Snickerdoodle Blondies

Cinnamon is a popular flavor here at my house. In fact, I now keep a sealed container of cinnamon sugar right on top of my toaster oven, so often does my oldest son ask for cinnamon toast at breakfast. Considering the cinnamon love around these parts, you would think I make snickerdoodle cookies pretty frequently, but I only make them around the holidays. However, now that I've made these decadent Snickerdoodle Blondies, I'll be looking at different incarnations of the mighty snickerdoodle to make in the future. Turns out cinnamon sugar's pretty much good on everything!

The greatest thing about making blondies is the ease of preparation. They're kind of like a brownie's lighter-hued cousin, or something. In the case of these particular blondies, you most likely already have the ingredients on hand. The usual suspects are here: flour, brown sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla. You basically throw together a cookie dough for these, then press the dough down into a 9x13-inch pan instead of shaping cookies. A very healthy sprinkling of cinnamon sugar goes down over the top. Then the pan visits the oven for about 25-30 minutes.

These are utterly addictive. They are dense, sweet, and wonderfully cinnamon-y. In fact, I'd venture to say that they'd be even more dynamite if they had cinnamon in the dough itself, rather than just on top. Hmm, maybe next time. But as far as this batch is concerned, I thought they were pretty stellar. The kids and the hubby agreed. I made these on a Friday afternoon, and they were polished off by the end of the weekend. That normally doesn't happen around here! I'd make these again in a heartbeat, and I can only imagine what kinds of add-ins I could play around with next time to make these even tastier. They are the perfect thing to make when you need to take a quick, easy dessert to a potluck or something. Or, you could just make them for your family to plow through over a lazy weekend!

Snickerdoodle Blondies

from Dozen Flours

makes 20-24 bars, depending on the size of your bars

Ingredients

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. kosher salt

2 cups packed brown sugar

1 cup butter, at room temperature

2 eggs, at room temperature

1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

2 Tbsp. white sugar

2 tsp. cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x13 pan (I lined my pan with foil). Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside. In large bowl, beat together butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla until smooth.

2. Stir in the flour mixture until well-blended. Spread evenly in prepared pan (mixture will be somewhat cookie batter-ish). Combine white sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Evenly sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture over the top of the batter.

3. Bake 25-30 minutes or until surface springs back when gently pressed. Cool slightly. While still warm, cut into bars with a sharp knife.