White Chocolate Strawberry Blondies

I’m clearly on a blueberry, strawberry, and white chocolate kick. Summertime just does that to me I guess. I used my go-to white chocolate blondie recipe as a base for these bars and added in the strawberries because, well, I’m in the midst of a love affair with strawberries and I might as well celebrate it.

I love the contrast of the slightly tart and tangy strawberries with the sweetness of the white chocolate. Even though I’m not one of those people who shuns white chocolate ’cause it’s too sweet, I definitely appreciate the balance of flavor the strawberries bring to the mix. Incidentally, you could substitute strawberries for another tart fruit, like raspberries, and get similarly delicious results.

Ingredients:
1 cup AP flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup white chocolate chips or chopped white chocolate
1 cup strawberries, chopped

Method:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease an 8×8 baking pan.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. Using either your stovetop or microwave, combine the butter and white chocolate to melt. If using your stovetop, put butter and white chocolate in either a double boiler or heavy duty saucepan and melt on low heat while stirring frequently. If using the microwave, put butter and white chocolate in a small bowl and melt on 50% power for 30-second increments until butter is melted and white chocolate is mostly melted. Use a fork or whisk to get the chocolate nice and smooth.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together your eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Add in the white chocolate mixture and whisk until smooth and well-combined.
5. Whisk or stir in the flour mixture until incorporated.
6. Stir in strawberries. (Quick note: If you’re washing your berries on the spot, make sure to pat them dry before adding to batter. You’ll want to eliminate as much moisture as possible before baking.)
7. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let the blondies cool completely (at least 90 minutes) in the pan before cutting into bars.

Jul 10

White Chocolate Blueberry Blondies

After having achieved success with the white chocolate blondies I whipped up not so long ago, I decided to take that same recipe but incorporate one of my favorite summertime fruits: blueberries. I love the contrast of the sweet white chocolate and slightly tart, tangy blueberries. These babies were absolutely amazing. I actually got impatient and dug into them when they hadn’t fully cooled, which made them kind of gooey—but in a good way. In fact, you could just as easily serve these warm in a bowl, call your concoction a white chocolate blueberry pudding, and top it off with vanilla ice cream for contrast. Yum.

White Chocolate Blueberry Blondies

Method:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease an 8×8 baking pan.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. Using either your stovetop or microwave, combine the butter and white chocolate to melt. If using your stovetop, put butter and white chocolate in either a double boiler or heavy duty saucepan and melt on low heat while stirring frequently. If using the microwave, put butter and white chocolate in a small bowl and melt on 50% power for 30-second increments until butter is melted and white chocolate is mostly melted. Use a fork or whisk to get the chocolate nice and smooth.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together your eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Add in the white chocolate mixture and whisk until smooth and well-combined.
5. Whisk or stir in the flour mixture until incorporated.
6. Stir in blueberries. (Quick note: If you’re washing your blueberries on the spot, make sure to pat them dry before adding to batter. You’ll want to eliminate as much moisture as possible; otherwise, your blondies may not bake up as well.)
7. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let the blondies cool completely in the pan before cutting into bars. I recommend waiting a good 90 minutes to make sure they’re nice and firm. Worst case, if you’re impatient like me, you’ll get a gooier “blueberry blondie pudding” if you choose to dig in earlier. And trust me, that’s not such a bad thing.

Jul 8

Strawberry Crumb Bars

Remember those awesome blueberry crumb bars I made a few days ago? They were so delicious I just had to try a strawberry version. The great thing about this recipe is that it’s fairly easy and pretty adaptable to your favorite fruit. You could try it with raspberries, peaches…the list goes on and on.

Strawberry Crumb Bars
Recipe slightly adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:
1 and ½ cups granulated sugar, divided into 1 cup and ½ cup
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups AP flour
1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons orange juice (I used fresh-squeezed from an orange, but any type of OJ will work just fine; you could also use lemon juice if you prefer that flavor profile)
4 cups fresh strawberries, chopped into small pieces
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, optional
4 teaspoons cornstarch

Method:
1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9×13 inch pan and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup of the sugar with the flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. (Note: This might take awhile, but keep working at it—you want to make sure the butter gets nice and blended.) Your dough will be crumbly.
4. Pat half of the dough into your prepared pan.
5. In another bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch, and orange juice. Gently mix in the chopped strawberries and chocolate chips, if you’re using them. Sprinkle the strawberry mixture evenly over the crust, and then crumble the remaining dough over the berry layer.
6. Bake for about 45-55 minutes, or until the top gets slightly brown and an inserted toothpick comes out relatively clean.
7. Let the bars cool completely in the pan before cutting in. Two hours should do it.

Jul 4

Blueberry Crumb Bars

One of my favorite things about summer is the abundance of fresh blueberries available to big time fans like me. I’m happy to throw blueberries in just about anything – yogurt, ice cream, muffins, cake…So when I stumbled upon this easy recipe for blueberry crumb bars, I knew I had to give it a shot.

These bars are awesome—moist, crumbly, and just the right of gooey in the middle. They’re the perfect summertime treat, and I have a feeling I just might have to make them again before moving on to all things apple in the fall.

Blueberry Crumb Bars
Recipe slightly (barely) adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Method:
1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9×13 inch pan and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup of the sugar with the flour and baking powder.
3. Mix in salt and lemon zest (if you’re using it).
4. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. (Note: This might take awhile, but keep working at it—you want to make sure the butter gets nice and blended.) Your dough will be crumbly.
5. Pat half of the dough into your prepared pan.
6. In another bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice. Gently mix in the blueberries. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust, and then crumble the remaining dough over the berry layer.
7. Bake for about 45-55 minutes, or until the top gets slightly brown and an inserted toothpick comes out relatively clean (you’ll get blue streaks from the blueberries even if the bars are done).
8. Let the bars cool completely in the pan before cutting. I’d say wait a good two hours since the blueberry filling makes them gooey to begin with.

Jul 1

White Chocolate Blondies

Some people aren’t fans of white chocolate. But I am—big time. And since I hadn’t baked with white chocolate in awhile, I decided to whip up some easy blondies.

These bars really are a cinch to make. The only tricky part is keeping an eye on the white chocolate while it’s melting. Of course, the best way to melt white chocolate is to use a double boiler, but I got lazy/was in a bit of a hurry and chose the microwave method instead. And you know what? These blondies didn’t suffer one bit.

White Chocolate Blondies

Method:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease an 8×8 baking pan.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. Using either your stovetop or microwave, combine the butter and 1 cup of white chocolate to melt. If using your stovetop, put butter and white chocolate in either a double boiler or heavy duty saucepan and melt on low heat while stirring frequently. If using the microwave, put butter and white chocolate in a small bowl and melt on 50% power for 30-second increments until butter is melted and white chocolate is mostly melted. Use a fork or whisk to get the chocolate nice and smooth.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together your eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Add in the white chocolate mixture and whisk until smooth and well-combined.
5. Whisk or stir in the flour mixture until incorporated.
6. Stir in 1/4 cup white chocolate and bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips.
7. Pour batter into prepared pan. If desired, sprinkle some more of the dark chocolate chips on top.
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let the blondies cool completely in the pan before cutting into bars.

Busy Baking Mama

Monthly Archives: July 2013

White Chocolate Strawberry Blondies

White Chocolate Blueberry Blondies

Strawberry Crumb Bars

Blueberry Crumb Bars

White Chocolate Blondies