Speculoos Spread, White Chocolate, and Pistachio Blondies

I'm trying to clear out my kitchen in preparation for my move. I'm getting rid of almost everything so I can travel as lightly as possible. That meant using up some of my always on hand baking supplies as well as my jar of newly acquired speculoos spread. These blondies are a fun and simple treat. I decided to add a salty crunch with roasted pistachios and it really highlighted the caramel undertones in theses sweet blondies. 


One year ago: Baked Chocolate Donuts with Ganache
Two years ago: Korean BBQ Chicken (Dak Bulgogi)
Three years ago: Vanilla Pistachio Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream




Speculoos Spread, White Chocolate, and Pistachio Blondies
(Adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod)

1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 cup (packed) brown sugar
1/4 cup speculoos spread
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/4 roughly chopped roasted and salted pistachios

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter or spray an 8x8 baking dish.

In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and sugar together, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Remove from the heat and stir in the speculoos spread. Let the mixture cool.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

Add the egg and vanilla to the speculoos mixture. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture. Mix just until combined. Fold in the white chocolate chips.

Press the dough into the baking pan making sure to spread it all the way to the edges. Sprinkle the chopped pistachios over the dough and use your fingers to lightly press them in to the dough. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool the blondies on a rack for 10 minutes before cutting in to squares.

Printable Recipe

Loaded Pumpkin Blondies

This coming Saturday, I will be participating in another bakesale for charity. The Food Bloggers Bake Sale is a nationwide effort to benefit Share Our Strength. It's pretty cool to know that bloggers all over the country will be holding bake sales at the exact same time for the same cause. You can find out more about it here, and if you're in the LA area, come out to Morels at The Grove and support a great cause. I'll be there all day! I've been agonizing for weeks about what to make for the bake sale. I really wanted to do the crack pie bars, but there was no guarantee I would be able to keep them cold all day so I had to find something else that could travel well. I had just enough frozen pumpkin left to test this recipe. It was also a great way to use up some of the stuff I had around the house. At first I was doubtful these would turn out well because the batter was so thick, but I pressed on and they came out great. I'm so excited to share these treats this weekend so come out and support!


Loaded Pumpkin Blondies
(Adapted from Martha Stewart)



Makes 16 servings

1 cup all-purpose flour
A few dashes of ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Heaping 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1/2 of a lightly beaten egg
Splash of vanilla extract
1/4 cup pumpkin puree, drained of as much liquid as possible
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
1/4 cup toffee bits
1/4 cup roasted salted peanuts

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease an 8x8 baking dish with butter or cooking spray. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and brown sugar together until light and fluffy, about 2-4 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla until well combined. Mix in the pumpkin.

With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated. With a spatula, fold in the chocolate chips, toffee bits, and peanuts.

Spread the batter evenly over the pan and bake for 17-25 minutes until the edges begin to pull away from the pan and a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan comes out mostly clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and allow the blondies to cool completely before cutting.

Printable Recipe

Chocolate Chip and Peanut Blondies

Yesterday was a crazy day. When I got to work, we were told the power was out and to come back several hours later. A couple of my coworkers and I decided to go see a movie. Before we left, we learned of one tragic event and then when we got back, we learned of another. There is something about bad news that makes people want baked goods. Luckily, I had just the thing. Now that I work with more than two other people, I have more people with which to torture with desserts. Of course Tony will always be my #1 taste tester, but there is something nice about sharing treats with people who aren't so worried about what they will do to their girlish figure. I have only baked blondies one other time and I really enjoyed them. This recipe could not be more simple to prepare and good gracious they were good. Just adding something simple like salty peanuts kicked them up to another dimension and lucky for me, my coworkers seemed to agree. These blondies have a light, cakey texture and even though I thought they were great on their own, I am sure they would have been even better with the ice cream and chocolate sauce pairing that was recommended in the recipe. I think I will add these to our menu for the Hollywood Bowl this weekend. Thanks to all of you who suggested recipes. I can't wait to share how everything turned out. Have a wonderful weekend!



Chocolate Chip and Peanut Blondies
(From Bon Appetit, June 2009)

Makes 12-16 pieces

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup (1 stick)
1 1/4 cups (packed) golden brown sugar (I used dark brown)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup salted roasted peanuts, divided
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips, divided

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 8x8x2-inch baking pan*.

Whisk flour, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl to blend. Melt butter in a large heavy saucepan over low heat.

Remove from the heat; add sugar, and whisk until smooth**. Cool mixture 2 minutes; whisk in eggs and vanilla. Using a flexible spatula, stir in flour mixture, then half of the peanuts and half of the chocolate chips. Spread the batter in the prepared pan; sprinkle with remaining peanuts and chocolate chips.

Bake blondies until golden, and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean and edges just begin to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 30 minutes. Cool completely in pan on a rack.

Cut blondies into 12-16 squares. Serve.

*The recipe calls for a metal pan, I used a glass pan with great results.

**The mixture will take a while to come together, just keep whisking until the butter and sugar are well combined.

Printable Recipe

Chocolate Chip Blondies

For some reason, I had the urge to bake this week, but with the weather being insanely hot this past weekend I couldn't do much about that feeling. Now, with the weather cooled down to respectable temperatures and the nights being blissfully cool and air conditioning-free, I dug out this recipe, mostly because it was made entirely of things I already had in my kitchen!!

Chocolate Chip Blondies
(from Simply Recipes)

1/2 c unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 c tightly packed dark brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp pure vanilla
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 c all-purpose flour
1/3 semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Lightly butter an 8x8 pan. Whisk together the melted butter and sugar in a bowl. Add the egg and vanilla extract to the sugar mixture and whisk.

Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt to the sugar mixture and mix it all together. Add the chocolate chips or any other mix ins you would prefer.

Pour into the pan and spread evenly. Bake for 20-25* minutes until a fork comes out clean. Cut into squares and serve.

*Being the impatient baker that I am, I only cooked these for about 20 minutes and they came out a little soft, but...OMFG!