Hmm...

Well, I'm not sure how today's recipe went. I venture to say it went poorly, but the food isn't inedible, so I guess it was all right. I tried Brown Sugar Blondies today, a recipe in the Williams-Sonoma Baking Cookbook. It was my first attempt at baking blondies of any kind, though I've thought about it before because the Applebee's blondie dessert is my sister's favorite dessert ever. So here we go:

1 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature (I used butter-flavored Crisco, but it may be the cause of my semi-failure)
1 cup light or dark brown sugar, firmly packed
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup sliced (flaked) almonds

1. Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan.

2. In a bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat together the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low speed just until blended. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan. Sprinkle evenly with the almonds.

3. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out almost clean, about 30 minutes. Let cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. Using a sharp knife, cut into squares and serve.

This recipe is in the "15 Minutes Hands-On Time" section of this particular cookbook, so that explains why it's fairly simple. However, simple doesn't appear to be working for me today. I'm just not sure where exactly I went wrong. I mixed the ingredients properly, and the batter looked fine when I put it in the pan. At least, I'm assuming the batter was fine. It was thick, but I assumed this was the way it was supposed to be. I mean, blondies are just another form of brownies, right?

The baking process didn't go so well, though. I put them in the oven for 30 minutes like the recipe says, but, despite the edges being golden brown, the entire center was jiggly/liquidy. So I gave it 10 more minutes. Still liquidy. Another 10 minutes seemed to do the trick for the center being less jiggly, but we were past golden brown (and all the way to brown brown), and the middle had deflated even though the edges were still high. After they cooled a bit, I cut them and tried one of the corners - like I said, it wasn't inedible, but it wasn't what I was going for either.

Needless to say, I won't be sending these to work with my husband. (Not that they wouldn't eat them, but I prefer to put my best effort forward at all times.) I'm not sure if I'll try this recipe again, or if I'll just search for another one. Most likely, I'll look for another and, if I keep having problems, then try this one again.

If any of you try this and have great success, please let me know. If I went wrong somewhere along the way, I'd love to know where it was.

In other, more pleasant news, a friend of mine has also started a baking blog! Hers will include cooking as well as baking, so you should definitely check it out. (You can follow her culinary adventure here!)