Maple Walnut Blondies

I apologize for being MIA the past few days. I spent Friday with my girls, we went with our 4-year-old's preschool class to see The Lorax; what a cute movie! The remainder of the weekend was spent helping our nephew celebrate his birthday and preparing for our little girl's birthday. I can't believe my baby turned 2 on Sunday! How time flies!

During our celebration on Sunday, we noticed she developed a croupy sounding cough. She seemed fine until the middle of the night when she started having difficulty breathing and was running a fever. So needless to say, we went to the doctor first thing on Monday morning. Unfortunately she caught a nasty virus that's going around and spent most of Monday and Tuesday not feeling well. I was happy to see her wake up in a much better mood this morning and feeling more like herself! It's no fun having little ones sick, especially when there's multiples. Our 4-year-old ended catching the same thing on Monday. I spent most of the last two days laying on the couch with both of them, not exactly productive.  Anyways, everyone seems to be on the mend.....now if we can just keep it that way for more than a week!

Okay, moving onto these blondies. These are said to be just like the maple walnut blondie dessert served at Applebee's, but only better. I can't really vouch for that since I've honestly never tried them, but they were pretty darn good! Really, who ever has room for dessert when you go out to eat?

I made these for dessert one night and thought they would be a good treat, especially served with ice cream. Thankfully they only made a small pan because let's be honest here, I did eat more than one. They're just as good without the ice cream and maple butter sauce served on top.

Maple Walnut Blondies

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Sauce:
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 tbsp maple syrup

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Line an 8x8 inch baking dish with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray. In a bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and walnuts; set aside. In a large bowl mix melted butter and brown sugar with mixer. Add in egg and vanilla, mix well. Gradually add in flour mixture and mix to combine. Stir in white chocolate chips. Spread into prepared pan (batter will be thick) and bake for 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. They may seem a little gooey but once they cool they will set up. Serve warm with ice cream and maple butter sauce.

For the sauce: In a bowl combine butter, powdered sugar, cream cheese and maple syrup. Blend with mixer until smooth. Heat sauce in microwave for about 30 seconds when ready to serve and pour over ice cream and blondies.

Slightly adapted from: The Girl Who Ate Everything