This recipe was a sort of challenge I made to fellow cooking blogger Bob of Cooking Stuff. I proposed a "tiramisu brownie" concept and wanted to know what his thoughts were, and how he would create a cookie bar which would fall into this general description, but I did not outline any actual requirements. This is what I came up with...and please visit icookstuff.blogspot.com to see Bob's version of a "tiramisu brownie".
Tiramisu Blondies
dough:
2 1/4 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
1 c. (2 sticks) butter
3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. brown sugar
2 t. vanilla
2 eggs
chocolate:
1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 T. fine ground espresso coffee (no substitutes)
10 - 12 plain butter cookies, broken into pieces
Melt chocolate in microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring well in between.
Mix in espresso; blend well!
Stir in butter cookie pieces. (NOTE: I made the mistake of leaving the cookies whole and just pressing them into the chocolate. This ended up making the chocolate harder to chop up. I'm writing this recipe out the way I should have done it!)
Pour chocolate mixture onto waxed paper covered dish or pan. Smooth out to about 1/4-inch thickness; remember, you're going to have to be able to cut through this with a knife. Place in fridge to harden. (Give it an hour or so, and then check it.)
Remove chocolate from fridge; chop into chunks. Set aside.
Heat oven to 375˚. Grease 9 x 13 baking pan.
In small bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
In large mixing bowl, beat butter, sugar and brown sugar until creamy.
Add vanilla and eggs; beat well. Gradually add in flour mixture; mix well.
Stir in chocolate pieces by hand.
Spread into prepared baking pan.
Bake at 375˚ for 30 minutes, until golden brown.
Here's a better look at how the chocolate with the whole cookies in it came out:
Again, I should have broken the cookies up and spread the chocolate thinner.
The 12th was our anniversary, and we had a few people over; this is all that was left of the cookies by the end of the party:
