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!

The Whole Wheat Bread Recipe that will make you Queen

Nothing screams clever woman like hot homemade bread.  You are instantly a domestic goddess who has also made everyone in her immediate vicinity very very happy.  A serious chunk of the love I contain in my soul is for bread.  I am not to be trusted in it's presence.  Especially if it's nutty, wheaty, & rustic.  Mmmmmmmmmm.

I was never very good at bread making, and my husband, knowing this, gave me the Christmas gift of a bread-making class at the local university through their continuing education program.  He knows the way to my heart, and also how to up the quality of my labors.

I went one evening a week to a local Great Harvest and learned through practice and most importantly WATCHING someone make dough to the right consistency, knead it to the right elasticity, and proof it to perfection.

It changed my life.  But I was only half way there.

The second thing that changed my bread making was a stand mixer.  I inherited a Kitchen Aid from my grandmother.  The dough hook...pure kneading genius.  Thank you, whoever invented that gem.  I now use a Bosch.  Equally amazing, but with even more bowl space.

It is so much better that hand kneading.  Granted it's at the sacrifice of sculpted arms, but I'd rather have awesome bread, to be honest.

Because really good bread must be kneaded beyond most human abilities.  It is the key to activating gluten and getting it good and elastic.

The next most important think about bread is a good recipe.  One with the right balance of flours, especially if you're making wheat bread.  This is where you need to focus...

I ran across the MAGIC WHOLE WHEAT BREAD RECIPE OF ALL TIME.  It is the holy grail of wheat bread.  It takes about two hours from start to delicious finish.  It is unfailingly moist, nutty, and rustic.  Every time I serve it people ask for the recipe, only after they've demolished the entire batch.  And it's huge.

This Christmas I decided to give loaves as our neighbor gifts.  I cranked out 60 loaves in 4 hours.  Not too shabby!

I found it on the Two Healthy Sisters blog, which I think has run it's course, and I couldn't actually find the link, but I printed it, so I can share it with you.  Put this in a safe place.  You're going to want to hang on to it.

Happy baking!  You'll need someone on crowd control with this one!