I'm sure I've mentioned before how I'm not usually a huge fan of blondies. I love the flavor, but I think that most of the time they're just too dry. I can never decide whether they're more cookie or brownie, but I almost always find myself wanting them to be one or the other, and not a blondie. My usual fix for this is just slightly under-baking them. With some recipes even this doesn't help, but it's a step in the right direction. 

On the other side of this is that I love how blondies are so easy to make. You almost always have all of the ingredients on hand, and they're perfect when you're pressed for time. Despite what seemed like my blondie-hating above, these blondies are a prime example of everything that's great about blondies. I had everything I needed already in my cabinets, and they took me almost zero time to put together. When they came out of the oven I ate way too many because I was convinced they were about to get dry like most blondies. They didn't! The shelf-life is shorter than brownies because they will get a bit crumbly and dry as the days go on, but you probably won't have a problem finishing these off before that time comes anyways.

Enjoy!

M&M Blondies

Recipe from A Zesty Bite

Ingredients:

1/2 stick butter, unsalted
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
2 lg eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup m&m candies
1/2 cup white chocolate chip morsels

Directions:

Add butter to a medium size sauce pan over low/medium heat. Stir constantly until the butter has melted then remove from heat. Add the brown sugar and stir until it is well coated. Set aside until it becomes room temperature.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a mixing bowl whisk the eggs and vanilla. Then add the butter and brown sugar mixture.
Slowly add the flour, salt and baking powder. Whisk until everything is combined.
Stir in the m&m candies and chocolate chip morsels.
Line a 8X8 baking pan with parchment paper and drop the mixture into the pan. (It may seem thick so you will have to work with it to go all around the pan.)
Cook for 25-30 minutes and then remove. Allow to cool for 15 minutes before cutting into pan.

I feel like there are certain foods people expect you to grow out of at some point. In this category I'd place things like Iced Animal Crackers, Fruity Pebbles, Pop Tarts, Totino's Pizza Rolls, all things Little Debbie...you get the picture. What's so wrong with preferring your frozen chicken nuggets be shaped into something somewhat resembling a stegosaurus? (If you're sitting there thinking to yourself that the initial issue is that I'm 23 eating frozen chicken nuggets, that's beside the point.)  I don't buy into that logic.

I'd also say anything with an excessive amount of sprinkles somehow gets placed in that category. Thankfully I have no plans to ever outgrow sprinkles. They remind me of birthday parties. 

So, it's no surprise that when it comes to funfetti I always turn to the funfetti queen, Sally, over at Sally's Baking Addiction. She does funfetti Friday's. That's a girl after my own heart right there. These cookies are a breeze to make. I made mine a bit smaller so I could do my usual 'justify eating four cookies because they're not quite as big' thing. I also like mini desserts. These are perfect. They're slightly crisp around the edges (crisp, not crunch), but chewy in the middles. I'm sure if you make them in regular sized portions you can get even more of the gooey sugar cookie type thing going on. Amazing.

Funfetti away!

 

Soft Baked Funfetti Sugar Cookies

Recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature*

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg, at room temperature*

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 and 1/2 cups spoon & leveled all-purpose flour*

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar (can not be omitted)

1/2 cup sprinkles, plus more for sprinkle on top before baking

Instructions

In a large bowl using a hand-held mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment, cream the softened butter for about 1 minute on medium speed. Get it nice and smooth, then add the sugar on medium speed until fluffy and light in color. Mix in egg and vanilla. Scrape down the sides as needed. Set aside.

In a medium size bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cream of tartar. With the mixer running on low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in 3 different parts. The dough is quite thick and you may have to stir the rest by hand. Once combined, fold in 1/2 cup sprinkles.

Scoop a large sections of dough (about 2 Tablespoons of dough each) and roll into balls. Make sure the balls are taller, rather than wide. Add a few more sprinkles on top of each ball dough.

Chill the balls of dough on the cookie sheet for at least 30 minutes and up to 3 hours in the refrigerator. This step will prevent spreading in the oven.

Preheat oven to 350F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

Bake chilled cookie dough for 8 minutes, no more. The cookies will appear undone and very soft. Allow the cookies to cool on the cookie sheets for 3 minutes and move to wire rack to cool completely.

Notes from Sally:

If you're in a pinch and need to soften your butter quickly, cut 1 stick of butter into 5 different sections. Microwave for 10 seconds. 

*Room temperature egg is required. To bring the egg to room temperature quickly, place in a warm glass of water for about 10 minutes as you get the other ingredients ready.

 *Recipe retested on 4/29/13 to add 1/4 cup more flour to resolve spreading issues. Use 1 and 1/2 cups total flour, which will aid in the spreading issues.