It’s been two weeks to the day since Halloween. Do you still have candy at your house?
Sadly, we did.
This Halloween marked the seventh spooky holiday we’ve been in our house. And during this time how many trick-or-treaters have we had? Exactly zero. None. Zilch. Our little building is on a busy street and it’s gated–so, I don’t blame the kids for passing us up. But, it makes me sad. And I still buy candy each year hoping someone will find their way to our doorstep (and now I sound like the witch from Hansel and Gretel).
What does one do when left with a bowl of candy that, despite taking handfuls to work and consuming nearly as much, just won’t empty? Why, you make ghosts of halloween’s passed blondies.
I completely admit, this is a bit of a hack recipe. But, it works, it’s versatile. And, I swear, if you throw in some Kit Kats, your life will be changed forever (I’m considering always using them in chocolate chip cookies going forward).
The recipe below is meant for a 9X13 inch pan. Above I’ve done them in a half-sheet pan. Both work. To size-up, just increase all of the ingredients by half again (and, if you want to go the other direction with an 8X8 pan, just halve the recipe).
Ghosts of Halloween Candies Passed Blondies
Ingredients
- 16 TBS/2 sticks unsalted butter at room temp.
- 1 C golden brown sugar
- 1/2 C granulated sugar
- 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 C + 2-4 TBS all purpose flour, sifted
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 2 C candy, chops and/0r assorted chocolate chips (we’re talking chocolate varieties of candy here…gummy bears and twizzlers won’t work)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 9X13 pan with parchment. Butter sides.
- In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In a standing mixer using the paddle attachment (or hand mixer), cream together the butter and sugars until fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add-in the eggs one-at-a-time beating in between. Then beat-in vanilla.
- Carefully add-in flour and mix on the lowest speed until the flour mixture is just incorporated.
- Pull-out bowl from mixer, remove as much dough from the paddle as you can. Gentle fold-in candy and chocolate chips until evenly distributed throughout the batter.
- Spread dough into prepared pan. I like to use an off-set spatula. To keep the parchment in place, it helps to keep an index finger on the opposite corner of the inside of the pan (holding down the parchment) while spreading in the opposite direction. Be patient, the dough will eventually settle into the pan.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the tops are light golden brown (I start checking at about 30).
- Allow pan to cool completely before cutting. I’m serious. No cheating. Make sure the bottom of the pan is at room temp. before cutting into these things…otherwise you risk having or bars fall apart.