Blondies! Plus and award!

Blondies made by a blondie : D These are the most amazing blondies ever. They might even be better brownies! Ahh what did I just say? Is that possible? Yes, yes it is. And the best part is that these are the easiest thing to make. Ever. I don't really know how to describe them. They are like a chocolate chip cookie in brownie form. They are soft and chocolaty and slightly chewy.
I made these blondies again, because I was bored. So when they came out of the oven, I was still at a loss of what to do, because these blondies hardly took any time to make. So with my extra easter candy, I melted down the chocolate, and made chocolate stripes with white and milk chocolate.


Everybody went crazy over these blondies too. My mom went especially nuts because she doesnt want me to make baked goods. Because then she can't help but eat them. And she thinks that she can stop me from baking stuff. Ha! Like thats going to happen.

So if you are ever in a need for some super sweet baked goods, these blondies are totally the way to go. They are so quick to make, and since the recipe is pretty basic, you can jazz it up any way you like! Like nuts? Add them. Espresso powder? Chocolate chunks? Different extracts? Go for it!

Im also super happy because I got the Arte y Pico award from Recipe Girl! Thanks Recipe girl!
Ok so then you select five blogs that you think excell in creativity, design, interesting material, and also contribute to the blogging community, no matter what language.
Im having a serious trouble deciding who to pass this along to, because I think that there are just so many great blogs out there! I guess Il pick. . .

Elle's New England Kitchen

Noble Pig

The Kittalog

Food Stories

Mochachocolata-Rita

Blondies
Smitten Kitchen

8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla or 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Pinch salt
1 cup all-purpose flour

Butter an 8×8 pan
Mix melted butter with brown sugar - beat until smooth.
Beat in egg and then vanilla.
Add salt, stir in flour. Mix in any additions.
Pour into prepared pan. Bake at 350°F 20-25 minutes, or until set in the middle. Cool on rack before cutting them.

Crumpets

I don't know about the rest of the word, but I can not just sit around and do nothing. It might just kill me. I can't just sit down and relax, I'm just to fidgety. So when I'm bored I break out the trusty bread bible, and look for inspiration, or search random blogs. Or in this case, a recipe that I have never seen before. In fact When I decided to make this, I didn't know what a crumpet was. All I could think of was the phrase "crumpets and tea" So they started like any other bread that I have made, except on the second rise you had to stir in baking soda.Weird. Then you cooked them on a stove top.
It was odd cooking them on the stove top. It sort of reminded me of cooking pancakes except different. The batter was quite thick and super bubbly. It made the kitchen smell heavenly, like a little bakery.
And Oh my gosh were they tasty! They were like an English muffin times a 100. The texture was so light and fluffy with lots of little holes. You can toast them up again if you made them at night like I did. Serve them with jelly of jam or just about anything!





Crumpets

The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Berenbaum

• 1 cup plus 1 1/2 tbs unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 tbs dry milk
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 plus 2 tbs water divided
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp butter

1. Mix the batter. In a large mixer bowl beat together the flour, dry milk, yeast, sugar, and salt. Add the 3/4 cup of water and, gradually beat on med. for about 5 min. until completely smooth.
2. Let the batter rise. Scrape the dough into into a container with a one quart rising capacity. With a piece of tape mark on the side where doubled the height would be. Cover and let rise until doubled, about an hour.
3. Add the baking soda and water and let dough rise again. In a small bowl mix together the baking soda and remaining 2 tbs of water.Stir into the batter and allow to rise again until almost doubled, about 30 min. The batter will be filled with bubbles.
4. Preheat the griddle or frying pan. If using an electric griddle, preheat to 275 degrees. If using a skillet,heat over low until a drop of water sizzles when added.
5. Fry the crumpets. Brush the pan, and the insides of the crumpet rings lightly with melted butter. Set the rings in the pan and use a ladle to spoon, or pour the batter into the rings, filling 2/3 full. The batter will rise to the top during cooking. Cook the crumpets for 10 min on one side, or until they are nicely browned underneath and have lost their dull shine on top. Turn the crumpets and continue to cook until the bottoms are browned.
6. Cool the crumpets. Remove the crumpets and move to a wire rack. Cool completely. They can be stored over night in a paper bag, or frozen well wrapped for up to 3 months. Thaw before toasting.
   

What to do with Phylo

I really had no idea what to do with my extra phylo dough after making the tomato phylo tart.
I mean, what else do you do with it? So when I got home from school I told my mom that I would make something for dessert. I had nothing planned, just hoping for some inspiration. Wile going through everything in the fridge, I spotted the phylo again, and this time It occurred to me that I could do some sort of fruit pastry! Why didn't I think of this before? So I basically just threw it together without any directions. It turned out really yummy, just like mini apple pies! The phylo made it really interesting because it was so incredibly flaky.
But, wow was some grueling work. It took literally forever! Because the phylo is incredibly thin, you have to take each tiny triangular sheet and individually brush it with melted butter and sprinkle it with cinnamon sugar. 150 some odd sheets later you could pop them in the oven.

Would you think I'm crazy if I told you that making a traditional apple pie would have been less time consuming? Well in the end it was worth it, and ended up being a great way to use the extra Phylo!

Apple Phylo triangles

(All of these directions are approximate)

• a couple of tablespoons of butter melted (or as much as you need for brushing
• A couple of tablespoons of sugar plus cinnamon sugar for sprinkling
• Phylo dough cut into squares
• Apples cut into slices

Cut your apples into slices them take about a tablespoon of sugar and toss the apples in it. Take the triangles of phylo and lightly brush them with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Lay them on top of each other. I stacked about 12 sheets and then piled a couple pieces of apple on it, then covered it with 5 more sheets of phylo that had been lightly brushed with butter and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.

Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown.