White Chocolate Cranberry Blondies with Almonds

Credit for this recipe goes to Recipe Girl.

I am guilty of being a Starbucks addict. Recovering, maybe, because I have forced myself to not stop there three or four times a week to buy coffee and/or a pastry, but every once in a while, I do find myself there, and probably once a day, I find myself wishing I was.

Especially around the holidays. They have exceptional seasonal drinks (like caramel brulee latte) and my favorite pastry... the Cranberry Bliss Bar.

I found a recipe that was described to rival those bars, so naturally... I had to make it. Today, I went and purchased the rest of the chocolate (because I didn't have enough, sad day), and came home and made these.

I just tried one. It's DELICIOUS. I added almonds to the top (which is not in the recipe) and a little orange extract to the chocolate drizzle for extra... flavor, I guess. Guh! I can't wait for my mom to try one (she's coming over to babysit in a while). I think she'll love them!

White Chocolate Cranberry Blondies:

Blondie Layer:

3/4 c. salted butter

1 1/2 c. light brown sugar

2 large eggs

3/4 tsp. vanilla extract

2 1/4 c. flour

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 c. dried cranberries

6 ounces white baking chocolate (I used Ghiradelli white chocolate chips (I bought one bag total)

Frosting:

1 pkg. cream cheese, softened

1 c. powdered sugar

6 oz. white baking chocolate, melted (see above) and halved

1/2 c. dried cranberries, chopped

1/4 c. cut almonds (I forget what the cut style is called, but they're slivered, sort of, but whole?)

1/8 tsp. orange extract (optional)

For Blondies:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit. Spray a 9x13 pan, or line it with parchment paper (that's what I did).
• In a medium bowl, melt butter, then stir in brown sugar. Let cool to room temperature and transfer to a larger bowl.
• Using a mixer, beat in eggs and vanilla. Then add dry ingredients.
• Stir in cranberries and chocolate (I used half a bag of the chips). The batter will be very thick, like clay, almost.
• Spread the batter into the pan.
• Bake 18-21 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Do not over bake.
• Cool on a wire rack.

For Frosting:

• In a medium bowl, use a mixer to beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar until well-blended. Gradually add half of the melted white chocolate (so 1/4 bag melted chips), beat until blended.
• Frost blondies.
• Sprinkle with cranberries.
• Sprinkle with almonds.
• Melt the last portion of chocolate. I added 1/8 tsp. Orange Extract to it.
• Drizzle over the blondies. (Try not to make a giant mess... haha.)
• Cut the bars, and store in the fridge until ready to serve.

Of course, I ate one right away and then boasted to my mom via text message how delicious they are. Now, I should go put them in the fridge!

I have friends who work at Starbucks in various positions... and I hope they don't hate me for posting a "rip off" version of their pastry. Just sayin'.

Red Velvet Brownies with White Chocolate Buttercream

Greetings!

I know, I know, yet another recipe and cooking blog. It's true, there's a bajillion out there.

I can't claim to be a culinary master. Sometimes, I screw up recipes. Not often, but it's been done. (Ask my best friend, Michelle, about our high school cooking days. We once made "butter soup" instead of eclairs, and a giant, watery, sugar cookie, for example.) I don't create a lot of my own recipes. I often don't measure spices, flavorings, or add-ins and just dump until I think it looks or tastes good. But, I do occasionally find myself wanting to cook or bake. I often tell the world about about on Facebook, and people sometimes ask me for recipes. So... here they will be. Recipes others have created and a few "recipes" that I create myself.

I will give credit when credit is due, to the best of my capabilities.

If photos happen to be included, they'll be my own. Please don't take them.

Enjoy!

-Nik

Credit goes to How Sweet it Is.

I found this recipe on pinterest. I will admit, I am addicted to pinterest, especially because it works SO well to organize recipes (I am a visual person, so I love being able to see a picture of the food and my comment under it).

I jumped at the chance to create them. In fact, I text my husband who was out and about in town and asked him to purchase what supplies I didn't already have. He's a dear and obliged me.

Red Velvet Brownies:

1/2 c. butter (room temperature)
1 1/2 c. sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/4 c. flour

1/4 tsp. salt

3 T. cocoa powder

2 T. red food coloring (if you want them red, otherwise, it's unnecessary (*and I didn't use the full amount when I did it)

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees (Fahrenheit, because I'm in the USA and have no idea what that would be in Celsius).

• Butter and flour an 8x8 inch pan. I didn't have a baking pan, so I used a glass casserole dish, and it worked out just fine.

• In a medium-ish sized bowl, combine the cocoa powder, food coloring, and vanilla to make a paste. (Mine was more... chunky and not all wet than a paste, and I am not certain that you need to do this at all, actually... so if you don't, just add them all separately at the end.)

• In a mixer (or another bowl with a hand mixer, that's what I did) cream the butter with the sugar until fluffy (that's such a funny visual, I imagine it to be fuzzy and standing straight up, but you know what it means, I think). Add eggs and the remaining vanilla.

• On medium speed, add the colored paste.

• Beat until completely red (or just mixed, if you aren't using the food coloring).

• Add the flour and salt.

• Bake 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool. You'll burn your mouth otherwise, and not be able to fully enjoy their deliciousness later.

White Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:

1 stick butter (room temperature)

2 1/2 c. powdered sugar

1-2 T. milk

1 tsp. vanilla

4 oz. whilte chocolate (melted, I used... Godiva, or Lindt, I forget, in bar form)

• Cream butter until fluffy. Add vanilla.

• Slowly add 1/2 c. powdered sugar, on low speed.

• Add melted chocolate and beat until completely mixed.

• Add 1 tsp. milk at a time, and mix until desired consistency.

Unless you want an extremely generous amount of frosting on your cooled brownies, you'll have extra. Store it in the fridge for later!

I ended up making the brownies twice, because they were so tasty. I was out of red coloring the second time, so I used blue. They looked green. They were tasty, still, but... funky looking.