Kat with a K

Recipe: One-Everything Blondies

I suddenly remembered this morning that I had promised to bring some sort of baked goods to a meeting today. At this point, it was too late for the peanut butter cookies I'd planned, as that dough has to chill and all. So I did what I practically always do when faced with a culinary crisis - I turned to Mark Bittman. These blondies from his inimitable How To Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food (seriously, you have this, right? If not, go put it on your Christmas list RIGHT NOW) are quick, easy, and only call for ingredients that I keep around the house anyway. Score.

And as I was making them this morning, I noticed that virtually all the ingredients are "one" of something, which means this would be both easy to memorize and simple enough to make at 6am when you're still half asleep. Not that any of us are ever baking in that state. Ahem.

One-Everything Blondies
(rewritten but not all that adapted from How To Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food by Mark Bittman)

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a brownie pan. (The book says 8", but mine might be 9". Whatever. Also, feel free to actually butter the pan if you want to invest that kind of time, but come on, this is quick-and-dirty before-work baking. Spray does fine.)

Melt one stick of unsalted butter. Pour it into your mixer. (Oh, that's another difference: I did this whole thing in my Kitchenaid, because I didn't feel like stirring at 6:30 in the morning. It worked fine.)

Beat it with one cup of brown sugar.

Beat in one egg and one teaspoon of vanilla.

Add one pinch of salt (yeah that's where I'm stretching the "one" thing) and one cup of flour. Mix. (Start on low so the flour doesn't end up all over the kitchen.)

Mix in one cup of chocolate chips, if you want. Or nuts. Or peanut butter chips might be good. Whatever. Go crazy.

Pour it into the brownie pan and even it out with a spatula.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until "just set in the middle."

Cool. Cut up. Bring to work and preserve your reputation as the office baker.