ROSEBUD PARTY MINT BLONDIES RECIPE:

I cannot even express how much I love the flavor of white chocolate mints. I've been wanting to make something with them for quite some time. Months ago I tried to make ice cream with them. That was a fail. So, I decided to try baking with them. First, I made cookies. They tasted awesome, but the rosebud party mints melted outside the realm of the cookies like melted crayons. That's when I came up with the blondie idea. Yay! I made a winning recipe! I just made another batch yesterday and actually took the pictures to prove it.

Rosebud Party Mints

First, I must explain the various types of white chocolate mints. The type I use for this recipe is called rosebud party mints. You can find them in the bulk candy section at specialty grocery stores. They are about the size of a penny, and work well for baking. They are also around $4 a pound, $3 cheaper per pound than the Smooth 'n' Melty's! Score!

The second is the most well known white chocolate mint. The Smooth 'n' Melty, by Guittard. They come in three different varieties. Smooth 'n' Melty wafers, non-pareils, and mini non-pareils. Though the non-pareils are the prettiest of the white chocolate mints, they are not good for baking due to the crunchy non-pareils. The wafers are best for baking, but they are about the size of a quarter.

The third, is specifically made for baking. I wish I could find them at the grocery store! They are Guittard green mint baking chips. They would be perfect for this recipe, if you can find them. But, they are all green. Not pretty pastels like the others I have mentioned.

The last (but not least) is a seasonal candy. Hershey makes a Candy Cane Kiss. They are the shiznit. I hoard them every Christmas and slowly eat them throughout the year, so I don't run out. They are white chocolate mint flavored with little bits of candy cane. They are like crack, I tell ya!

Enough yammering. Here is the recipe!

ROSEBUD PARTY MINT BLONDIES RECIPE: 


1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened (3/4 cup)
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs, at room temp
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups rosebud party mints

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and lightly flour 9 X 13 baking dish. (I prefer to line the baking dish with parchment paper and leave a little extra on the sides, so I can lift the blondies out after they cool in the dish!)

Tip: Extra parchment paper on the sides!

In a small bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars until smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla, beat well. Add the dry mixture, and mix thoroughly. Add the mints and mix. Spread batter into pan, evenly. Be sure to evenly distribute the mints, so there aren't clumps of them together. Bake for 35 - 40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs attached. It should have a nice, golden color. Let  cool completely, before cutting and serving! (This takes at least a couple hours!)

*Note: Adapted from the Magnolia Bakery Blondies with White and Dark Chocolate Chunks Recipe!*

September in the Kitchen

Hibiscus Lavender Popsicle!

It's been a while since I've posted a recipe. It's not that I haven't been busy in the kitchen creating new things. It's just that I haven't been documenting them very well. (Oopsy!) I think the favorite treat I've created in the last month is Smooth 'n' Melty Mint Blondies. I made a variation of these months ago in cookie form. They were absolutely delicious, but the mints melted like crayons and spread outside the realm of the cookie sphere. So, I thought to myself  'Next time I'm gonna make these into blondies!' It totally worked! I plan on making these again very soon, so I will document things better next time and post the recipe. They are amaza-zing! Another new favorite recipe I came up with is Hibiscus-Lavender popsicles. They were to die for! But, I am keeping this recipe top secret as I am planning to open an artisan pop business some time in the future. (I can't give away all my secrets!) 


I've also made a few things from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams At Home. I made Buckeye State ice cream, which is a rich peanut butter ice cream, with chocolate flakes. It turned out well, but it was oh so rich! So, the next time I decided to use her ice cream base recipe and infuse licorice and fennel into it. Holy cannoli, is that good! It has an indescribable candy flavor that is seriously addicting! Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams At Home is the best ice cream book I've found thus far! The ice creams turn out nice and creamy. This is usually a problem with making homemade ice cream. She definitely spent a lot of time figuring out how to make her recipes work with a non-commercial home ice cream maker. I highly recommend this book! 


There have also been a few failures in the kitchen. Firstly, I made the dark chocolate vegan ice cream recipe from The Vegan Scoop book. It did not turn out so well. I did everything according to the directions, but it ended up tasting more like dark chocolate sorbet. But not a good dark chocolate sorbet. My other recipe failure was the vegan alternative sugar devil's food chocolate cupcake recipe from the Who You Callin' Cupcake book. I got this book for my birthday last year, and hadn't tried any of the recipes because they looked off. I finally decided I *needed* to try one of the recipes. I went with one of the vegan cupcake recipes, because we love vegan cupcakes in my house. So much, that the only book I usually make cupcakes from is Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World! Anyways, back to the godawful alternative sugar devils food cupcake recipe. The recipe called for 1 tbsp of baking soda and 2 tsp of salt. I hesitantly added them to the rest of the ingredients. My inner baker said "This is wrong, don't do it!", but I didn't listen and they turned out terrible! They were so incredibly salty. They also fell like a souffle when I took them out of the oven. They had a huge crater! I tried to save them by filling the craters with copious amounts of homemade nutella frosting, but even that didn't work. They are so getting tossed in the garbage when I'm finished writing this! I am also pretty displeased that I just wasted a lot of high quality organic ingredients to make a bunch of salty cow patties! There are so many problems with this cookbook. Another example is the lemon cupcake recipe. A dozen cupcakes don't need 8 cups of flour and 8 eggs!!! I could go on and on about the recipes that don't look right in this book. All I can say is, don't buy this book. It should not even be available for sale! They are still printing this book with all of the errors. I feel so bad that this was a birthday gift and I cannot use it. I contacted the Bleeding Heart Bakery and they told me that "the editor had a problem translating the author's recipes, and we've been fighting an uphill battle trying to get the book fixed." 


You can look forward to me posting a lot more recipes in the next month. The Smooth 'n' Melty blondies will be a must try recipe, and I look forward to sharing it with you all!