White Chocolate Walnut Blondie with Maple Butter Glaze

Bar cookies are nice in hot weather as it is a much shorter bake time for one pan,

This sounded so good.  The delay is I hate to heat up the house by turning on the oven!! Supposed to be 107 here Thursday and 105 on Friday.  I finally decided if I was going to make them I better do it today!  Just the thought of the electricity drain the end of the week with every air conditioner in the tri-state area running full out !  In my lifetime I have never seen these temperatures.  I remember 103 a couple of times but not 107!!  Ekk.  We certainly don't want or need a "brown out" or worse in southern Indiana!

I saw this in a paperback by Ron Douglas called America's Most Wanted Recipes.  He had in his own words "copycat" versions of restaurant dishes.  This is my adaptation of one of these.  I just stirred this together by hand and popped it into the oven to bake.

Ingredients for Walnut Blondie:

1 c. sifted flour
1/2 t. baking powder
1/8 t. soda
1/8 t. salt
1/4 C. chopped walnuts
1 C. packed brown sugar
5 1/3 t. butter melted
1 beaten egg
1 T. vanilla
1/2 C. white chocolate chips

Butter and flour 9" x 9" baking dish or equivalent and set aside.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Add the baking powder, soda, and salt to the sifted flour.  Sift again then add the nuts to the flour and combine well.  Set aside. 

Add the brown sugar and butter to a mixing bowl and combine well.  Add the beaten egg and stir.  Add the vanilla beating until blended.

Stir in the flour mixture beating well to combine.  Add  in the white chocolate chips.  Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan.  Bake 25-30 minutes until a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Glaze ingredients:

2 T. soft butter
2 T. real maple syrup
3/4 C. powdered sugar + enough to reach desired consistency

Microwave the syrup and butter together in a glass measuring cup for 30 seconds and stir until melted and combined.  Add enough powdered sugar to reach preferred consistency.  I just wanted a drizzle across the top so I left it fairly loose.  Drizzle across the top of of the Blondie and let set a few minutes before cutting into bars.  Yield 9  bars.

Note:  The cookbook version of this topped the bar with ice cream and added a warm Carmel sauce over all which would also be quite good.  I made it as a cookie but it would be more of a dessert with ice cream and the sauce so it is versatile.