As I mentioned in my last post, starting today I am doing a month long baking marathon, Monday to Saturday taking a break on Sundays. The only criteria that has to be met for this baking marathon is that all the baking/cooking has to be done in the oven. There are no sub themes and to make it more interesting, I self-imposed 4 theme. I divided my bakes into 4 categories. First and last week I will be posting under miscellaneous category, as we blog only 4 days in these two weeks. The other three weeks I will be posting 6 bakes of same theme each week.
For the first day of miscellaneous bakes, I have blondies. Blondie or blonde brownie is similar to a brownie, with vanilla flavor. Unlike brownies, blondies do not have cocoa as an ingredient but chocolate chips can be added.
Today’s recipe is from Barefoot Contessa. Her recipes are very rich and I could not get myself to make the full recipe. I made half the recipe and I loved it. That day my kitchen weighing scale batteries died and I made an approximate guess to convert ounces to cup measure for chocolate chunks. I ended up adding more chocolate chunks than required and it was a little chocolatey. Being a chocoholic, that did not bother me though. In the recipe I will mention how much is required and how much I used. I made half the original recipe and baked it in 8 x 8 square baking dish.
Photography Corner: From now on, once in a while I will have this photography section where I will write about how I took the photos. I was not planning on doing this section when I clicked my pictures. I was surprised and pretty satisfied at how these blondie photos came out and wanted to share how I clicked them. Unfortunately I do not have behind the scene setup pictures for these photos.
I always avoided taking food pictures on gloomy days until few months ago. Even now I am a little intimidated to take pictures when there is not enough natural light. I made these blondies in the evening and could not take pictures as there wasn’t enough natural light. I had planned on taking pictures that Saturday morning and was disappointed to wake up to a gloomy and rainy day. I cancelled my plan and was getting ready to meet Mir & Pavani for a Vegan Food Festival in the city. When I walked into my guest room, that is where I click most of my picture, I noticed there was enough natural light to take pictures and immediately setup the shoot. I quickly took some pictures and ended up going 15-20 minutes late for the event. 🙁
Since it was gloomy, I decided to use dark background. I used gray background, black bouncer/reflector on left, a black backdrop and a dark color blocker on the right (12 - 3 o' clock or the first quadrant of the frame) to block the light behind the plate of blondies. The source of light was from the window to the right of the setup. As a photographer, we also need to pick the best pictures of the lot. I liked both the pictures of stack of blondies that I shared here. Both the pictures were shot with the same setting except the shutter speed. One is lighter and the other is darker. You might not even notice much difference if you just glance. I would have picked the darker picture (the second stack of blondies pic) if I was doing a moody shot and the lighter one (the first stack of blondies) if I wanted a more warmer feel. Since I could not make up my mind on which picture to use for this post, I decided to write this section and use both the images. 🙂
Source: Food Network
Total Time: 38 – 45 minutes
Preparation: 10 – 15 minutes
Bake Time: 28 – 30 minutes
Yields: 16 – 20 pieces (varies on the size of the blondie)
Ingredients:
- 1 stick ( ¼ lb.) unsalted Butter at room temperature
- ½ cup Light Brown Sugar, lightly packed
- ¼ cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
- 1 extra-large Egg, at room temperature
- 1 cup All-Purpose Flour
- ½ tsp. Baking Soda
- ½ tsp. Kosher Salt (I used regular salt)
- ¾ cup chopped Walnuts
- ½ + ⅛ lb. (1 ½ cups) Semisweet Chocolate Chunks (I used 1 ¾ cups chocolate chunks and used Nestle brand)
Preparation:
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 F.
- Grease and flour dust the baking pan.
- In a bowl mix together flour, salt and baking soda.
- In a large bowl cream together butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar on high speed until light and fluffy, for about 3 minutes.
- Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in egg and vanilla one at a time.
- At low speed, mix in flour mixture.
- Fold in chopped walnuts and chocolate chunks.
- Spread the batter into prepared baking pan, smooth the top and bake for 28-30 minutes in the middle rack. A toothpick inserted may not come out clean and that is ok.
- Cool completely in the pan and cut into bars of desired size and store in an airtight container. My blondies stayed fresh for 2-3 days at room temperature.
Note:
- I used 1 ¾ cups of chocolate chunks and the blondies were very chocolatey. I liked it but everyone might not like so much chocolate. Use 1 ½ cups, about ⅝ lb as the recipe called for. One can also see how chocolatey my blondies are in the pictures. It was difficult cutting them into squares and can see my blondies are of various shapes and sizes.
- Temperatures vary from oven to oven and the baking time may vary as well. Use the given baking time as an approximate time the first time you bake the blondies ti figure out the baking time.
This day in 2014:Hyderabad Haleem
Suja Ram says
Amazing Blondies Usha. Wow...love all your pics too.
Sneha datar says
Simply delicious blondies very addictive,
Archana says
Usha for a blind bat like me both the pics are same. However I like your explanation of the setup. I suppose for me seeing is understanding so it I will need to visit again to read up the setting. Just the setting mid you. I hope the blondies do not interfere in my learning process.
Ami@NaiveCookCooks says
Looking forward to all the delicious things you bake!! Happy baking marathon!!
Vaishali Sabnani says
The Blondies look stunning and tempt me to grab from screen. I am amazed..really with your photography skills, more so when you explain so much in detail..super USHA.
nandini says
Your Blondies look amazing and I wouldn't mind that extra 1/2 cup of chocolate either! The photography tips are nice. I'd love to see the setup you use for the darker image. Maybe next time you take a moody shot? Thanks ahead 🙂
Pavani says
Those blondies were amazing Usha. My son loved them a lot. Thanks for the photography tips bonus 🙂
Looking forward to all your bakes this month.
Thalia @ butter and brioche says
I definitely am craving one of these blondies right now.. they look SO delicious.
Nalini says
My vote for the darker one Usha,loved the concept of your photography corner...BTW the blondies look amazing,looking forward for your yummy bakes and photography set up...
pumpkinfarmfood says
my goodnes, that picture the last one, almost killed me with pleasure...i cant go beyond it to explain what i feel about this recipe..it is awesome
srividhya says
wow loved the way you stacked it up. yummy
priya says
Can u send me some, brownies looks absolutely alluring and prefect for my sweet tooth..Beautiful start Usha.
Rajani says
I love the darki-sh picture better. Nice to know about the set up as well. The chocolate chunks and nuts look absolutely amazing.
veena krishnakumar says
This is so so nice Usha. I am bookmarking and this bake will be there def in this bm!!
Harini says
Lovely looking blondies. I am so looking forward to the photography corner as much as the bakes 🙂
Varada says
Brownies look great, I love the chunks peeping through. Enjoyed the photography tips. Keep them coming.
PJ says
Blondies with choco chunks looks yum! And nice to read behind the scene photography set up for the pics. Enjoyed reading the post Usha.Looking forward to thevother bakes in this series...
Gayathri Kumar says
We could never say no to blondies loaded with chocolate. Amazing photos Usha and very nice photography tips ..
Padma Rekha says
As always picture is so beautiful I always try to take apic. with dark back... now I can try :). Those blondies are tempting me to try looks so yummm.
Sowmya says
looks super!!!! beautiful clicks...would love to gobble these!!!
Srivalli says
Usha, simply love your blondies..I am sure my kids would love this!..Thanks for starting that photography section..enjoyed reading it..I personally liked the middle one..though all three look stunning..very nicely shot!..
Priya Srinivasan says
I love barefoot contessa series on TV, and those blondies look so gorgeous and delicious!! Loving that photography corner usha, love both the shots!!!
Suma Gandlur says
My daughter would help to gobble up some of those! Lovely way to start the BM.
sizzlingtastebuds says
great to see ur bakes and photography tips for us , Usha !! those blondies look devilishly tempting :-))
Sandhya Ramakrishnan says
I love this chocolate goodness and like you mentioned that extra chocolate that went in will not bother me as well. I am so excited to see all your bakes 🙂