Blonde Brownies

I was craving something sweet but not chocolate. In the past few weeks, all I've had for sweets has been chocolate ranging from thin mints, samoas to brownies and more brownies. Wanting to make something easy, I went for blonde brownies. I have tried severely recipes and finally stumbled on a winner from the King Arthur Flour website. The original recipe is actually entitled "Crazy Blonde Brownies" but I made them a little simpler with just white chocolate chips. The combination of chocolate chips, butterscotch, cinnamon, caramel, macadamia, or chips of your choice along with diced pecans or walnuts seem like too much for me. The white chocolate chips compliments the brownies nicely. For the brown sugar, since the recipe didn't specify light or dark, I used a combination of 1 cup each since I have ample light and brown sugar on hand. No, I did not use organic white whole wheat flour, just 1 3/4 cup of unbleached all purpose flour.

Blonde Brownies
1/2 cup butter or vegetable shortening
2 cups brown sugar, lightly packed
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

Lightly grease a 9 x 13-inch pan and preheat your oven to 350°F. Melt the butter in a medium-sized saucepan. Add the brown sugar, and stir until the mixture is smooth. Remove the pan from the heat, pour the butter-sugar mixture into a medium-sized bowl, and allow it to cool to lukewarm. Whisk in the eggs one at a time. Stir in the vanilla extract and salt. Whisk the flours and baking powder together, then add the dry ingredients to the sugar mixture, stirring to combine. Finally, fold in the chips and nuts. Spread the mixture evenly in the pan, and bake the brownies for 30 to 35 minutes, until they're light brown on the edges and top.