Birthday Blondies

One of my best friends' birthday was last week, followed by her return to UNC for the fall semester. To celebrate and say goodbye, I made a special requested baked good: blondies. I have never made blondies before, but have decided that are really delicious and quite easy.

The recipe was really simple, though it took me a long time to decide which recipe to use. There were two varieties, one that combined most ingredients into the mix without any elaboration or extra steps. The other type combined the butter and sugar over heat before combining other ingredients. I have no idea what difference this step makes, so if anybody does, please enlighten me!

Anyways, I chose a recipe that was very simple, no extra or elaborate steps. I would have liked to add more to the recipe to spice it up, but alas, our pantry was out of baking goods. So the blondies were filled only with chocolate chips and pecans. Because of that, I think they were a little too like chocolate chip cookies baked into a bar. So, last time I was at the grocery store I picked up some dried cranberries, white chocolate and butterscotch chips, as well as more pecans and walnuts, almost all of which will be added to my next blondies batch, in addition to some oatmeal. I think I'll try my own test kitchen to see how that other type of recipe turns out.

Side note, my friend unfortunately left the box of blondies I gave her on her kitchen counter at home when she left for school. Oops.

I found this recipe on Baking Bites. Check it out.

Chewy, Chunky Blondies
(from Baking: From My Home to Yours)
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups (light) brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup bittersweet/semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 325F. Grease a 9×13-inch baking pan, or cover pan with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer), cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, waiting until each is fully incorporated to add the next, then beat in the vanilla. With the mixer on low, gradually add in the flour mixture, stirring only until no streaks of flour remain. Stir in the chips, nuts and coconut by hand.
Spread batter into prepared pan, using a lightly greased spatula to even it out.
Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a tester comes out with only a few crumbs.
Cool blondies in the pan, but turn them out (and then reinvert them so the top is facing up) before slicing. If pan was covered with parchment paper, lift out blondies together using paper as handles.