Basic Blondies

Yesterday, I bought five different kinds of vegetables and two different kinds of fruits as a part of my groceries. Healthy, right?

Today, I came home from the office and made blondies for dinner. As in walnut-and-chocolate-chip-laden blondies, packed with butter and brown sugar. As in not a single vegetable was consumed. As in this is why I go to the gym five days a week and yet haven’t lost a single pound.

But if you’re going to forego a wholesome meal for dessert, you should probably make these blondies. You can class them up with fancy dried fruit and specialty chocolate, or you can go the tried-and-true route of chocolate chips and walnuts. (I’ll let you guess what I did.) They are soft and sweet without being cloyingly saccharine — like gooey-er chocolate chip cookies.

I’m sure I’m doing myself zero favors health-wise by opting for baked goods over an actual meal. But isn’t that one of the best parts of being a grownup, that blondies can be a totally acceptable dinner?

Basic Blondies
Recipe from Smitten Kitchen

– 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, melted

– 1 cup dark brown sugar

– 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

– 1 large egg

– a pinch of salt

– 1 cup of all-purpose flour

– 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

– 3/4 cup chopped walnuts

1) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour an 8-x-8 baking pan.

2) Mix the melted butter and sugar together in a large bowl until smooth. Beat in the egg and the vanilla. Stir in the salt, flour, chocolate chips and walnuts (or whatever mix-ins you decide to use).

3) Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the top is lightly browned and the center is still slightly gooey. (Yes, that’s the official term.)

Note: You could add anything (literally anything) in this blondies — chopped pecans or hazelnuts instead of walnuts, any other kind of chocolate chip (or butterscotch or toffee), a tablespoon or two of peanut butter, toasted coconut flakes (if you’re into that kind of stuff), chopped dried cherries or cranberries … I could go on, but instead I’ll eat another blondie.

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