My Very First Blondies

Though I love to bake, and have tried several varieties of cookies and brownies, until tonight I hadn’t given blondies a go.

What was I THINKING? These things are amazing. And really, really easy. And crazy delicious.

(In other words, I’ll definitely be making these again. Soon.)

I settled on this particular recipe after enlisting the help of my Facebook friends (thanks, girls!) earlier today. I received tons of delectable-sounding recommendations, but since two people passed along this Ina Garten Chocolate Chunk Blondies recipe, I felt it would be worth trying. Indeed it was!

Ingredients:

2 sticks of unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs at room temperature
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cups chopped walnuts
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chunks (I had chocolate chips, so I chopped them slightly to make them less chip-like and more chunk-like instead)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Line a 9 x 13 baking pan with parchment paper.
Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment in place, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar on high speed for three minutes, until light and fluffy.
Turn the mixer speed to low and add the vanilla and eggs, one at a time.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Slowly add the flour to the butter mixture, still at low speed.
Fold in the walnuts and chocolate chunks with a spatula.
Spread the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for exactly 30 minutes (don’t overbake!), cool completely, and cut into bars.