Reeses Peanut Butter Bar Blondies

Before I get into how awesome these blondies are, let me tell you a little bit about someone else who is just as equally awesome.


My sister.

Y'see, my sister is a little out there. She's a little strange. Possibly because she's related to me. Or maybe it's the other way around... whatever. Either way, my sister is in her own way one of the most special people I've ever met.

She's not TOO complicated. She enjoys the simple things in life. Like Lost. And Dexter. And Bones. She also was the person who got me hooked on The Fringe... which I haven't decided if that's a good thing or not.


When she was pregnant with her first kid, my sister craved starbursts and hersheys kisses. When I was younger, I would snuggle up to her and watch her play Zelda while we ate chocolate together. And then she'd get pissed off and go "What the hell do I do?" every five minutes. I'd just watch intently, trying to memorize everything she did so I could do it, too.

When my sister reads a good book, or gets hooked on a good videogame, she won't put it down until she's beat it. And I am not kidding. The freaking apocalypse could be going on but she'll still be balled up on the couch reading the next Nora Roberts series. It's a little scary.



My sister also rocked the punk dreads look when she was my age. Just sayin'.

My sister can rival any man in anything. Case in point: My mother called my sister instead of my 4 other brothers to come kill a mouse in our house. If that doesn't prove it, I don't what does. This fact also includes burping contests. Please don't ask me how I know.

I'm still trying to forget the many dinners spent having my sisters large belch blown in my face. Thanks, sis.


My sister likes wine. And chocolate. And cheese. She has a tongue ring which really grosses me out. Her laugh can fill up a room. She has a beautiful singing voice and used to be in choir. And she somehow attracts every over-possessive bi-polar weirdo freak out there (I think it's due to the tongue ring, personally...). She also wanted to go to Culinary School to be a Pastry Chef, like myself. Except she wanted to decorate cakes, and open up her own shop dedicated to it. If I had a million dollars, I'd send her to Culinary School so she could do it.

Even though sister can be a stubborn hard-ass, it's cause she has been through hell and back. She is one of the most strongest people I've ever known, hands down. She single-handedly raised two awesome kids. Worked her butt off for everything she has, and yet still offers to help others with a genuine smile on her face. Her faith is inspiring to me. Lets me know that if she can still keep her head up after all that's happened to her, that I can definitely do the same.


And if I could be anywhere right now, I'd be at her house making her these Reeses Peanut Butter Bar Blondies. Because she's worth it. Because she likes Reeses. And because it would make me feel better to share these instead of eating them all myself. That, and I kind of owe her after all the years of her putting up with me going into her room and reading her diary, which was in cursive, so I couldn't read it anyway.

Yeahhh... Sorry about that, sis.

But really, my sister is just as awesome as these blondies. And, also like my sister, they should come with a warning label. So just in case you couldn't already tell, you probably shouldn't eat these blondies if:

1. You don't like peanut butter. In which case, what the heck is wrong with you?
2. You are dieting.
3. You have no one to share with.
4. You don't have milk in the house.

If none of the above apply to you, then please.. for the love of all that is holy: Make. These. Share. These. Eat. These. They are so good it's ridiculous. And if you're a fan of peanut butter, you'll go nuts. If you can't find Reeses Peanut Butter Bars (not to be confused with PB cups), you can substitute reeses pb & choco chips, or reeses pb cups chopped up.

Either way, don't miss out on these. They are too good.

Reeses Peanut Butter Bar Blondies

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter, softened
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 king-sized reeses peanut butter bars, chopped
1/2 cup peanut butter & chocolate chips (found with the bags of semi-sweet chocolate chips)
1/2 cup finely chopped honey-roasted peanuts (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F and grease a 9x13 pan with non-stick spray.

2. Mix butter and brown sugar together until light and creamy. Mix in eggs, peanut butter, and vanilla until smooth.

3. Combine the dry ingredients (flour through salt) together in a seperate bowl. Mix into peanut butter batter until no trace of flour remains.

4. Fold in Reeses bars. peanut butter & chocolate chips, and peanuts.

5. Pour into prepared pan and bake for about 20-25 minutes or until a knife/toothpick in the center comes out clean.

6. Let cool before cutting into 24 squares.

Pumpkin Blondies

I smelled it.

The minute I woke up this morning to a dreary half-lit bedroom.

The minute I attempted to open my tired eyes.

I smelled it.

Winter.

I don't know about you, but there's one thing that sets off every nerve in my body to scream: WINTER, WINTER, WINTER, CHRISTMAS, PRESENTS, THANKSGIVING, TURKEY, EGG NOG, WINTER, COOKIES, WINTER, WINTER.

And that's the smell of it.

Winter has a particular smell. It is crisp, clean, cool, and every time it rolls around all I feel like doing is getting a huge, fluffy blanket, rolling inside of it and eating fruitloops while watching saturday morning cartoons in my PJ's before running outside and swinging on our swingset for five hours.

And if we still had a swingset around, and fruitloops, I'd probably be doing that instead of writing this post. Sans the saturday morning cartoons. That would probably be replaced with 3 hours of Good Eats (which, by the way, anyone else notice that Alton looks kind of like a zombie now-a-days? I hope he's feeling alright).

Now, for the past few hours i've been awake (tightly snugged inside a warm jacket), I am having rushes of nostalgia and craving gingerbread men.

Does anyone else get these?

Am I the only one?

I know it won't last long. This is the south, afterall. The sun will warm us over nice and soon, I'm sure. But for today and tomorrow, things will be much cooler around here, and I have a feeling that my urge to bake every single warm, fuzzy, homey dessert I can think of will surface violently and I will find myself passed out at 3A.M. in my kitchen covered in flour and pumpkin pie spice.

They should really have a name for a condition like this.

Like P.I.S, Pumpkin Insanity Syndrome.

Or P.G.M.O.O.T.K.B.I.B.F.T.C.S (Please Get Me Out Of This Kitchen Before I Bake Five Thousand Cookies Syndrome).

I don't know. I'm out of it and I need an afternoon nap and some hot chai tea. This is what winter does to me. It makes me babble. And ramble. And talk insanity.

But if there is one thing you can get out of this whole post, it's this: Pumpkin Blondies.

They are pumpkiny.

They are octobery.

They are butterscotchy.

They are cakey.

And they are best eaten out of the refrigerator after a day of being made.

If you can wait that long. If you're me, and have no patience, you probably can't. But try anyways.

Definitely make these sometimes. I should've baked mine longer so they came out a little... eh, fudgy, for blondies, but they are stilll very good. Don't hesitate to leave them in the oven for a little longer if you're not sure if they are done or not. AND PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE add the butterscotch morsels. You have to. You do. Don't argue. Just do it. It's worth the store trip. I swear.

Now please excuse me while I go look through five hundred christmas cookies recipes.

Pumpkin Blondies

(Adapted from Annie Eats who adapted it from Martha Stewart)

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup applesauce

1 cups granulated sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar, lightly packed

1 large egg

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 cup white chocolate chips

1 cup butterscotch chips

1/2 cup chopped, toasted nuts (optional)

1/2 cup quick-cooking oats (optional)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a 9×13-inch baking dish with foil.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt. Stir together and set aside.In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter, sugar and applesauce on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla until well combined. Mix in the pumpkin puree.

With the mixer on low speed add the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated.

Fold in the white chocolate and butterscotch chips (and nuts/oats, if using) with a rubber spatula.

Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.

Bake until the edges begin to pull away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few crumbs, about 35-40 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool completely before cutting.

To serve, lift the cake from the pan using the foil and transfer to a cutting board. Peel off the foil and using a sharp knife, cut into 24 squares.