B is for Brown Butter Toffee Blondies (Jessica)

Dear Bakers,

To me, the name Martha Stewart indicates decadence. A couple of years ago, I received Martha's Cupcake Cookbook as a birthday gift and I haven't been the same since. Martha has never led me astray. Sure, most of her themed cupcakes and detailed frosting decorations are too time consuming for me to try, but I think I will...one day.

The recipes in that cookbook take cupcakes way beyond the boxed cake mix from childhood.  Yes, they have a lot of directions. No, I'm not sure it really matters if I whisk the flour ahead of time or if I rotate the pan in the oven. Do I do it anyway? You bet! Martha knows what she's talking about!

So why all this talk of Martha Stewart you ask?
WELL, this week I decided to make blondies and when I came across this Martha Stewart recipe, I was pretty sure it would be...delicious. Just glancing at the quantity of the first ingredient alone indicated I was on the right track (it's butter, if you're wondering).  The end result was just as decadent and indulgent as I could have hoped!


Brown Butter Toffee Blondies

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, plus a little more for pan
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus a little more for pan
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 cups packed light-brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup toffee bits (I used the Heath brand toffee bits in the baking aisle)

Directions: 
1) Preheat oven to 350. Butter a 9x13 baking pan. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper. Butter and flour parchment paper (generously so it's easier to remove later).

2) In a saucepan, over medium heat, cook butter until it turns golden brown. Remove from heat and let cool.  (I cut the butter into pats (about 1/4 inch thick) before heating so it would melt more evenly).

Also, a note about browning butter: it took longer than I thought it would, about 10 minutes in total. The butter melted,

then foamed,

then bubbled.

And then it turned the right golden brown color very fast. To get the brown butter just right, watch it very closely and when it's ready, it will start to smell nutty rather than buttery. Remove it from the heat and pour it into something else to stop the cooking. Perfect!

3) Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

4) In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine cooled browned butter and both sugars. Stir with a wooden spoon until combined. Add eggs. Beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Add vanilla and beat to combine (I don't have an electric mixer. Luckily, I LOVE the super old hand mixer I stole borrowed from my parents when I moved out).

5) Add flour mixture, walnuts, and toffee bits.

Mix until thoroughly combined and pour into prepared pan.

6) Bake until a cake tester (a toothpick works too) inserted into the center comes out clean, 30-40 minutes (mine took 34).  Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool completely before turning out onto a cutting board.

7) Peel off parchment paper (this took some patience/effort) and cut blondies into desired size. *Here Martha's recipe says 3-inch squares, but I cut them into 1-inch squares and I was very happy with the bite-sized results*

Review: 
These tasted great! They are very buttery and sweet, but I felt that the toffee and walnuts cut the sweetness just right and the salt gave a subtly savory flavor.  There's no way I could eat a huge amount of these at once, so cutting them into bite-size pieces really helped with portion control (and sharing!).

The brown butter was the trickiest part of this recipe. I have burned sugar and butter in the past and it just makes me sad! (I think) I got the butter right on my first try with this recipe because I didn't walk away from the stove at all. I was right there at the key moment for the color and smell change. If you want to read about the mechanics of browning butter, check this out.

Another thing to note, when my dough all came together, it was very hard to mix. The recipe said to "pour" it into the prepared pan. Mine basically dropped as a giant ball into the pan. I spread it out evenly and the blondies looked great coming out of the oven.

Thanks for another great recipe, Martha Stewart!

'Til next time,

-Jessica