peanut butter swirled blondies - sweet | salty | creamy

And tilt your head to the right, just a little more...perfect. You'll notice this is the first time in Chow Creations history that the text is slanted in a title picture. I'm trying to stay relatable with the new influx of hipster viewers I'm getting. Hopefully everyone is copacetic (look it up) with the new changes; meet me in the comments.

Blondies are delicious as is in their argent luster. However, if you swirl in some peanut butter you're looking at one satiny, chewy, heavenly hell of a treat. Veins of rich peanut butter course through this dense and chewy bar; adding a salty sweet layer of complexity to this, what would otherwise be, mundane bar. 

Besides being as easy as mixing a whole bunch of ingredients in a bowl it's...well that's pretty much it. In a microwave safe container melt butter on high for 30-60 seconds. Once it is thoroughly liquified, add it to a large mixing bowl. Stir in the sugar. Blondies get their flavor dark brown sugar. Try not to use a light brown sugar or a white sugar because the flavor will not be the same and/or intense enough. Beat an egg in. The chewier you want the bars to be, the more you should mix the batter at this point. A similar principle as when we made our Chewy Fudgy Brownies. Stir in the flour, vanilla, and salt. 

Butter an 8x8 inch vessel. Take a tablespoon of flour and tilt the pan to lightly dust. Pour 3/4 of the batter into the pan and spread it out, making sure to bring it to all four of the corners. In a different bowl, beat peanut butter and powdered sugar with a hand mixer until the mixture is shiny and slightly thinner. 

Draw four columns of peanut butter, alternated with columns of the remaining batter. Using a toothpick, swirl the peanut butter and dough together. In the picture above I just drew lines across the vacillating pillars, but really you can just have your kid go crazy (eventually I succumbed to my own puerile urges). Tap the pan on the countertop to bring up any bubbles and also to settle the batter. Bake for 20 minutes in a 350 oven, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 

Let it cool on the countertop for at least 15 minutes. Then you can cut them in squares (yields 9 good-sized squares) and let them cool for an additional 15 minutes on a cooling rack. After taking pictures (probably better than mine) you can dish them out to your drooling kids and neighbors who smelt the nutty buttery odors wafting out of your house. If these last that long, they will stay good for three days room temperature or a month in the refrigerator. Just in case the pictures did not entice you enough, I just wanted to make it known that these were actually really yummy and "perfect with coffee" as my dad always says. And as I always say, And as always, 

Chow!

Recipe

8 tablespoons, 1 cup,  unsalted butter, melted

1 cup lightly packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup all-purpose flour 

1 tablespoon confectioner's sugar 

2 tablespoon peanut butter, beat until fluffy (3-5 min)

additional flour + butter for pan

You Might Like: