Snow Witch White Chocolate Brownie

O. M. G.  If you like blondies, you must must MUST make this recipe.  If you have never had a blondie before, they are basically white brownies, some recipes use white chocolate and some don't.  I had an insane craving for a blondie the other day, and I like blondies the way I like my brownies: dense and chewy.  I made a blondie recipe from my Magnolia cookbook earlier in the week and it didn't fit the bill.  It had a nice flavour but was quite light and cakey.

Mike and I had been to Fat Witch Bakery when we went to NYC a few years ago.  We sampled a few different varieties and they were all totally decadent and delicious.  So when I was craving the perfect blondie I went hunting online for one of Fat Witch's recipes.  What I found was a recipe for the "snow witch" blondie, which is made with white chocolate.  And it is perfect.  Golden, chewy, dense, with a buttery and subtle vanilla flavour.

The recipe itself is very easy to make, I used Guittard Vanilla Milk Chips.  These are so tasty and worth the couple extra bucks.  They're not that easy to find though, if you have a Cost Plus World Market in your area they sell them, and I would imagine Williams Sonoma and Sur La Table would sell them as well.  The only problem I had with the recipe was the melting of chocolate and butter.  All as going well melting-wise, and all of a sudden the chocolate and butter separated, leaving a sticky gooey oily mess.  I don't bake with melted chocolate that often, but I have never had that happen.  A quick search gave several different methods to remedy the separation but nothing worked.  I got annoyed and added it to the batter anyways, and it still turned out lovely.

If you love this recipe as much as I do, Fat Witch does have it's own cookbook for purchase!

Snow Witches (White Chocolate Brownies)

Ingredients

6 ounces coarsely chopped white chocolate or 3/4 cup high-quality white chocolate chips

5 tbsp unsalted butter

2 large eggs

1 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 cup unbleached flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Directions

1.  Grease a 9-inch x 9 baking pan with butter.  Dust with flour and tap out the excess.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2.  Melt the white chocolate and butter in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly to make sure it doesn't burn.  Remove from the heat before it is completely melted and continue stirring until it is completely smooth.  Set aside to cool.

3.  Beat the eggs, sugar, and vanilla together in a large bowl until smooth.  Add the white chocolate mixture and mix until well combined.

4.  Measure the flour, baking powder, and salt and sift together directly into the batter.  Mix until well combined and no trace of the dry ingredients remains.  Spread the batter evenly into the prepared baking pan with a spatula.

5.  Bake for 25 minutes or until the top is light brown and cracked.  Turn off the oven, leaving the pan inside for 8 more minutes.  After that time, a toothpick inserted in the center should come our clean or with only crumbs, not batter, on it.

6.  Remove from oven and let cool on a rack for 1 hour.  Cut just before serving.

Yield:  12 to 18 bars