hazelnut blondies

i joined a group of ladies via twitter last month. we call ourselves the "secret bakers". our goal, to randomly bake for each other not knowing who gets what from whom. this is our inaugural month, so we will see how it goes. i know i am already a day behind on shipping, but i am not alone. it kinda sneaked up on us, well me, anyway. i choose to bake two items, fresh pumpkin cranberry bread and these hazelnut blondies. do you know how hard it is to find hazelnuts in these here parts? i found some in a specialty market and brought them home to roast. roasting them was crazy easy and my gosh what a huge difference in their flavor. i almost hate to send these little blondies to new york city! (all together now) new york city? yep, new york city. these little morsels are headed to the big apple. i hope my fellow baker will enjoy them. they are full of delicious flavor, hazelnuts, brown sugar and nutella. yep, nutella, that chocolate hazelnut spread of love, not to mention calories and sugar. i love nutella. lord help me with the nutella. wanna get on my good side, bring me nutella and a spoon. i will love ya for life.

okay, here is the recipe. enjoy.

anyone seen my jar of nutella? i better go look under my pillow......you know, i keep it there for sweet dreams......



hazelnut blondies

4 tbsp of butter
2 cups of flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 3/4 dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp good vanilla
1/3 hazelnuts, roasted and coarsely chopped
1 tbsp of nutella(chocolate hazelnut spread)

preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit and butter/grease/parchment a 8x8 baking pan.

whisk flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. melt butter. Beat butter and sugar until combined, in a large bowl with mixer. beat in eggs and vanilla. add flour mixture, and stir until combined. stir in hazelnuts and nutella. mixture will be thick. pat into pan and bake about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out with a few moist crumbs. cool 15 minutes before cutting.