Sunday, March 16, 2008

Chewy Oatmeal Blondies

I get too many magazines. For a while, I was subscribing to Gourmet, Cook’s Illustrated, Simple and Delicious, Martha Stewart Living, and Everyday Food, not to mention a few other non-food-related ones. I couldn’t keep up with them. They would gather, in great tumbling piles, on my coffee table, until I finally had to toss some unread ones from 2006. Soon, I’ll need to toss the unread ones from 2007. I finally cut back, and, for a while, I was being very good about trashing the renewal notices that bombarded my mailbox. I let my Everyday Food subscription run out, because I can’t even keep up with the recipes I save online, let alone any additional ones, and I also let my subscription to Martha Stewart Living run out, telling myself that I wouldn’t renew it until we had a house and I could make more use of its brand of tips and advice.

Then, I didn’t realize who I was up against.

Martha Stewart is unrelenting, and she refuses to take no for an answer. She will win, period. I threw out dozens of renewal notices until, finally, after many many months of maintaining my resolve, Martha got me. When she told me that, if I only renewed my subscription to Living, I would get a year-long subscription to Everyday Food absolutely on the house, I gave up. I sent in my renewal, adding a memo on the check that this small payment was for both Living and Everyday Food. A few weeks later, I was surprised with a complementary Martha Stewart tote bag. Thanks, Martha.

I have to wonder, though, if Martha would have been so generous with her offer if she’d known that I would turn around and give away her recipes. I’m sorry, Martha, but when you come up with something as good as Chewy Oatmeal Blondies, I simply must share.

An added bonus with this recipe is that it begins with homemade baking mix, which is 3 cups spooned-and-leveled flour, 1.5 cups sugar, 1 tablespoon baking powder, and 1/2 tablespoon salt. This is great to have on hand when you feel like baking during the week. When you want to make dessert on a Wednesday night, your sifted dry ingredients are all ready to go. The April issue of Everyday Food contains four delicious recipes to use with the baking mix, including these Chewy Oatmeal Blondies.


Chewy Oatmeal Blondies
From Everyday Food

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 1/2 cups homemade baking mix
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease an 8-inch square baking pan, line with parchment paper (letting paper hang over edges on two opposite sides to form “handles”), and grease paper. Set aside.

Beat butter and sugar together. Add egg and beat to combine. Slowly beat in baking mix, half a cup at a time, until just combined. Mix in 3/4 cups oats, and spead batter in prepared pan.

Sprinkle batter with remaining oats, and press gently. Bake for 30 minutes, and let cool in pan for 30 minutes more.

Using parchment paper handles, transfer blondies to a wire rack to cool completely. Using a serrated knife, cut into 9 squares.

13 comments:

test it comm said...

I can't keep up with the recipes that I find online recipes and want to try either. Let alone my growing book collection. I stopped getting magazines because I wasn't using them enough.

I like the sound of the oatmeal blondies!

Anonymous said...

i can't keep up with my magazine, either, but i can't bring myself to throw them away either. so i use the stacks as end tables.

these looks really yummy. i love blondies, and like the idea of adding the chewy oatmeal. plus, now i can pretend they're healty.

Patsyk said...

I get way too many magazines as well... mostly food magazines! I have the same problem, I can't keep up with the recipes from those and the one's I find on-line... but, don't you get all excited when a new one comes in and you see that cover picture? Of course, now I have to go out and get the April Every Day Food because those blondies look so good! So far, Martha hasn't sucked me into an actual subscription!

Rebecca said...

These look great! I've never had blondies! And you're right-martha does always win, she would have kicked my a** on the playground and made it look like my own fault! I hope you're enjoying Everyday Food-I love that mag!

skoraq cooks said...

Pictures speak louder than words :-D

Anonymous said...

Aren't those renewal notices the worst? I tend to give up by the end and keep the subscriptions as well. My growing stack of cooking magazines I can't seem to throw out is a bit of an eyesore, but there's a lot of great stuff in there!

You've convinced me to make these blondies. They look super tasty.

Gretchen Noelle said...

These look tasty! I do love me a good blondie! I am envious of your magazines, to get them here increases the price by 16 times, or something like that. :)

Unknown said...

I rushed home from school and popped these in the oven. The batter was a little sticky... I wasn't prepared for that, but 20 minutes or so I'm sure I'll be thrilled.

Can you give me a hint about the other recipes that use the baking mix? I'm in China- buying a copy of the Everyday Recipes magazine is impossible. Now that I've made the baking mix I'm hoping to use it for more than the blondies. But three more batches might not be out of the question.

Vicarious Foodie said...

Hi Jen--I hope your blondies came out well! Here are links to the three other recipes that use the baking mix:

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2008/03/fig-clafouti-recipe-straddling-the-pancake-pudding-divide.html

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/silver-dollar-pancake-sundaes-with-chocolate-hazelnut-sauce

http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.fc77a0dbc44dd1611e3bf410b5900aa0/?vgnextoid=e19e8db237588110VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default

Vicarious Foodie said...

Oops--I see my URLs haven't turned out well. Try doing a Google search for these three recipes:

Jam Sandwich Cookies

Silver-Dollar Pancake Sundaes with Chocolate Hazelnut Sauce

Fig Clafouti: Straddling the Pancake/Pudding Divide (story and recipe posted on Serious Eats)

Unknown said...

I made these yesterday with the addition of a handful of cashews. They were super easy to make and taste brilliant! Thanks for the recipe!

Anonymous said...

Martha has resurrected the Blondie Recipe in her on line mailings. 3 years later I can still only find 4 recipes using this mix.

MrsD said...

Math: 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt should do the trick.