Sarah Kieffer's book 100 Cookies is true to its name, delivering one hundred recipes for cookies and bars. Some of those recipes are variations of each other. For instance, recipe #19 is "My Favorite Brownies," and that recipe (or other brownie recipes in the book) serves as the base for: Cream Cheese Brownies (recipe #22); Turtle Brownies (recipe #23); Swirl Brownies, Two Ways (recipe #25); Marshmallow Peanut Butter Brownies (recipe #26); Peanut Butter Crunch Brownies (recipe #27); and Chocolate Basil Brownies (recipe #28)
But there's no need to try the base recipe alone before you jump into the variations. I decided to try Kieffer's Cinnamon Roll Blondies (recipe #36), even though I hadn't tried the Brown Butter Blondies (recipe #34) that form their base. And as it turns out, the delicious Espresso Caramel Blondies are also based on the Brown Butter Blondies (with the addition of brewed coffee and espresso grounds) -- but I didn't realize that when I made them because unlike the case with most of the variations, the base recipe is not incorporated by reference.
These blondies have three components. There's a cream cheese filling (softened cream cheese mixed with sugar, vanilla, and salt); cinnamon sugar swirl (brown sugar, butter, and salt cooked in a pan until the sugar is dissolved, with cinnamon added at the end); and the blondie batter (hot browned butter mixed with more butter, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt; after the mixture is cooled, you add eggs, egg yolks, flour, and baking powder).
To assemble the blondies, you spread the blondie batter in a parchment-lined pan, add alternating dollops of the cream cheese filling and cinnamon sugar swirl, and use a knife to swirl the three components together before baking. The final result definitely evoked a cinnamon roll with frosting and I wouldn't feel guilty eating one for breakfast. There were generous blobs of the cream cheese filling and cinnamon sugar swirl throughout the pleasantly dense blondie batter, and the overall flavor was a tad on the sweet side.
What's remarkable to me is how different the Cinnamon Roll Blondies taste compared to the Espresso Caramel Blondies, even though they use the same blondie batter as their base; I think it's a testament to the versatility of the base recipes in this book. I'm looking forward to trying all of the creative variations!
Recipe: "Cinnamon Roll Blondies" from 100 Cookies by Sarah Kieffer.
Previous Post: "All That They're Cracked Up to Be: Espresso Caramel Blondies," October 21, 2020.
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