Recipe: Best-Ever Blondies

A delicious bar cookie you can customize to fit your favorite flavors

We all love brownies, but every once in a while, you just need a great blondie. Well, at least I do! I found this recipe years ago somewhere on the Internet, the exact location of which has been completely forgotten or erased with time. I’ve adapted the recipe a bit over the years, adding a little of this or that until I had the bar cookie I wanted. The result is a delicious, buttery blondie with “add-ins” you can adapt to your tastes or occasion.

Ingredients

• 3 ⅛ cups all-purpose flour

• ½ teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• ½ teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1 cup butter

• 2 ⅓ cups packed brown sugar

• 3 beaten eggs

• 2 teaspoons vanilla

• Add-ins: Any combination of the following: 1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, 3 cups peanut butter chips, chocolate chips or butterscotch chips. If adding multiple kinds of baking morsels, you may want to do 2 cups of one and 1 cup of the other.

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350º and grease a 9x13 baking pan.

2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

3. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. When melted, stir in the brown sugar until dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

4. Beat in eggs one at a time. Stir in vanilla.

5. To this mixture, begin folding in the dry ingredients about ⅓ at a time. Fold in pecans and add-ins and stir just until mixed.

6. Spread the mixture in the greased 9x13 pan. The mixture should be very thick and a little difficult to spread.

7. Bake for 30-35 minutes for chewy blondies and 35-40 minutes for firmer treats.

8. Enjoy!