Well, hello there! Goodness it has been WAY too LONG since the last time I have written up a blog post. Ridiculously too long! Thank goodness I have the Secret Recipe Club that has pushed me in the right direction to get my creative juices flowing again for my precious little blog. And it isn't like I haven't been baking up a storm - goodness no! - I just have been pre-occupied with things like Christmas (being a mommy/Santa to a 6 and 2 year old takes a lot out of me!), my littlest turning TWO and then of course working full-time along with all the other fun stuff in life. I've missed blogging terribly! I adore sharing my kitchen delights with all of you. And I really hope to be able to manage my time differently so that I can get back into the groove of blogging more often. True story, I do! :-)
I was given the opportunity to discover the K and K Test Kitchen blog this past month as it was my assignment from the Secret Recipe Club for the month of January. What an absolute treasure of a blog! It is written by two beautiful women, Kelsey and Kim. A mother and daughter in fact! And it is packed with delicious, beautiful and amazing recipes.
It was a VERY easy decision for me to choose Samoa Blondie's as the recipe of my choice to make from their blog as my oldest daughter is in the thick of Girl Scout cookie sales right now. AND my family just adores and worships Samoa cookies! How can't you with all that lovely chocolate-caramel-coconut yumminess!?! And these fabulous bars sure are pretty darn close to being a "Samoa Cookie". The butter is browned to allow for a perfect nutty and caramel taste that goes along with the sinful chocolate chips and decadent coconut. Everyone gobbled down these little bars with rave reviews. I even passed some of them out to my favorite Starbucks barestas as I drove through to get my morning coffee. They LOVED having such a treat being passed through the window to them!
Bake a batch of these bars and pass them out to all your favorites that you come across on a daily basis....you will be worshiped forever if you do!
Thank you, thank you Kim and Kelsey for this fabulous recipe! You have brought much happiness to my baking world!
Samoa Blondie Bars
Ingredients:
10 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup flour
1 1/4 sweetened coconut flakes
1 1/4 chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease 8x8 pan well and set aside.
2. Brown butter in a medium saucepan on medium to high heat. Butter will melt completely and then bubble and pop. When the butter starts to frizzle with smaller bubbles and the scent of the butter changes to a lovely nutty smell you have successfully "browned" your butter. Allow browned butter to cool until just slightly warm...about 10 minutes.
3. In a large bowl mix all together browned butter, sugars, egg, vanilla extract and salt.
4. Slowly add in remaining ingredients - flour, coconut and chocolate chips - until well blended all together.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan - batter will be thick. Carefully smooth all over top with a rubber spatula.
6. Bake for 25-27 minutes - be careful not to over bake your bars....edges will be slightly darker than the middle and come away from the pan when done. Cool for as long as you can stand it and cut into squares and enjoy!
Happy Samoa Blondie Bars Baking!
