Technically it's a "blondie," but that's a minor point.
This week is the final week the contractors are staying at the Cottage here at Struan Farm, at least we think so. And so end my weekly baking adventures (hmmm, maybe yes, maybe no). What started off as a four week project on the nearby Paemako hillsides turned into 13 weeks. Both they and we got into a weekly rhythm. They now seem rather like family, particularly the messier ones.
The recipe is Phyllis Grant's "Brown Butter Blondies" on Food52. I had challenged myself to bake something different every week, which I managed to do. This recipes requires you to melt and brown butter, something I hadn't done before. It's rather cool--butter is melted in a saucepan and left to sizzle. When it finishes sizzling brown bits form and you're done. I had never taken butter quite this far before, it then starts to foam (which made it somewhat hard to know when the brown bits had formed, and I didn't want to burn it!). The warmish butter is mixed with brown sugar and then flour, salt, eggs and vanilla. Semi-sweet chocolate chips are added before baking. Apparently you can melt the chocolate bits for a swirled effect if you don't cool the butter down as much before mixing the dough, I'll try that next time.
I think the lads appreciated the treats, they were something to look forward to, and in fact, devour asap. Reports from the office team were that I'd spoiled them so much that they didn't really want to go home!
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