Chewy Chunky Blondies

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is one of my favorites: Chewy, Chunky Blondies. To a butter-and-brown sugar bar cookie batter you add chocolate chips, toffee bits, coconut and walnuts. Really, really yummy.

I intended to make a batch to freeze for daughter Lydia's upcoming wedding rehearsal picnic. I made the batter, put it in the oven, but was completely distracted and pulled it out without really testing for doneness. When I cut in to it to sample, it was clearly underdone. Not inedible, of course, but not up to my high standards for wedding guests. So I set it aside on my counter and made another batch the next day, baked it an extra ten minutes and it is perfect. I wrapped these bars up in foil and froze them in happy anticipation of the wedding rehearsal dinner.

And what happened to the not-quite-perfect blondies? Uhmmm, as you can see, a nibble here, a nibble there and this is all that remains!

Lots-of-Ways Banana Cake

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie pick is the Lots-of-Ways Banana Cake. I really like this cake. And maybe the best part about baking it (aside from the great flexibility in ingredients) is the surprising sound--a most satisfying crackle--that the batter makes when I stir in the toasted coconut.

I've made this cake twice. The first time was for a snack for choir rehearsal participants. Because they were going to be picking up pieces with their fingers, I made the layers plain, sprinkled on some powdered sugar, and cut the cake into cookie-sized pieces.


The second time I made the cake for a a birthday celebration so I frosted it with a chocolate whipped cream frosting and slivered some chocolate on top.

The next time I make it I'm going to go for the sundae version, cutting up the cake in cubes, tossing them with bananas and topping with vanilla ice cream (and maybe even some chocolate). Yum!

Thanks Kimberly, of Only Creative Opportunities for this pick!

Brrrrr-ownies

It has been sooooo hot here that I couldn't bear to turn on the oven last week so I skipped the Tuesdays with Dorie's Tarte Noire. This morning I got up bright and early so that I was melting chocolate for this week's pick, Brrrr-ownies, by 8:00 am.

Chocolate is such a wonderful food by itself that I'm reluctant to add something to it unless I'm positive that it will be an enhancement. I like mint with chocolate, and I was optimistic that York Peppermint Patties would make already wonderful brownies even better.



The first time I made these I couldn't find any York Peppermint Pattie Bites so I cut up the regular-sized patties. I'd say that that wasn't a huge success. We ate all of the brownies, of course, but I wanted to try them again with the bite-sized mints. Unfortunately, we couldn't find them anywhere. Rich did find York Peppermint Pieces which are sort of M&Ms with a mint filling. I must admit to being skeptical of the color: in my mind, the only blue things that should go into my mouth are blueberries!




But I baked them up and let them cool before I turned them out onto a board.





The bottom looked like a Renoir painting!

I'm not sure that the brownies are better with the mint, but they are tasty.