I’m really bad at keeping surprises. Obviously, I’d never tell a secret if you told me not to, but when I have a surprise of my own, it’s practically impossible for me to keep my big mouth closed until the secret is properly revealed.
For 3 months I created and tested the perfect recipe to submit to the Pillsbury Bake-off. For another 6 or so months I kept the recipe to myself since the competition wasn’t over til October. I SO wanted to tell you guys what I was up to, but I knew I needed to keep it a surprise until it was finally submitted and judged. I’ve never actually created a recipe from scratch, without basing it on anything. And let me tell you it’s not easy, especially when you have a specific way in your mind that you want it to turn out.
I went through 5 batches of these babies until they came out just right. Nate, poor guy, had to sample every single batch and he probably doesn’t want to eat another one of these again for a really long time.
The recipe, which I gave you a teaser of (although that was batch #1) are for a Butterscotch Rum Banana Spiced Blondie. I’m not exactly sure how I came up with this idea, but it may be the best one I’ve ever had. The flavors, while seemingly unrelated, go together perfectly. I wanted them to be dense and chewy, and not too cakey but not too moist. I think I finally achieved the right consistency in batch #5.
Everyone who has tasted these has said they’re delicious. But the only people whose opinion I really care about are the Pillsbury judges, being that the grand prize is a cool $1 million.
Unfortunately, I guess those stupid judges weren’t thinking straight on the day they read over my recipe, so alas I was never contacted. But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy these babies at home. Go make a batch now!
**update since I wrote this post (before I actually published it)- Nate recently requested these last week and I was quite surprised. The last time he ate them was probably 3 or 4 months ago, but after having to taste so many of them I thought it would be at least a year til he wanted them again. That’s a good sign.
Butterscotch Rum Banana Spiced Blondies
Recipe by Me
makes 24
11 oz(s) plus 1/2 cup Butterscotch Chips
1.5 cup(s) light brown sugar, packed
10 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, cut into pieces
3 Tbsp spiced rum
3 large eggs, beaten
1.5 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1.5 tsp Ground Ginger
1/2 tsp Ground Cloves
2 cups All Purpose Flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup very ripe banana, mashed (about 1)
1.5 medium ripe but firm bananas, cut into 24- 1/4″ thick slices
Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 glass baking pan.
Put a large metal bowl over a pot of simmering water to create a double boiler. In bowl, melt 11 oz. butterscotch chips, brown sugar, butter, rum, and mashed banana. Stir often until butter is completely melted and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
When mixture is cool, whisk in the 3 eggs.
In a small bowl, combine spices, flour, and salt. Add to butterscotch/sugar mixture and whisk until just combined. Fold in remaining 1/2 cup butterscotch chips.
Pour batter into prepared pan and put in oven.
Bake blondies for 15 min. Remove from oven and place the 24 banana slices evenly spaced on top, in a 4 slice x 6 slice rectangle, so that there will be one banana slice in the center of each cut piece. Don’t push banana slices into batter, as they will sink while cooking.
Return pan to oven and cook for an additional 30 minutes or until bottom is golden and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Rotate halfway through cooking.
Cool blondies on rack before cutting. Serve room temperature or cold. They’re not as good hot…and believe me I tried sampling them right out of the oven ;)
