Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Caramel Pumpkin Blondies

Have you ever found yourself thinking some sort of trendy new saying in the lexicon is kind of dumb - then soon enough you're saying it too? A recent trend lately is just shortening stuff. Ridiculous = ridic. That sort of thing. I think we can blame text culture.

But, jeez, it's ridic when you find yourself using the sayings you disdain! How does this happen? Are we all going Stepford without knowing it? What is the world coming to? Mindless automatons!

This really has nothing to do with this recipe. It's just a thought. They happen. In my brain. Let's get back to baking.

Caramel Pumpkin Blondies by freshfromthe.com

Yep. The fall-winter pumpkin love affair is officially in progress. I've got another pumpkin recipe for you. Alas, to me, this one is not as good as the coffee cake I made recently. Seriously. Go make that thing.

But this is good too. It's less soft cakey, more like a brownie with a caramel filling. Which is what it's supposed to be - duh. I think if you made your own homemade caramel, it might be pretty amazing.
I didn't do that. Whoops.

Caramel Pumpkin Blondies
(via Tasty Kitchen)

Blondies:
3/4 cups butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

Filling:
1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
14 ounces, weight, Caramels, unwrapped (1 bag)
1/4 cups heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 9×13 pan set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in eggs, vanilla and pumpkin until combined. Slowly incorporate the remaining ‘blondies’ ingredients into the batter. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly to ensure a smooth batter. Spread about 2/3 of the batter evenly into the prepared pan.

For the filling: Sprinkle chocolate chips over top of the batter.

Place caramels and cream into a heat-proof bowl. Microwave on high until caramel is smooth and completely melted, being sure to stir every 20 seconds. Stop as soon as it’s melted and smooth (or it will get weird and gross!).

Pour melted caramel over chocolate. Spread around evenly. Place dollops of the remaining batter over the top of the caramel layer. Spread those dollops out to try and get a smooth layer of batter over top. (It’s fine if some of the caramel layer is showing through.)

Bake for 25 minutes or until edges are golden and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted. (It might come out with a little caramel on it which is fine. You don’t want batter on the toothpick.)

Cool completely before serving.

In Photos:


Batter all spread out. No photos of the making of the batter, because it wasn't pretty. I was using the remaining pumpkin pie filling and doing my own thing. I don't recommend it.


Chocolate chips! The original recipe calls for nuts, but I wholeheartedly disapprove of nuts in baked goods.


The most annoying part of this recipe? Unwrapping the caramels! 


Ooey gooey. This will take a couple minutes total to get done. Definitely make sure you stir every 20 seconds or so.


Spread out the caramel layer. Oh look, the chocolate chips kinda melt and spread!


The final layer of remaining batter. As you can see, some caramel peeks through. It's fine.


Comes out all golden-y.


If you don't wait until it's cooled, you'll get a lot of melty caramel spillage.


Grab yourself a slice. Would also be good with whipped cream or ice cream.

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