White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Blondies

Do you ever feel the need to tweak a recipe?  Mostly I do because I don't have the exact ingredients.  Other times I think I'm really going to make it better.  And there's always times when my family would rather eat it without a certain ingredient.  These tweaks usually have mixed results, all of which are unrepeatable because the recipe is on the internet and I don't make notes.  For shame.

Well, this time I decided to stick with the recipe on the bag of Private Selection White Chocolate Chips for White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Blondies.  I'm not a great brownie/blondie maker.  They inevitably end up crisp on the edge and dough in the middle.  My girls beg for brownies but I just can't stomach another epic fail.  I also really dislike white "chocolate", except for Tricia's white chocolate popcorn which I need her to make right now.  So what possessed me to try these?  1) I have not made brownies in my new gas oven & 2) I had macadamia nuts that were just this side of rancid and I couldn't bear to throw them away.

The recipe is standard, and includes melting butter and white chocolate chips together to pour into the batter. I added 1/2 cup of flour because it works better at  high altitude.  And then when it said to add dried cranberries I had a discussion with my shoulder angel.  She said "add chocolate chips instead, the real kind". I was sorely tempted but I thought it was my fat-girl shoulder angel just trying to get in some of the dark stuff, so I told her to put a sock in it.  I was trying to follow the recipe for reals.

My middle gal walked by and asked if I was really putting in dried cranberries & I told her, too, to put a sock in it.

The went into the oven at 350 deg for exactly 30 minutes and came out looking golden delicious, and not having a sink hole in the center.  I actually let them cool down, saints be, before cutting them.  They cut like magic, they were moist, the toasted macadamia nuts were a delicious surprise and the melted white chocolate really added to the moistness of the surrounding cookie...cake...brownie... I'm unsure of the correct term here.

But I really should have listened to the shoulder angel, and my gal.  Turns out she was my good-cook-instincts-angel, and sometimes you just have to trust her.  Who knew I had one?

And one small side benefit of making a treat that isn't right up your alley?  You tend to not eat the whole pan. And feel free to giggle at my burgeoning food photog skills.  You can only do so much at once.

Happy baking!