Cherry, White Chocolate and Pecan Blondies
This weekend I had the pleasure of attending BlogHerFood09 in San Francisco. I had the opportunity to meet all of the foodbloggers who had inspired me to start my blog. Heidi Swanson of 101Cookbooks and Matt of Matt Bites led a great workshop on photography. My take away – read my camera manual! One of my favorites was hearing Ree from The Pioneer Women talk on one of the panels. She was so sweet and seemed like she was quite down to earth. I introduced my boss to her site and she has become addicted. We have to go to Oklahoma next year for business and want to stop by and say hi.
I met Joy the Baker and made new friends like Patricia at Brownies for Dinner. Rocco di Spirito asked me if I would’ve been naughty had I been at the dinner the night before. He sure was cute and that boy knows how to work a room, even if it was full of foodies who were a bit disgruntled at being served frozen meals for lunch. Note to future Rocco dates, eat the bacon risotto. Trust me.
The awesome women behind The Pioneer Woman, Simply Recipes and Steamy Kitchen threw a rockin after party and sent us home laden with gifts from Starbucks and Chefs Catalog.
I came home and threw together Blondie bars for our staff meeting this morning. They were inspired by Cookie Pie and Smitten Kitchen. They are full of dried cherries, white chocolate chips and toasted pecans. Yum. I am wishing I hadn’t given them all away. There were none left by the end of the meeting.
Blondies
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
Pinch kosher salt
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup pecans, toasted & chopped
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup dried cherries, chopped
Preheat oven to 350F.
Butter an 8×8 pan.
Mix melted butter with brown sugar and beat until smooth. Beat in egg and then vanilla. Add salt and flour. Mix in pecans, chips and dried cherries.
Pour into prepared pan. Bake 20-25 minutes, or until set in the middle.
