Feb 14, 2012

Happy Valentine's Day!

In our family we don't make a big fuss about Valentine's Day.  I don't want (or expect) flowers, candy, cards etc.  We typically share a nice breakfast together and call it a wonderful day.  With Valentine's Day being a Tuesday and Aaron's championship season starting today we changed things up and had a nice meal together on Saturday.  I guess this was pretty traditional.  It was nice to share a meal and mostly spend some quality time together before Aaron is MIA for the next few weeks.  Gotta love the busy season.

I do love doing things for others' for Valentine's day so I made Aaron's swimmers some treats to wish them luck as they head in to the ACC Championships.



My office is also having a Valentine's Day potluck so I decided to bring the sweet treat.  And it is inspired by where else, but Pinterest =)


M&M Samoa Blondies
Recipe source: Recipe Girl

Ingredients:
10 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated white sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups sweetened flaked coconut
1 1/4 cups mini M&M’s
a few extra M&M’s

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 8x8-inch pan with nonstick spray and then line the bottom with parchment paper.
2. Heat butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until it browns and begins to smell nutty (watch it closely so it doesn’t burn). Let the butter cool for a few minutes, until just barely warm.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the browned butter and sugars. With a wooden spoon, stir in egg, vanilla and salt. Stir in flour, coconut and M&M’s until batter is blended.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Sprinkle a few additional M&M’s on top. Bake 25 to 30 minutes. Let the blondies cool before turning them out onto a cutting board and slicing into squares (chilling them will make that process even easier).

Side Notes:
*Use chocolate chips in place of M&M’s if you’d like.
*For slightly gooey, underbaked blondies, bake for 25 minutes. For fully baked blondies, bake the entire 30 minutes (I baked mine for about 27 minutes and I thought that they were perfect!).

No comments:

Post a Comment