Ah. Back to baking and it feels so good.
When I decided to discontinue frannycakes, I was disappointed that I hadn’t shared this recipe, especially because it is one of my most requested (and personal favorite) treats.
The fact that one of my favorite treats is a humble blondie should surprise no one. In college my specialty was Tollhouse Cookies. I could make them without the recipe and without measuring all that carefully. I made them to celebrate birthdays and to procrastinate writing essays. I made them at 3am when I was trying to keep myself awake to memorize just a few more vocabulary words.
When I went gluten-free, my old methods and go-tos fell to the wayside. Over the past year and a half, I’ve been perfecting my replacement for those cookies (9 years later…). I’ve made them for impromptu friend visits and office treats. I’ve made them for birthdays and breakups. They were my most recent roommate’s birthday request and our favorite bad-day eats.
These blondies existed (until today) exclusively as a half-written recipe on a batter-stained page in my notebook. But a request from a friend to divulge my secret recipe prompted me to share it with the world. Because everyone should get a chance to have a nearly perfect gluten-free cookie bar.
Think of this recipe as a blank canvas and add mix-ins of your choosing. I like white chocolate chunk and coconut, chocloate chip and toffee or chopped peanut butter cups. It’s important to make sure that your mix-ins are gluten-free, because there are many favorite cookie ingredients that aren’t.
Gluten-free Blondies
These are quick, easy and sure to please even the most anti-gluten-free food critics. They can be made with your favorite cookie mix-ins (chocolate chips, coconut, white chocolate, raisins…just about anything you might want in a cookie other than oats). It is important that your gluten-free flour blend include xanthan gum or equivalent such as expandex. …
- Prep Time: 10m
- Cook Time: 30m
- Total Time: 40m
- Serves: 16
- Yield: 16 blondies
Ingredients
- 210 grams (1.5 cups) gluten-free all-purpose flour blend with xanthan gum
- 4 grams (1 teaspoon) baking powder
- 3 grams (.5 teaspoon) table salt
- 300 grams (1.25 cups) lightly packed brown sugar
- 170 grams (12 tablespoons or 1.5 sticks) high-quality butter, melted and cooled slightly
- 2 eggs
- 5 milliliters (1 teaspoon) vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups total of your favorite mixins
- Butter or oil for greasing the pan
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease a 9x9 baking dish, line with parchment paper (leaving some hanging over the edge for easy removal) and grease the parchment paper.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the gluten-free all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt.
- In a large mixing bowl, mix together the brown sugar, melted & cooled butter, eggs and vanilla.
- Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture in 3 parts, stirring until just combined after each addition.
- Stir in your mix ins.
- Pour batter into your prepared baking dish and make sure to spread it evenly in the pan (check your corners!).
- Bake for 25-30 minutes - the whole top should be a rich golden color (but not brown). Remove from oven and place on a rack to cool.
- When the blondies are cooled to room temperature, remove from the pan and cut into 16 bars.
Looks AH-mazing, Mary Fran! Pinning!!!! Can’t wait to try them!
~jules
Thanks! I have to tell my self not to bake them every time I want a cookie 🙂