MangiaMore: brown butter BLONDIES with salted speculoos frosting

RER 8.22.16

Summer just about slipped through my fingertips. The last weeks of steaming August melted, collecting and creating a pool at the feet of muggy September. There is a summer haze hovering over those last few weeks as so much happened in so little time; heat and excitement have clouded my memory…

RER 8.22.16

RER 8.22.16

But, in the midst of it all, was a sweet baking adventure with a great friend. It was just a little less hot, but just as sticky because brown sugar, brown butter, white chocolate chips, cookie butter, and a little too much frosting were involved.

RER 8.22.16

RER 8.22.16

RER 8.22.16

After speculation, we decided to make brown butter blondies with salted speculoos frosting found on Butter and Brioche. We knew these were going to not only be sweet, but also a mature play on the oh-so-delicious blondie.

RER 8.22.16

RER 8.22.16

Anything with browned butter is instantly kicked up a notch, and the sexiness goes through the roof. Browned butter brings maturity—burned notes that are round and intriguing. The walnuts in these blondies connected nicely with the rich flavor of the brown butter, while the white chocolate chips vanished, but traces of their sweetness remained, bringing a softer side of the browned butter out to play.

RER 8.22.16

RER 8.22.16

If that wasn’t enough, a thick layer of decadent cookie butter frosting, weeping with the late August heat, was smeared across the just-cool-enough blondies. The frosting was warmed with just a touch of cinnamon, but the cookie butter mimicked the brown sugar and butter patterns of the cookie-like blondie below.

RER 8.22.16

RER 8.22.16

The confection was fudgy and dense, an overdose of sugar that mellowed with refrigeration. Each bite tickled so many senses: the scent of browned butter and cinnamon emanated from each morsel; the sticky frosting that clung to fingers and lips and crunchy toasted walnuts, both with textures forcing feel and touch; the taste of caramel brown sugar spiked with fat chunks of sea salt heightened sweetness and added sophistication and refinement; the visual undulation of salt and sugar, monotone yet alluring.   

These blondies had it all— brown sugar, brown butter, white chocolate chips, cookie butter, and a little too much frosting.

RER

9.10.16

RER 8.22.16