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| 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…
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| RER 8.22.16 |
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| 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.
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| RER 8.22.16 |
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| RER 8.22.16 |
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| RER 8.22.16 |
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| RER 8.22.16 |
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| 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.
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| RER 8.22.16 |
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| 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.
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| RER 8.22.16 |
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| 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
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| RER 8.22.16 |
