Chocolate and Muesli Blondies

There is something about the aroma of  a dish baking in the oven that I simply cannot resist. It is seductive. It overpowers my senses. It is addictive. And yes, despite many a disasters that I have encountered, I will not give up baking :) :) God save the guinea pigs who will have to eat my babies .. !!! :D :D

Ok .. Deepti's tryst with the Blondies got me all curious and eager. With a little bit of search on the internet, I landed on Smitten Kitchen's and Deeba's version of Blondies, also having learnt the Blondie tale in the meantime.


Story goes that Blondies or the lesser popular "albino cousin" of Brownies probably originated in the mid 19th century when butterscotch was popular. Cookbooks then had recipes with butterscotch (made by combining brown sugar / molasses with butter) , flour and a leavening agent ( baking powder / soda). The modern version of Blondies typically comprise these basic ingredients (brown sugar/butter/baking powder) and the fillings / variations with chocolate / nuts / dried fruits / fruits.


I was a little hesitant about using vegetable oil on my first try of Blondies (prior experiments with cakes / cookies having failed), so decided to go with butter as in Smitten kitchen's / Deepa's version. I ran into a little trouble when mixing the sugar and butter as I used fine crystals of sugar rather than powdered brown sugar (God knows why!! ). I had to warm the mix a little and then cool it down before adding the egg and the remaining ingredients. Thought all will be well soon, however ran into problems again when removing the blondies from the dish (I became a little impatient and tried to remove it from the dish sooner than the suggested time.. Lesson learnt .. It pays to be patient :)). Left it for a few more minutes and all was well indeed.


Though I wasn't infinitely pleased with how I had made the Blondies or the end result (I felt the sugar had masked other flavours, am sure it would be tastier had I cut the quantity of sugar / increased the dark chocolate/muesli quantity), this recipe is a definite keeps' / try again in my recipe archives. 

Ingredients
1 cup Flour
3/4 - 1 cup Light Brown sugar (I used 1 cup and thought the sugar masked other flavours)
1 egg lightly beaten
1 tsp Baking powder
1 Egg, lightly beaten
10 tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence
3/4 tsp Baking powder
3/4 - 1 Cup Muesli (a little toasted / roasted)
1/4 - 2/3 cup chocolate chips
A pinch of salt


Method
- Toast the muesli for about a minute on a low flame and set aside
- Preheat oven to 180C and prepare an oven-safe baking dish / grease and line with butter paper leaving around one and half inch extra at the rim of the dish.
- Melt the butter in a non-stick sauce pan and pour into a large mixing bowl. Add brown sugar to this and stir till it is smooth.
- Add the lightly beaten egg and vanilla extract and whisk
- In a separate bowl, sieve the flour, baking powder and salt.  Add these dry ingredients to the above wet mixture and mix.
- Add chocolate chips and muesli
- The batter will be thick, though not as thick as dough!
- Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish
- Bake for about 35 minutes. A skewer test may show the mix still sticking to the sides of the knife/pick but that's ok if you like it a little gooeey !!
- Allow to cool completely and then lift it with the help of the extra butter paper and cut into 1 inch squares
- Top it with more chocolate / sugar frosting if desired. Else just enjoy as is !!