Got Weird Pan Sizes?: Milk Chocolate and Raspberry Blondies

As I was recently doing some tidying up in the basement, I came across a bin of baking pans that I forgot I owned, including a 7-inch by 11-inch pan and an 8-inch by 12-inch pan. Soon after, I was reading through Melissa Weller's A Good Bake and noticed that her recipe for Milk Chocolate and Raspberry Blondies calls for an 8-inch by 12-inch pan. I added the recipe to my list of holiday cookies and was able to make a double batch -- because even though I only own one 8-inch by 12-inch pan, I also own a 10-inch square pan, which has the equivalent volume. (By the way, if you want to make this recipe don't own either an 8-inch by 12-inch pan or a 10-inch square pan, you can divide the batter between two 8-inch round pans and it should work out fine. But yeah, it's annoying when American cookbooks include recipes written for pan sizes that almost no one owns here.)

This recipe doesn't include any salt in the batter, but it includes salted butter and also suggests an optional sprinkling of Maldon salt before baking. The ingredient list is short. You whisk brown sugar with eggs; add melted and cooled salted butter; whisk in vanilla; fold in flour and baking soda; incorporate milk chocolate (I used Cacao Barry Lactée Supérieure 38% pistoles); and transfer the batter to a pan (I lined my pans with parchment). You dollop raspberry jam onto the batter, marble the jam with the batter, and sprinkle on Maldon salt before baking.

The recipe includes a warning in bold, colored text not to overbake the blondies, stating that it's "the secret to a moist, chewy texture." So I erred on the side of underbaking the blondies and when I pulled them out of the oven, they didn't look quite done. I let them cool to room temperature and put them in the refrigerator before slicing, because chilling very fudgy bars helps create cleaner cuts. My slices did end up neat and tidy, including the jam, which was firmly enough set that I could stack the bars for storage with pieces of wax paper between the layers. 

Even though the recipe says these blondies can be stored at room temperature, I preferred them chilled, when the chocolate was firm and snappy. While I thought this bar was tasty -- and nicely balanced with the caramel-y base, smooth milk chocolate, and sweet-tart jam -- I didn't think it was anything particularly special. But I will say that I loved the dramatic ruby swirls of jam, and I think these blondies were beautiful and a nice part of my holiday cookie mix. I try to offer a wide variety of cookies and bars so that hopefully everyone will find something to love.

 

Recipe: "Milk Chocolate and Raspberry Blondies" from A Good Bake by Melissa Weller, recipe available here at Pastry at Home.