Recipe: Coconut Blondies

Halfway through Saturday Mandarin class, the instructors take a break and entertain us with a segment of A Bite of China, a fantastic CCTV documentary series. If my mind wasn't on lunch already, watching dumplings being pinched together and seafood sizzling in a flaming wok is enough to get my stomach growling. It is fascinating to watch weathered villagers lovingly preparing dishes passed down through generations, with the expertise and skill that one usually associates with a gleaming stainless steel kitchen, rather than a black clay pot over a fire pit. I always get home from Mandarin class craving a savoury Chinese meal, but generally settle for grilled cheese.

grilled cheese with banana peppers (my favourite!) and ketchup

Thanks to residual inspiration from the cooking show, I decided to try the coconut blondies recipe that my mom sent me. She had enjoyed a blondie from a colleague and asked for the recipe, which came titled "Best Blondies" (my mom assured me that they did live up to this description). I'd never made blondies before, so figured I'd give it a go. I reduced the amount of butter and sugar (to the amounts below) and still found the blondies plenty soft and sweet. I omitted any ingredients that I didn't have.

• 1/4 cup butter or margarine
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg (beaten)
• 1 tsp vanilla (omited)
• 1/2 tsp baking powder (omitted)
• 1/8 tsp baking soda (I used 1/ 2 tsp since I didn't have baking powder)
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup coconut (mine was sweetened)

In a mixing bowl, I creamed together the butter (microwaved for a few seconds to soften it), brown sugar, and beaten egg.

Next I stirred in the baking soda, salt, flour, and coconut.

I pressed the mixture into a lightly greased 8x8 in. pan and baked it at 350 degrees F for ~20 minutes (until a toothpick came out clean).

before baking

after baking

I cut it into a dozen squares (yes, there are only ten here...I'd eaten two already!).

These blondies are soft, buttery, and perfect amount of sweet. Their texture resembles that of brownies -- somewhere between cake and chewy cookie. The one downside is that the coconut taste is not as strong as I'd hoped it would be -- but perhaps this is a result of buying the cheapest sweetened coconut at Target (I'll try unsweetened the next time).

In browsing through a few other blondie recipes online, I noticed a wide variety of adaptations -- white chocolate, peanut butter, pecan, you name it! If you've had or made blondies before, what's your favourite type?