to serve them after the grilling was finished, the chilled version was very reminiscent of balls of cookie dough! In a good way, though. Definitely a winner.

I apologize for my lack of photos. I didn't even get one of the BBQ. Although I do have one I took of my view from the BBQ, so I will leave you with that:

Hope you had a wonderful holiday!