White Chocolate Gingerbread Blondies and Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have seen these particular blondies all over the blog world and they looked so good, so much that I had to give them a try.  I wanted something gingerbread like, but I didn't want it to be cakey!  These live up to every picture I've seen of them (and they all look so good!).  A lot of the recipes I've seen also call for walnuts, which I personally would have LOVED, but I made these without the nuts.  Still, darn-tootin' good (don't ask me where I get some of my descriptions!).   I cannot remember which recipe I decided on (sorry), but I am pretty sure there is a recipe on Martha Stewart's website.  This recipe called for baking these in a 17x12 inch baking sheet, which I do not have, so I halved the recipe and made them in a 13x9 inch cake pan. 

Here is the recipe as I made it.

White Chocolate Gingerbread Blondies

1 cup plus 5 tablespoons all purpose flour

1/2 plus 1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 plus 1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 plus 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/8 teaspoon cloves

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup plus 1/8 cup (2 T.) brown sugar

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 egg plus 1/2 an egg yolk (I just realized I didn't halve the yolk and the recipe was fine!)

1/2 plus 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract

2  1/2  tablespoons unsulfured molasses

5 oz. white chocolate, coarsely chopped (or use chips)

1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped (optional, which I would have put them in)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 13x9 inch baking pan with foil and spray with cooking spray.   Set aside.  In medium sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt and spices.  Set aside.

Beat butter and sugars with an electric mixer on medium high speed until fluffy.  Scrape sides of bowl.  Add egg and yolk, beating well.  Beat in vanilla and molasses until well combined.  Scrape sides of bowl again.  With mixter on low, gradually add the dry ingredients and beat just until combined.  Stir in white chocolate.

Spread batter evenly into prepared pan.  Bake until edges are golden, about 25 minutes.  (I took mine out at 23 minutes.)  Let cool completely in pan on wire rack.  Remove from pan using edges of foil to lift it.  Cut into desired sized squares on a cutting board. 

These have that perfect holiday flavor and are just like a gooey blondie with yummy spices added. Happy Holiday Baking!

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You probably saw on my last post (if you didn't, GO LOOK!)  ;), but you probably saw the Mint Truffle Molten Lava Chocolate Chip Cookies I made, well, just thought I'd show you that I also made another whole batch of these cookies using some Guittard Mint Chips I'd found.  The cookies were amazing--well, it's because I used THIS RECIPE.  I will not tire of this New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe.  Some say that it just isn't worth it to have to purchase and use cake flour and bread flour instead of all-purpose flour, but I say if you really want a GOOD chocolate chip cookie, this is it!   There really is something to using those two flours, because I (as others have), have tried the recipe using all purpose flour instead and they just didn't come out the same.  I don't (well, sometimes, but usually don't) chill the dough as the recipe suggests, but it does make a great cookie just a little bit better when you do!  So, I whipped up another batch of these and besides adding one package of semi-sweet chocolate chips, I also added almost a full bag of these:

I have a few things to say about these chips.  One, I don't like the color--it's a little too hospital scrubs-like.  The green color is off---see----

And two, they aren't chocolate mint, they are just mint.  I prefer these--

That said, the cookies turned turned out great.  I made a few of the molten cookies like before, but made at least 32   2 oz. cookies that I took to a cookie exchange.  I'm not bragging, really--but I just had to share THE RECIPE again, because people keep asking me what this magical recipe is that I use so often.  So here it is--on the link above that says THIS RECIPE.  Great Cookie!