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I believe that salt is to food, what food is to life. In right proportions, it can heighten the taste of what you eat..and in the wrong - destroy! Even the most delicious sweets come added with some salt...to taste!

As for me, I've never enjoyed cooking. And as contrary to my owning a food-blog as it may sound, I always think about daily, routine cooking as a chore. But my tryst with the pots and pans began when I got a kitchen all to myself...I began experimenting and exploring new worlds in my own home. Some outcomes were excellent and some plain disasters. Then sprouted the need to keep track of all those good ones...and hence this blog!

Here, I share those experiments that pleased more than one palate!




March 12, 2010

Muesli Topped Blondies Drizzled With Chocolate & Hazelnut Syrup

I hate junk mail. Yes, I HATE the very fact that people waste paper in the name of marketing and it collects in my letter-box every week. But nonetheless, I have to sit and sort out all the leaflets, brochures, pamphlets, mailers and letters that gather consistently over time. It is hard to do so without noticing what each of it says, lest I toss something useful onto the paper-shredder. It was during one such rampage that my eyes fell on this recipe. Yeah, and you were beginning to wonder if I have lost my mind...writing about junk mail on a food blog. No, not yet! At least, not when it comes to baked goods.

So, where was I? Yup, the recipe. It held my gaze for a long moment and the very next instant (no prizes for guessing) I knew I was going to bake it. "Sweet Treat - World's Best Blondies...and Simplest, too" - the title read. I love brownies, but I had never really heard of blondies. After I did my bit of online research I learnt that they are just like brownies, except that they are flavoured using brown sugar instead of chocolate. Splendid, indeed! But I had no chocolate OR brown sugar on hand..and still wanted to try these so bad. So, I went ahead and experimented using confectioners sugar and the outcome is what you see below. Hmmm..perhaps, I should have called them 'Whities'? I will let you decide.

The original recipe calls for adding dark chocolate chips and M&Ms. I altered it a wee bit and topped these babies with toasted muesli and drizzled chocolate and hazelnut syrup.


Ingredients
1 Cup All purpose flour (Maida)
1 Cup Confectioners sugar
1 Egg, lightly beaten
1/2 Cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence
3/4 tsp Baking powder
1-2 tsp Milk (if required)
1/2 Cup Muesli (or just a mixture of rolled oats and nuts)
2 tbsp chocolate syrup (I used Hersheys)
1 tbsp Hazelnut spread
A pinch of salt

Method
- Toast the muesli for about a minute on a low flame and set aside
- Preheat oven to 350F and prepare an oven-safe baking dish with non-stick spray/oil
- Melt the butter in a non-stick sauce pan pour into a large mixing bowl
- Add sugar to this and stir
- Toss in the lightly beaten egg and vanilla extract and whisk
- Add the flour, baking powder and salt to the above wet mixture and mix to a smooth texture
- Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish, sprinkle the toasted muesli evenly over it and place in preheated oven
- Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean
- Allow to cool and cut into 1 inch squares
- Before removing from the baking dish, spoon the chocolate syrup and hazelnut spread into individual zip-top bags and push the contents in each bag to one corner to remove any air bubbles
- Snap a tiny portion (just a very small hole) of the same corner and pipe the syrup and sauce in alternative lines (or get creative and do your thing!)
- Enjoy!



Makes about 40 decadent mini cake-like blondies.

TIP - Add more butter if you want to render a gooey, fudge like texture to your blondies

10 comments:

  1. Wow!! New recipe.. look delicious!!

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  2. Yup, Suma. You should try it. I would suggest you add more butter to make it more fudge-like. With the proportions I have mentioned you get a cake-like texture. I recommend that you double the butter quantity. Do try and let me know!!

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  3. I have heard of Blondies as brownies made of white chocolate instead of dark chocolate, which I make often at home. I have a good amount of Muesli and this seems to be a good recipe to use mine. Good recipe.

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  4. Oh, they perhaps have many variations of this recipe then. I should try them with white chocolate myself. Do try this one and share how you like it!!

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  5. Hey new to your blog..first things first...love your blog name ..agreed..salt is the best ingredient !!Following you to know more ;)

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  6. wow..love all the ingredients in this..bookmarked!

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  7. Sure thing Sheba. Try it soon.. Cannot wait to hear from you about hwo it turned out!

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  8. Hey Deeeps.. The blondies finally did manage to come outta the dish .. Had to struggle with it though.. A couple of things I did want to share with you....
    1) I tried blondies with light brown sugar. I think brown sugar added to the visual appeal. However, the sugar taste overpowered other flavours. It would have helped if I had cut down the sugar by 1/4 cup.
    2) The sugar didn't mix well with the melted butter when I put the butter into the mixing bowl. I had to put the mixture back on a low fire and stir it to blend. I should have used brown sugar powder rather than the small crystals.
    3) Like you said, I had increased the butter qty.. So thumbs up for that :)

    All in all.. I would definitely give this another try and a keeps in my recipe book :)

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  9. So very glad you tried this one, Teju. Hmm, yes its important to use the powdered form of sugar (unless its a cake, where I have used crystals in the pastand still baked great cakes). I am glad the increased butter helped you get the nice fudge-like texture. I'm guessing you have to increase the baking time by a few minutes towards the end (and decrease temperature by a couple notches) to allow the insides to bake. Do try it again and let me know.

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  10. Deepti,
    I'm drooling by the gallon here! Im really glad I dont have muesli at home right now, else I'd sure have made it for dessert nad pigged on it ;)
    Stop tempting me!!!!!!

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