Chocolate Chip-Oatmeal Blondies

We have a bunch of those caramel/chocolate chips lying around and I wanted to use some of them up. My first thought were cookies, but they were just too time consuming, not to mention too much work, especially since I felt a cold coming on. So I decided on some bars.


I checked out this book, "The NEW Good Cake Book. Over 125 Delicious Recipes That Can Be Prepared in 30 Minutes or Less" by Diana Dalsass, from the library and found this recipe. I liked the fact that it had oats and whole wheat flour in it. (And I had never made blondies before. I was always a brownie kinda gal.)



Recipe:



2 sticks (1 cup) butter or margarine, softened


2 1/4 c. brown sugar, preferrably dark


2 eggs


1/2 c. water


1 1/4 c. flour


1 c. whole-wheat flour


4 c. rolled oats


1 T. baking powder


1/4 t. salt


1 2/3 c. (about 10 oz.) semisweet chocolate morsels


1. Preheat the oven to 375*F.

2. Grease and flour a 9" square pan.

3. In a large bowl, cream the butter or margarine and brown sugar until the sugar is fully incorporated. Beat in the eggs, then the water.

4. In another bowl, stir together the flour, whole-wheat flour, oats, baking powder, and salt. Add to the creamed mixture, stirring until the dry ingredients are incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips. (The batter will be very stiff.)

5. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan. Bake the blondies for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack to cool. When cool, cut into bars.



I didn't have a 9" pan, I have an 8" pan, but there was so much batter that there was no way it would all fit. So I used a 9x13 pan, which was perfect. I bet it would of overflowed even in the 9" pan. I did have a problem of knowing when it was done, for everytime I inserted a toothpick, it was still gooshy, since the chocolate chips were melted. Every spot I poked, I seemed to hit some chocolate, so I baked them longer just to be sure, which ended up overbaking them. They were still very good though. My kids, especially Emi, really enjoyed them. They are very hearty bars, not overly sweet, except for the chocolate chips part. Next time I might try toffee chips, or white chocolate chips instead. Or even just plain. That'd be good too. They were better the next day. The first day they were just falling apart, real crumby, but the following day, they seem to hold together a little better, and the chocolate chips got hard instead of being soft the first day, so there was more bite to it. (By the way, the 30-minutes or less thing doesn't include the baking time.)