Can you believe it is May now?! Memorial Day is only a few weeks away and summer is so close I can taste it! This winter was pretty brutal in the Northeast and I am just now feeling like myself again. The cold and the snow tends to put me in complete hermit mode. Good for my baking blog, not so good for my real life. Now I am ready for longer days, dates with friends, flip-flops and spending all of my money on frozen yogurt. I’m also ready to plan my summer calendar and travel schedule.
Living in New York, I’ve found that we spend most of our summer weekends out of the city and as a result away from my kitchen. This is pretty normal for Manhattanites. Come to the city for the 4th of July and you should be able to get almost any dinner reservation you could imagine. You also will sweat your way from place to place and especially waiting for a subway. While I’m a homebody at heart, I have a definite preference for the beach or a pool during those days.
All of this means that most of my cooking and baking from May through the end of August takes place at night after work. On a good day, I’ll be home by 7. Given that I am 8626 years old and get into bed before 10pm, that means only three real hours of kitchen time. I’ve gotten pretty good at coming up with quick dinners for these nights (when in doubt, make eggs), but baking in that time span as well can be a bit more challenging. Baking is like therapy for me, not something I like to rush. This means planning ahead, making desserts that aren’t overly complicated, and making desserts that don’t require an insane amount of oven time (air conditioning isn’t NYC’s best quality). Think cookies, brownies, and ice cream desserts.
These Sweet and Salty White Chocolate Blondies are the perfect dessert for baking under a time constraint. They are pretty easy to make and take only 30 minutes to bake. Plus, they are easy to wrap up and bring to a summer barbeque or gathering. The texture has a wonderful chew to it and there is a lovely sweetness and caramel-like flavor from the white chocolate melted in the batter. Some chocolate chips and pretzel pieces add crunch and my favorite salty sweet taste combo.
Start by melting butter and some of your white chocolate chips over low-medium heat
Stir occasionally; Don’t worry if your butter and chocolate separate, you can fold them together to combine
Once completely melted, set white chocolate mixture aside
Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside
In a large bowl, beat together sugars, eggs and vanilla until well-combined
Reduce speed of mixer to medium and add white chocolate mixture
Stir in the dry ingredients until well-combined
Stir in white and semi-sweet chocolate chips and pretzels
Pour batter into pan lined with wax paper and greased
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and a knife comes out clean; allow to cool before slicing
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Sweet & Salty White Chocolate Blondies
Yield: Serves 24-36 depending on size
Ingredients
- 6 ounces white chocolate (any form, to melt)
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
- 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup salted pretzel pieces
- 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup white chocolate chips (for mix-in)
Cooking Directions
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
- Line a 9×13 pan with wax paper and grease; set aside
- Melting butter and white chocolate over low-medium heat
- Stir occasionally; don’t worry if your butter and chocolate separate, you can fold them together to combine
- Once completely melted, set white chocolate mixture aside
- Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside
- In a large bowl, beat together sugars, eggs and vanilla until well-combined
- Reduce mixer speed to medium and add melted white chocolate mixture
- Stir in the dry ingredients until well-combined
- Stir in white and semi-sweet chocolate chips and pretzels
- Pour batter into prepared baking pan
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and a knife comes out clean; allow to cool before slicing
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Are you taking any weekend trips this summer?
Oh yum! These look perfect. I love that they have pretzels in them.
Yum…. sweet and salty. That’s the perfect combo.
Wow, you ACTUALLY put pretzels in blondies. I like!
In the paragraph when you were discussing making dinner quickly, my eyes jumped ahead and thought they saw Spam. I was about to be incredibly excited that someone else eats Spam!
But no, you were talking about a time SPAN, and I’m pretty sure that nobody else eats Spam:)
I’m getting ready for some travels, and I couldn’t be more pumped!
Hahahaha! No sorry, I don’t eat Spam… do you really eat that??
Well, ya see, I visited the Spam Museum this past winter when spending the holidays in my lovely home state of Minnesota. We bought three cans of various Spam-flavored delights. They are all long gone.
I see it as a joke…………….. mostly.
lol i didn’t even know that existed!
I love blondies!! I’ve never had mine with pretzels before. These look fantastic!
Yum yum yum. I love the addition of pretzels into the batter along with the chocolate and white chocolate chips. I actually prefer blondies over brownies. Although I think they get the short end of the stick sometimes.
I have to plan ahead and basically put it on my calendar to motiviate myself most of the time! Hopefully this summer when I run out of new TV to watch it won’t be as tempting to just crash.
So much good stuff in these! I’m super impressed with you still baking on weeknights. On a good day I have dinner ready but then I typically crash :)
Can’t wait for summer!!
I don’t know why I love you but I do-o (but-da da da da dada dada)…oh wait, I know why! Because you give me sweet and salty dessert ideas! I’m saving this one–loves it!
Haha love you too:-)
holy molie!! this looks so delicious! love the recipe, great job :)
I love white chocolate and sweet & salty! Winner!
These blondies look delish! Would love some with my coffee :)
These look delicious! I love reading your blog first thing at work! ;) I have trips to Denver, Baltimore, Naples (Fla.) and hopefully NY planned this summer!
Great photos Lauren! Love that you added pretzels to these :) Delish. I love spending summer weekends at the Jersey shore!
I wish we went to the same Jersey shore!
I am a sucker for blondies, and I love what you put in them! the pretzels are a fantastic idea!!
Looks yummy!!!
~Sarah@TheJoyOfCleanEating.com
Can never go wrong with sweet and salty!!
Love the sweet & salty combo!! The blondies look incredible!
I can’t believe Memorial Day is so soon! And Memorial Day at my place means our apt. building’s pool opens. CANNOT WAIT! And I might have to make these salty/sweet little treats to take out to the pool. They sound amazing!
Do you think if you mailed these to me they would hold up? Because I need some like ASAP.
I think they would wrapped well! If I didn’t have a use for them I would totally mail them to you:-)
Love sweet and salty together, and these brownies look wonderful! I too am ready for the long days of summer, hangin’ out by the pool, and sitting out on my balcony enjoying a good book!
As for baking in the summer…well…my oven never stops ’cause I make fresh bread just about every other day. But I wish our apartment complex would allow us to use grills on our patios and balconies because if they did, I’d be grilling a lot of flatbreads to keep from turning the oven on.
As for weekend trips…nah…we work every weekend. :(
Fresh bread every other day? Can I come to your place?!
Love the addition of pretzels. These look great.
I can totally relate to everything you said about the NY heat! The city pretty much clears out from the end of May to the beginning of September. I tend to be around for most of it and I like how quiet the city gets.
These blondies look great and I love how quick the recipe is. That’s key for a weeknight!
Oh my heavens, these look amazing! I love the sweet and salty trend! Must put these on my list of things to try!
Yessss, I made peanut butter blondies before and they rocked so this will be awesome(r) since i prefer chocolate
Chocolate and pretzel pieces – I can’t think of a better combination for brownies. These really do sound wonderful.
I so love that you put pretzels in your blondies! A little salt with the sweet is never a bad thing!!!
oooh YUM! Can I have one?!?!
I really can’t believe that it is May either…I am super excited for summer though! My husband and I are moving to a new city where he starts a new job and we are heading down to the Cayman Islands for our 3rd wedding anniversary in June. Lots of sun and scuba diving…can’t wait! :D These blondies look incredible….pretzel pieces? Yes please! :)
That sounds fabulous! When is your anniversary? Our first anniversary is June 12th!
I love summer! And blondies :) These look absolutely perfect! I’m a 25 year old old lady too. Bedtimes are seriously strict things in my house :)
Glad to know I’m not alone!
OMG that sounds delicious!!! :) Happy Sunday!
xxx
http://gypsy-diaries.blogspot.com
Oh man, these sound delicious! Please come over and make me a batch! ;)
When are you free? :-)
For these blondies…uh ANYTIME!!!!
Yummm sweet and salty blondies with white chocolate!! I honestly haven’t made blondies before but will plan on baking some soon!
These were really easy! So much less work than cookies, too, since you bake them all together.
Sweet and salty is my absolute favorite combo right now. These look amazing!
What a great way to combine sweet and salty. Yum!
I was pretty sure I was old enough to be your mother. Now I know I am. You are the same age as my youngest son, T-Man (the one who received your yummy bars awhile back). I can tell you I wasn’t nearly the cook you are when I was 26.
Ah thanks, I feel like I’ve been in the kitchen my whole life:-)