Sweet Yet Sour

The Have the Cake theme this month is brownies, and while I’m all about chocolate and brownies, sometimes, like I like my men, I like a good blondie…

Dorie Greenspan’s book “Baking: From my home to yours” has a lovely recipe for “Chewy, Chunky Blondies” that I adore.  Dorie’s recipe includes practically everything in the pantry: chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, walnuts and coconut.  I’ve made it this way before (substituting pecans for the walnuts) and they are great, but I’ve also simplified this time, and added only dark chocolate chunks and dried cherries.  Yum!

Chocolate Cherry Chunky Blondies

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate chunks

1 cup dried cherries

(Dorie’s original recipe has: 6 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chips/chunks, 1 cup butterscotch or Heath Toffee chips, 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, and 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and butter a 9-x-13 baking pan.  Place the buttered pan on a baking sheet.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.

In a stand mixer bowl or bowl with a hand mixer, beat the butter until smooth and creamy.  Add both sugars and beat until well incorporated.  Add each of the eggs separately, beating after each and then add the vanilla.  Add the dry ingredients until incorporated and then add the remaining ingredients, using a spatula to mix. Add the batter to the buttered pan and spread evenly.

Bake for about 40 minutes until the blondies are light brown, and pull away from the edge of the pan.  Cool in the pan before cutting and devouring, preferably with ice cream…