Brownie Week, Day 2 and Tuesdays With Dorie

FIRST-The Brownie for Day 2: White Chocolate Blondies with Lemon and White Chocolate. That is an incredibly long name for a brownie, I know. I used the blondie recipe found in the Cookies, Brownies, and Bars cookbook that I'm giving away. (Be sure to leave a comment on Monday's post with what your dream brownie is to be entered to win!) I put a layer of the lightest lemon frosting over the blondie and topped it off with white chocolate. I cut these beauties into just 1 inch squares because they are so rich. The combination of the lemon and white chocolate is just heavenly!

White Chocolate Blondies with Lemon and White Chocolate Frosting

*start with your favorite blondie recipe (couldn't post the one I used for publisher rights stuff) and add 6 oz white chocolate chips before cooking.

Lemon Frosting

1/2 C butter, softened
2 C powdered sugar

Mix well

Add:
1 tsp lemon extract
1 T milk
2-3 drops of yellow food coloring (optional)

Blend until light and fluffy. Pour over blondies that are completely cool and refrigerate until firm

Topping
1/2 C melted butter
6 oz white chocolate chips

Melt together and spread over lemon filling. Top with lemon zest for garnish. Refridgerate until firm. Cut into 1 inch squares and keep in fridge until served.

TIP: Don't forget to cover your pan completely in foil before baking but be sure to spray that with cooking oil before pouring brownie mix in it. It makes it so easy to take out of the pan to cut the brownies afterward.

SECOND: Tuesdays With Dorie. This is my first Tuesday cooking with Dorie and it was absolutely perfect because the recipe was Caramel-Peanut-Topped Brownie Cake. I know, perfect, right?! It was a fun new recipe to try and you can find it on pages 264 and 265 in the Baking from my home to yours cookbook by Dorie Greenspan.



The brownie rose a TON in the oven and then the middle fell. According to the recipe, I shouldn't be alarmed by that happening, except that the outside edges were way overcooked by the time the middle was cooked through. I cut those burnt sides off the level the cake and it all worked out just fine though. Also, I have a hard time cooking with nuts, especially when they aren't ground to fine pieces, so even though the topping called for whole peanuts smothered in caramel sauce and it looked beautiful, I just couldn't do it. Instead I covered the whole cake in about 2 cups of sweetened coconut, sprinkled it with about 1/2 cup of chopped semi-sweet chocolate chips and popped it back into the warm oven to melt the chocolate a little bit. Then I melted 10 kraft caramels in about 2 tsp of milk and drizzled that over the top. This cake was SO good! I had to cut it to take some pictures and just wanted to taste one bite so I could write about it, but within about 30 seconds the whole piece was completely devoured. I hate it when I do that! I will definitely be making this again though!