I was recently given a bottle of smoked maple syrup. Yes, I was skeptical as well, especially when I opened the bottle and it was really, really smokey. Hickory and Oak, but smoke, smoke, smoke. I thought long and hard about what I should experiment with, and ultimately, I think that it would go great simply poured over some BBQ ribs, but I thought that I would actually try it in a sweet application, so I came up with this recipe for blondies. And you know what? It worked and they are actually very good. The smoke flavor (and admittedly, I only used a few tablespoons) is really tempered by the toffee and maple and instead of it tasking like smoke, it simply has a deep, almost earthy thing going on. Really quite nice. Also, if you don’t want do the whole “smoke” thing, this recipe works just as well with regular maple syrup.
Ingredients
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened to room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon maple extract
3 tablespoons smoked maple syrup*
2 eggs
2 1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
10 ounces (1 package) toffee bits
6 ounces (1/2 package) white chocolate chips
Directions
Preheat oven to 350F. Make a foil sling for your 13 x 9 inch pan. Spray with nonstick cooking spray.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together both sugars and butter. Add eggs, extracts and maple syrup, and continue to mix. In another large mixing bowl, mix together flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Add dry goods to creamed mixture and blend well. Add half of the butterscotch chips and all of the white chocolate chips and stir in.
Spread cookie batter in the pan and bake for 40-45 minutes, and sprinkle with remaining toffee bits (until just golden brown). Transfer pan to wire rack and cool completely.
Using foil overhang, lift blondies from pan. Cut into 2-inch squares and serve.
* If you don’t like the concept of “smoked” maple syrup (or can’t find it, for that maple), you can use regular pure maple syrup instead.
