White Chocolate Walnut Blondies with Maple Butter Sauce

This has been a busy week as we try to get ready for the baby. I haven’t ventured out and tried too many new recipes. I will make a few new ones this week as this may be my last chance to cook without too many distractions. Also I see a lot of chicken nuggets and Macaroni and Cheese in my future. If I can help it my kids will love good food.

Holli for some reason has been wanting to make Blondies. There were a couple of recipes we found and decided to try both. The first turned out a little too gooey and then after they cooled down they were rock solid. Maybe because they were mostly butter and brown sugar…not like that’s a bad thing, but there was no leavening agent. The next recipe we tried was a homerun!

In brownies the main ingredient is coco powder. In Blondie’s it’s brown sugar. The nice thing is you can add whatever you want in them. For ours we added butterscotch chips and pieces of heath. You could also add nuts, chocolate chips, coconut, or whatever you want really. There was also a caramel sauce that I wanted to make to put on top too, but never got around to it. These are awesome with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. Ok, enough reading you should really just make this.

White Chocolate Walnut Blondies with Maple Butter Sauce

FOR THE BLONDIES:

• 3 cups All-purpose Flour

• ¼ teaspoons Salt

• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder

• 10 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, melted

• 2 cups Brown Sugar

• 3 whole Eggs, Lightly Beaten

• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

• ½ cups Chopped Walnuts (optional)

• 1 cup White Chocolate Chips (optional)

FOR THE SAUCE:

• 2 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter

• 1-½ cup Heavy Cream

• 6 Tablespoons Maple Syrup

• 3 Tablespoons Light Corn Syrup

• Optional Garnish: Vanilla Ice Cream, Chopped Walnuts

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, salt & baking powder. Set aside.

In another large mixing bowl, mix melted butter with brown sugar until well-blended. Add in beaten eggs and vanilla. Stir well.

Slowly add flour mixture to butter/sugar/egg mixture. Stir thoroughly but take care not to overmix your batter. Fold in nuts and chocolate. Batter will be thick.

Spray pan with nonstick cooking spray, then pour batter into 9 x 13 baking pan. Bake for about 25-30 minutes (until a toothpick inserted comes out clean).

For the sauce:

Melt butter in a medium sauce pan over medium heat (do not allow butter to burn). Then add heavy cream, maple syrup and corn syrup. Allow this mixture to simmer over medium heat for about 20-30 minutes. This is the hard part: waiting for the mixture to reduce and thicken. You don’t want to bring this to a boil, just a nice, slightly bubbly simmer. Stir it occasionally. Once it has reduced by about a 1/3, it’s ready.

Maple Mustard Pork with Creamy Polenta

This is one of our favorite meals in the Coats household. I made it again this week and forgot how much I love it. The polenta takes a little time but takes almost no effort. If you have never had polenta, do yourself a favor and try it. It’s basically like yellow cream of wheat. I hope to post more polenta recipes in the near future. I like to put the polenta on the bottom and the pork on top of that, then drizzle it with sauce. That way the polenta soaks up the sauce. For as good as this recipe is, it really isn’t that hard to make! Also, whatever you do, don’t use pancake syrup buy legit maple! On a final note I like to make a little more sauce then it calls for, I just can’t get enough of it.

Maple-Mustard Pork Chops

4 (6-ounce) bone-in center-cut pork chops

1/2 teaspoon salt, divided

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Cooking spray

1 tablespoon butter

2 tablespoons finely chopped shallots

1/4 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons maple syrup

2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1. Sprinkle both sides of pork with 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper.

2. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add pork to pan; cook 3 minutes on each side or until cooked through, but with a slight blush in the center. Remove from pan; keep warm.

3. Return pan to medium-high heat. Add butter to pan, swirling pan to coat. Add shallots; sauté 3 minutes or until tender and translucent. Add broth; bring to a boil, and cook 1 minute. Stir in mustard, syrup, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt; cook 1 minute or until slightly thick. Return pork to pan. Cook pork 1 minute on each side or until thoroughly heated (be careful not to overcook pork). Serve pork with sauce. Garnish each serving with 1 1/2 teaspoons parsley.

Creamy Polenta Recipe

INGREDIENTS

4 cups water

Salt to taste

1 cup medium-grain yellow polenta

4 tablespoons butter

1 cup cream cheese

METHOD

1 Heat water lightly seasoned with salt to a boil over high heat, about 5 minutes. Quickly whisk in the polenta until fully incorporated.

2 Lower the heat to a low simmer, add the butter and allow the polenta to cook, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes.

3 Finish by stirring in the cream cheese and salt to taste.

If preparing in advance, cool, cover and refrigerate. Reheat in the microwave, about 5 minutes on high, just before serving. Stir vigorously after reheating to fluff.

Serves 8.