After suffering a baking dry spell for more than two weeks, I finally had the opportunity (and the desire) the bake once again. I can’t really explain why I wasn’t in the mood to bake over the last couple of weeks. Perhaps it was just a lack of free time issue, or maybe it was the increase in the cost of ingredients was starting to make an impact on my wallet. Whatever the issue was, it seems to have fluttered away.

On a warm Friday afternoon, I had a hankering for blondies. I was craving the chewy texture of a chocolate chip cookie in the shape of a bar (which, if you didn’t already know, is basically what a blondie is). Luckily for me, this meant this craving could kill two birds with one stone.

First, I would have a delicious treat that would make the house smell amazing. Second, I would be able to make yet another recipe from the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook. There was a blondie recipe in there that has been calling my name for a long, long time!

What makes this recipe different? The use of brown butter. Brown butter seems to have been a theme in my kitchen lately. The last few recipes I’ve been making required the extra step. Browned butter adds a nutty flavor to the finished baked good, which increases the depth of flavor. Don’t know how to brown butter? I recommend checking out Sally’s Baking Addiction for information on that.

I began by browning the butter. This is a step that should be completed a little while before you plan to start baking since the butter needs to return to room temperature. This recipe, specifically, still wanted the butter to be melted, just not hot. So after browning, I transferred it to a glass baking dish to cool while I got everything else ready.

Once the browned butter had cooled, I began to mixing process. For this recipe, I opted to use chocolate chunks. I prefer chunks to chips since chunks have more surface area. More surface area provides a stronger chocolatey flavor. I decided to use a semi sweet chocolate, like the recipe recommended, since there was a lot of brown sugar in this recipe. Using a different type of chocolate could have made the blondies too sweet.

After combining everything into the bowl, I poured the batter into my brownie pan. Almost immediately, I realized that the called-for amount of chocolate was too little for this recipe. My use of chunks was probably to blame. Chunks are larger and thus heavier. Since I weigh my ingredients (except for small measurement ingredients like teaspoons and tablespoons), this meant there were less chunks going into the batter.

After the blondies baked, I let them cool. Which was very difficult for me to do. The blondies smelled amazing! I wanted to cut one and gobble it right up! But, I didn’t. I waited until they were cooled and were able to be cut nicely. The parchment did help keep the blondies from sticking and I cut them into 16 pieces.

After I cut them, my assumptions were correct. They did need more chocolate. You live and learn, right?