Nutella-stuffed Browned Butter Blondies

Captain's Log

If there's one thing my fella loves more than Nutella, it's blondies. Or maybe frosting. I reserve things like blondies for special occasions because they are so rich and delicious, and it just so happened that a couple of weeks ago there was a special occasion. Time for a treat! For those of you not in-the-know, a blondie is sort of like a brownie in the sense that it's a chewy-fudgy textured-baked bar, however they don't have a chocolate base like a brownie. Blondies are, essentially, chocolate chip cookies in bar form. I found this recipe for Nutella-stuffed browned butter blondies a few months ago, made it once, and knew it was a real winner. They're oopy-goopy, sweet but not too sweet, and the browned butter, for all its annoying fad-ness, lends the bars an amazing butterscotch-caramel flavor which you just can't get from regular butter.

So here we go! The original recipe comes from The Food Charlatan and I'm pretty sure I made little-to-no changes to her method. I just took more photos.

You'll need…

• a small container of Nutella (10oz), to be divided and almost entirely used
• 10 T unsalted butter
• 2 cups dark brown sugar
• 4 oz softened cream cheese
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

The Best Brownies

Captain's Log

New Look! What do we think?

In other news, this is the third apartment from which I've blogged. Can you believe it? Hopefully we'll be settling down soon.

Here's the new kitchen, before we were really moved in:

Always with the spotlights!

And look! We got a real, adult, not-used couch!

Now, back to food. I have this brownie recipe, and I want to share it with you. It's not my own recipe, technically, nor is it a family recipe. I actually got it from… another blog! I feel a little weird about blogging an already-blogged recipe, but on the other hand the original source doesn't show photos of each step so, I mean, I'm bringing way more to the table, right? Right!

These brownies are fudgy and hefty, with a nice crinkly crisp crust on top. They're pretty much what everyone wants out of a brownie, in my opinion. (Conventional brownie discussions claim there's a group that likes "cake-like" and a group that likes "fudgy," but, honestly, who wants cake-y brownies? The gloopy factor is part of the definition of brownie. Just have cake instead!)

Here's the recipe, from browneyedbaker.com:

• 1 1/4c flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2T cocoa powder (the darker the better)
• 11oz coarsely chopped dark chocolate (I think hacked-up choc chips would be fine!)
• 2 sticks of unsalted butter
• 1 tsp instant espresso powder (I used instant coffee and.. more on that later)
• 1 1/4c sugar
• 1/2c brown sugar
• 5 eggs, room temp
• 2 tsp vanilla

 To start, preheat the oven to 350° and grease a pan. The original recipe calls for a 9"x13" pan, but, well, the only pan I have that meets these specs is glass and a little sloped on the edges, making the edge pieces thinner than the inner pieces. I don't like that. Instead I chose to use a wedding gift, a 9"x9" pan, and hope for the best. I tried to use parchment scraps along the bottom so I could "lift the brownies out" when they were cooled, but, well, it didn't work. DO NOT follow my lead here:

Chocolate Pavlova

Captain's Log

Hi everyone!

Happy springtime/early summer! We just got back from an awesome family wedding/vacation along the Gulf Coast. I'm sunburned and bug-bitten, but I'd expect no less from leisuring in the wild South. 

Here's some photo evidence:

Not bad, eh?

Now, back to food, ya lazy bums!

Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisple

I know, I know: It may be springtime meteorologically speaking, but very few springtime fruits/vegetables are actually in season. I know this intellectually, and I know this because I keep buying terrible strawberries.

Still, it had to be done. I cannot be deterred!

Unbaked. Yes, that's a lint roller in the background. No, I have not been visited by health inspectors.

I mostly stuck to Smitten Kitchen's recipe, which in turn stemmed from something the amazing Nigella Lawson did. (Sidebar: If you Google Nigella, you can see a photo of her in a shirt which reads "English Muffin." !!! Love her.) (She's British and feisty for those of you not in the know.)

Anyway I have learned that the difference between a crisp and a crumble is the texture of the topping. Crumbles have some baking powder and probably no oats/nuts/textural elements, so it's more a nudge in the direction of a shy cobbler. Crisps have oats and nuts and subsequently more crunch. I am a big fan of chewy oats on top of warm fruit, and I cannot say no to nuts in a dessert, so I have married the two and created... A Crisple! Or... crusp? I think crisple has a little more whimsy to it, so let's stick with that.

Back to the recipe: instead of zesting a whole lemon for the topping, I did 1/3 of the lemon, zested a little more over the fruit itself, and I also split the zest from one clementine between the fruit and the topping. Both were also tinged with a little cinnamon. In the topping, I added a handful of oats, because I can't help myself, and also some sliced almonds. For crunch. Here's a close-up so you can get a sense for quantity of Extras:

And here is the finished product, still bubbling: