Warning: Ginger blondies are highly addictive. One bite may lead to the disappearance of the entire tray.
We’re eating spicy ginger brown butter blondies and vanilla ice cream drizzled with ginger salted caramel and garnished with crystallized ginger.
K. So I know I promised in my last (of many) Wordless Wednesday’s a post on Puerto Rico…. and I still fully intend to give you one! But I thought that you guys might just like an actually recipe on this here food and recipe blog. 😉 And you thought all I did was travel around for shameless self-promotion of the Foodp*rnDaily Cookbook. You’re only partially right! Although it’s been a challenge, I have found time over the past two months to get into the kitchen and whip up a couple of things, albeit not as frequently as I might have liked.
These blondies were initially inspired by a tweet I read about someone making ginger and bacon cookies! The first rendition I made we actually brown butter blondies with toasted hazelnuts and bacon lardons. Sound freaking delicious, right? Thing is… ever time I ate one (and I ate many, for the record) I kept wishing that all the add-ins weren’t there and that I was just eating the damn blondie. By itself…with out the bacon. GASP! (Seriously – when do I ever suggest making something without bacon? It’s unheard of!) So back to the kitchen I went! A couple of batches later I had perfected the recipe, gained a couple of pounds in blondie weight and had my roommate demanding that I was not allowed to make yet another batch due to his lack of self control around the delicious little devils. 🙂 That’s just what I like to hear!
Anyway – if you make up a batch of these, I implore not to over cook them! They will look just barely set directly in the middle when they are perfectly cooked. Overcooking just a touch won’t hurt them, but they might not be shear heaven either. 😉 Betcha can’t eat just one!
A Blondie Recipe, By Amanda
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Spicy Ginger Brown Butter Blondies
Wet Ingredients:
1 stick (8 tbsp) butter
1/3 cup peeled finely minced fresh ginger
1/4 cup molasses
1 tsp good quality vanilla extract
1 egg
Dry Ingredients:
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cayenne
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup all purpose flour
1 (packed) cup light brown sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 12 count regular-sized muffin tin with cooking spray. Set aside.
Place the butter into a saucepan over medium heat. Cook the butter, stirring occasionally, until milk solids are browned and nutty, but not blackened. Do not overcook or blondies will be bitter.
While the brown butter is cooking, whisk together all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl until thoroughly combined. Set aside.
Remove pan with butter from heat and cool for 2 minutes. Add minced fresh ginger to slightly cooled brown butter. Stir. Let ginger sit in brown butter for 10 minutes to infuse while cooling. Whisk in molasses and vanilla. Once incorporated, whisk in egg.
Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Stir with a wooden spoon until completely incorporated into a cookie-like dough/batter.
Divide the batter equally into each of the greased muffin tins. Place filled muffin tin into preheated 350 degree oven. Bake at 350 for approximately 17-20 minutes, or until just set in the middle. As with brownies and cookies, it's best to err on the side of slightly underdone. Remove from oven and place on a rack to cool. Cool for 30 minutes then remove tin. Cool until room-temperature. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
A Caramel Recipe, by Amanda
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Ginger Infused Salted Caramel
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 inch long piece fresh ginger, peeled & sliced in thin medallions
1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
2 tsp kosher salt
Place heave cream and ginger medallions into a small sauce pan over medium low heat. Simmer ginger in heavy cream for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, making sure that the cream never reaches a full boil. Remove from heat and cool for 10 minutes. Strain thoroughly to remove all ginger then set aside.
Place sugar, water and into a medium-sized sauce pan over medium-high heat. Stir, cooking over medium-high heat, until the sugar has dissolved. Once dissolved, allow the sugar to cook without stirring until it turns a deep shade of amber. Carefully swirl the pan occasionally to ensure even caramelization but be very very cautious as molten sugar will cause serious burns.
Remove the caramel from the heat as soon as it reaches amber then very carefully add in the infused heavy cream. Initially the caramel will bubble furiously at the addition of the cream so again, be cautious. Once the bubbling has subsided stir until all of the cream has been incorporated into the caramel, if necessary return to heat and stir until smooth. Set aside and let cool to room temperature at least 1 hour before using.
