Chocolate Chip Blondies (in this version, they're Gluten-Free, Soy-Free, and Nut-Free)

I used to work at Williams-Sonoma, and we were always giving out recipe cards. One spring, we were selling "Easter" chocolate chips. (They were "Easter" because they were pastel colors and it was the nearest food holiday.) (Honestly, though, I think the "chocolate" probably also ought to be in quotation marks, because the chips were tinted white chocolate, which is only sort-of chocolate.)

The recipe they were suggesting was to use a food processor to make blondies, and add in those chips for an Easter-y flair.

I don't have any Easter chocolate chips. I also don't use my food processor for baking. And - in this version - I used Gluten-free flour, and Soy-free/Nut-free/Gluten-free/Dairy-free mini chocolate chips. And they turned out looking like this stack of goodness:

Let's look at the thought process behind them:

Here's a better view of the recipe card:

See the notes on the side? Those are from when I first made these using Gluten-Free rice flour - which meant I also needed Xanthan Gum. These days, using the Bob's Red Mill 1-for-1 flour, you can skip the Xanthan Gum. 

Ready with the ingredients this week?

Yes!

Audience waiting to see what I might drop?

Yes! (I didn't drop anything, though that look may have earned her an extra treat when I was done baking.)

The recipe - even without using a food processor - is pretty quick to put together.

You cream the butter (and - since we were avoiding soy - I actually did use butter in these) with the dark brown sugar and vanilla.

Then you add in the eggs.

Yes, the recipe says to add them in one at a time. It also says to use a food processor. I'm breaking all kinds of rules! (Though - technically - I did add the eggs one at a time. I just didn't stir in between additions.)

I did add the (gluten-free) flour in two halves, along with the baking powder and salt.

No. I didn't sift them together in advance. Such a rebel. 

For anyone who thinks that Gluten-free (and all the other -frees that these are) means they're going to be missing something, just look at how many mini chocolate chips went into the bowl.

Definitely not doing that CDC poppy seed test thing. Eww. 

OH. Here's something I did at the same time that I was amassing the ingredients. I cut strips of parchment paper and placed them across each of the squares in my brownie pan.

You can tell I did it earlier, because there's still sunlight coming in through the window causing multi-directional shadows in the photo.

I used a slightly-rounded ice cream scoop-ful for each square. When you do that, you'll look at the squares and think "Oh, God. What have I done? They're going to rise and flow all over creation and become a burnt pile of muck in my oven!"

But, no. Even with the really shallow brownie pans filled almost to the top (maybe 3/4 full - at least), they did puff up, but didn't overflow.

No. Really:

Sorry. I got a little ahead of myself, there. The recipe says that these should bake for 30-35 minutes. Usually, when baking in small shapes instead of a big pan, things bake faster. So I started checking these at about 24 minutes. They looked (and smelled) incredible, but the recipe says that they're done when they start to feel "firm" on top.

So I waited. And checked them. And waited.

Finally, at about 31 minutes, they were becoming firm. And so I took them out and let them hang out in the pan for a bit, so that they'd finish up without getting any darker around the non-parchment-ed edges.

Note to self for future: Don't skimp on the parchment paper, and maybe use a spatula around the non-parchment sides before trying to take them out.

Why am I mentioning that? Well... Some of them came out a little more cleanly than others.

Of course, a really good way around that is to either put them in an actual 9x13 pan, or use cupcake papers and bake them in a muffin tin:

If you're counting (which I do in the video, below), you'll see that I ended up with a dozen brownies and 9 "cupcakes." I think that the last time I did them just in the round tins, I ended up with about two dozen. (I really wish I could have reminded myself of that before recording the wrap-up. Now that you know, please just ignore the momentary lack of expertise that I show...)

They looked - and smelled - so good that I broke into one before I even had a chance to record the wrap-up.

But I reminded myself that I these were all for the blog, and stopped myself before actually diving in, so that we could share the experience.

Now, really, who wouldn't want to see that waiting on the counter when they got done with a day of school (or work)? And - believe me - no one will complain that they're missing the gluten, soy, or nuts.

Yes, those are the other 10 blondies still in their "wrappers" in the background. Yum!

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Is there some recipe that you used to love, but you have to avoid due to some food issue? Let me know and I'll try to modify it for you - no promises on how it'll turn out, but that's half the fun!