Sunday, February 6, 2011

International Nutella Day is 02/05 - Nutella Blondies

It is a well known fact, in my circle anyway, that my boyfriend desperately needs to go to NA, Nutella Anonymous. If he were a muppet, he'd be Nutella Monster and if Nutella made chocolate morsels, he'd slit Cookie Monster's throat for some Nutella Chip Cookies. Now that this hallowed day is over, and my boy is in a sated, diabetic sugar coma on the couch, I'm free to share the treat I made for the occasion.

Before we begin, I must note that the recipe I used was from the Martha Stewart holiday cookie special printing and calls for rough chopped hazelnuts. Normal grocery stores do not carry them year round, only during fall, starting in October. I've heard folklore and whispered legends that they carry them year round at Whole Foods, hippy grocery stores, and other such specialty food stores. I didn't find any and just subbed in pecans, though, I feel the hazelnuts would really have made the blondies much better.

Starting by preheating your oven to 350. In a stand mixer or using a hand whisk, whip together 4 tbsp softened butter and 1 plus 3/4th cups of light brown sugar, until light and fluffy. When you're half way there, it should ball together like this:


When you're finished, it will appear like so:


Add 2 whole eggs and 1 tsp vanilla extract. If I do this again, I will add 1 tbsp vanilla instead. This step is not a pretty one, as illustrated below:

Small children should avert their eyes, this is gross looking

Add in 2 cups AP flour, 1 tsp salt, and here's the part I'm gonna change. The recipe says to add 2 tsp baking powder. It made the blondies way more cake like than I expected, and I think it doesn't need it.


Once the dry mix is combined with the egg mix, throw in 1/3 cup toasted, roughly chopped hazelnuts and one giant blob of Nutella. Mix until combined.


Grease an 8in X 8in or 8in X 11in pan and drop all that deliciously, yummy batter into the pan. Make sure to spread evenly.


Bake for 25 minutes and check if it's done, i.e. a toothpick in the center comes out clean. My pan took 30 minutes.



Then while still a little warm, smother the top in Nutella.


1 comment:

  1. these look SO fab!! BOOKMARKING this recipe. thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete