Thursday, August 6, 2009

Shane's Blondies with Lowlights

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My friend and fellow Bakespace member, Shane, made these wonderful Blondies on his blog Culinary Alchemy. Everyone on bakespace was making them so I had to give them a try. They were fantastic and I've made them many times since. I bet you're wondering why they are called Blondies with Lowlights. When I was making them Steve came over and asked where the chocolate was. I explained to Steve that these were Blondies and not Brownies. Steve said that he would not eat them without chocolate. So in an effort to make Steve (and the chocolate lover in myself) happy I added a small amount of chocolate chips. The chips melted and swirled in the pot. A few days later a few of us were discussing Shane's blondies on the forum. Someone else did the same thing I did and commented on the pretty swirl. Shane popped in with a little joke and called them blondies with lowlights! If you know anything about coloring hair you know that lowlights are when you bring in some strips of darker color into your lighter hair, you know, the opposite of highlights. It was a perfect name and thus Blondies with Lowlights were born. So I guess if you make brownies and swirl in some white chocolate you can call them brownies with highlights!

Blondies with (or without) Lowlights

Cooking Time: 30
Servings: 16
Preparation Time: 15

Ingredients:

3/4 cup Unsalted Butter
1 1/2 cup Light Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Dark brown Sugar
2 Large eggs
1 large Egg Yolk
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 1/4 cups AP Flour
1 tsp Kosher Salt
1 Cup Chopped Pecans
1/4 cup Heath Toffee Chips (optional)
½ cup chocolate chips (for lowlights)


Directions:

Line a 13x9 pan with parchment.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
In a sauce pan, melt butter.
Stir in the brown sugars, stirring until "melted' and the mixture just begins to bubble (This is similar to making a Pecan pie)
Whisk eggs and yolks together with Vanilla.
Pour in the eggs in a steady stream, while whisking constantly to prevent scrambling.
In a small bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt.
Fold Flour into the egg mixture.
Fold in Pecans and toffee chips (if using)
Spread into the pan.
Bake 35-40 minutes (5 minutes less for dark pans)
Remove from oven and cool on a rack.
Lift via parchment and cut when cooled.


Note: I like mine more on the thicker side so I use a pan that's slightly smaller.

16 comments:

Patti T. said...

Aren't those toffee chips just the best thing ever? I love putting them in brownies, chocolate chip cookies etc. This recipe looks really good. I don't really care for chocolate, so I might just make these with white chocolate chips.

Bob said...

Heh, nice. I've been wanting to make those for months, but my girlfriend isn't a blondie fan so I'd just eat them all by myself. And my girth just doesn't need that!

Michele said...

Patti - I used butterscotch chips, is that the same thing as toffee? You can completely leave out the chocolate if you don't like it. They are "blondies" afterall. lol

Bob - Take them into the office! lol

Culinary Alchemist said...

Awesome! Thank you for the back-link, Michele :)

HA HA Now I am all kinds of hungry for them again... Need - Want - Must make Blondies... ;) The addition of the chocolate chips (lowlights) really is brilliant!

Dionne said...

Ooooooh this looks great! Toffee chips- you got me there! Yum!

Dionne said...

Oops, and Michele, Toffee chips are the same as Butterscotch, I think. I call Butterscotch chips toffee chips too.

Danielle said...

Oooh...so thats what you meant by "lowlights". I was gonna ask you in the forums but forgot. Your so funny!! They look delish. When I've made mine, I've never added the toffee. I didn't have them the first time I made them and then after that I figured they were sweet enough. (go figure...ME, thinking somethings sweet enough haha)

girlichef said...

LOL, with lowlights :D These sound amazing...I need to go eat before I break into my screen in search of goodness...

Justin said...

hmm, is it just me... i guess i've never done any hair coloring, so i'm still confused

Karine said...

These blondies would be perfect for my sweet tooth! Thanks for sharing!

John said...

Looks great, but carbonara is my fav!

Patti T. said...

Michelle, they aren't the same, the toffee chips are kind of hard and crunchy, but they add such a great flavor.

Giovanna said...

mmmmmmm ~ yum!

R. Wallis @ TrueBeauty said...

They look delish! I can't wait to try them out!

Megan said...

I love blondies with chocolate chips! I can't ever really let go of the chocolate in my desserts. :)

comfycook said...

The low lights could only make it better. CHOCOLATE. Chocolate makes almost anything better, maybe not tuna, but almost anything else.

The brownies were shining in the photo and that is what I thought you meant by low lights.