Blondie Throwdown: Part I

Okay, this is going to be a long one, so you just have to stick with me here. I promise the end result is the quickest, easiest, one-bowl treat yet to appear on Planet Byn, so you have to just power through.

Last week, my former co-worker and friend Erin was e-mailing me about some great baking recipes she found on the Kraft website. I had to put an end to that immediately. I used to get these Kraft magazines in the mail that are filled with recipes, and every recipe has at least 2-5 Kraft products in it. I would say I gag approximately 8-10 times while flipping through any given issue. And the desserts? Practically all of them contain either a) Jell-O Instant Pudding or b) Cool Whip. Have you ever read the side of a Cool Whip container? It says “an edible oil product”. What the %$#@ is that about? Do regular people not understand that if you buy a small carton of whipping cream and WHIP IT, that’s how you make whipped cream?

Alright, rant over. Sort of. She sent me a blondie recipe which I didn’t even open; I just responded with a link to Smitten Kitchen’s own infinitely adaptable version. She snarked out on me and declared: “Maybe we should just make both and then we’ll see which is better”. And thus my friends, a Blondie Throwdown was born.

I figured if there was ever a time to do some extra nerdy baking research, a throwdown was just such an occastion. I don’t normally get into the science of baking all that much, as in, what would happen if I added an extra egg here, or decreased the flour there? But my researched uncovered a couple interesting things.

Blondie #1

I began by declaring SK square one, and then searched my blogroll for more blondie recipes. I also contemplated the texture that you’re aiming for with a blondie. In my opinion it should be chewy and dense, like a brownie, but more than just a cookie in a square format. SK’s recipe doesn’t call for any leavening agents (baking powder or soda), which would make it the most traditional recipe, and I thought it would match the texture I was going for. I have made this recipe in the past, but was unhappy with how flat it turned out. I thought about doubling it, but instead i decided to swirl in some leftover Vanilla Bean Caramel. And what was the result? The fugliest, flattest blondies you ever did see:

Not cute, but they tasted incredible: chewy, sweet, and that unmistakeable brown sugar intensity. But I wanted something thicker.

Blondie #2

I remembered another recipe from the height of my Pretzel M&M obsession this summer on Bake at 350. This recipe was about the same as SK’s, except there was one more egg and an extra 1/2 cup of flour, as well as both baking powder and baking soda. I thought this would solve the problem of the flatness, but didn’t really think about the texture. Here we go with Batch #2:

Also not that cute. I still wasn’t happy. Was I incapable of baking an attractive blondie? Also the texture was very, very dry. There was no chewiness whatsoever. I like the salty/sweet thing happening, but that could not redeem them. So that answers the question of what would happen if you add more flour. And so I was back to square one.

Blondie #3

My solution, and what I thought would produce the blondie of my dreams, was to double the original recipe, add some leveners, and cover it in frosting to make it cute. I decided to use this recipe from How Sweet Eats. It’s essentially a doubled version of SK, with a little baking powder and baking soda. What could go wrong?

Durrrr…rookie baking mistake…they totally weren’t cooked the whole way through. Normally not a problem, the gooeyer the better right? Not really in this case. They also sunk a bit in the middle which made it hard to get a nice even layer of chocolate ganache over top.

At this point I was out of both time and butter, so it ended at three attempts…although I feel like I could have nailed it on the next one. I’ll keep you in suspense, then post about Erin’s Blondie and the Throwdown winner!