This past weekend, I’ve had the house to myself, and it’s been very nice! Just me and Lainey. My mom’s off in the Domincan Republic! Lucky bum! And, not only that, shegets home Wednesday night, her birthday! So I’ve already picked out a cake to bake for her! Which will be waiting for her when she gets home. Eating cake at 1 am isn’t bad..is it? I didn’t think so. You’ll have to wait and see what it is!

But, in the meantime I decided I needed something to hold me over. Before making these, I was contemplating whether or not I wanted to make blondiesor brownies. So I decided to make two-in-one brownies! That way, I could enjoy both! I’ve never actually made just blondies, but im sure they would be good on their own. You can keep the recipe as is for blondies, if you’re having a blonde moment. Or, you can split the batter in two and keep one blonde, and one dark! I got the recipe for the blondies from here, and then added my own substitutions and created a chocolate brownie recipe from it as well.

I already promised some to my neighbour, for fixing the fence. I hope they make it to him. . . Enjoy!

Blondie & Chocolate Marbled Brownies

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 1/4 cups light brown sugar
• 2 2/3 cups plain flour
• 3 eggs
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup chocolate chunks, or chips
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts ( i used walnut & cashews )

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Grease a 13×9 inch baking pan or line the pan with parchment paper.
3. In a large bowl, mix together oil and brown sugar. Then add the eggs one at a time and beat until smooth.
4. In a separate bowl, sift together dry ingredients and then add them to the brown sugar mixture. Mix well.
5. Stir in chocolate chunks.
6. Spread batter into prepared baking pan. Batter will be thick!
7. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

It’s a rainy Remembrance day here in Vancouver, and after a day of shopping at the GUESS Factory Store where I bought 3 yes THREE trench coats..in red, black and cream {i told you i was a shopaholic.} But they were on sale for $35 from $94! So mathematically I had to buy them. I came home with an urge to bake, and I’ve been craving something really chocolaty like a brownie!  I found this excellent recipe called Tribute-To-Katherine-Hepburn Brownies in Baking: From My House to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.  (It was only after I read ‘What Would Audrey Do?‘ that I actually learned that Audrey and Katherine Hepburn were not related at all, as Im sure many people pondered once before. And as you know, I love Tiffany’s and Audrey very much!)

Tribute-To-Katherine-Hepburn Brownies ( Baking: From My House to Yours. Dorie Greenspan)

After Katharine Hepburn died, eulogies came from every quarter, many including stories about her brownies. In an article sent to me by my friend Bon Appetit editor in chief Barbara Fairchild, Heather Henderson of St. Paul, Minnesota, recalled wanting to quit her studies at Bryn Mawr. Her father managed to get Miss Hepburn, a Bryn Mawr alum and a neighbor, to intervene. The famous Kate invited both the young woman and her father to her home one afternoon. At tea, Ms. Henderson got a taste of the legendary brownies as well as of the actress’s views on education.

In her tribute to the actress, Ms. Henderson wrote, “I’ll always be grateful to Miss Hepburn for making me stick it out at Bryn Mawr and for giving me these rules to live by: 1. Never quit; 2. Be yourself and 3. Don’t put too much flour in your brownies.”

This recipe is a play on the one Miss Hepburn is reported to have used. Since a quick search through my cookbooks uncovered two other brownie recipes credited to Kate, and each was different, I decided it would be fine to add my own little touches. I’ve kept the essence of Miss Hepburn’s recipe — these are thin, soft, very chocolaty brownies made without much flour — but I’ve added a little cinnamon, some coffee and a quarter-pound of chopped fine-quality chocolate. Since the chocolate doesn’t firm up much in baking, it makes a soft, gooey brownie even softer and gooier and, to my way of thinking, even yummier. I think Miss Hepburn would approve.

Makes 16  2 inch x 2 inch brownies

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons finely ground instant coffee
• 2 large eggs, preferably at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup broken or chopped walnuts or pecans
• 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

GETTING READY: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Butter an 8-inch square baking pan and line the bottom with parchment or wax paper. Butter the paper, dust the inside of the pan with flour and tap out the excess. Place the pan on a baking sheet.

Whisk the flour, cinnamon, if you’re using it, and salt together.

Put the butter in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan and place the pan over low heat. When the butter starts to melt, sift the cocoa over it and add the instant coffee. Continue to cook, stirring, until the butter is melted and the cocoa and coffee are blended into it. Remove from the heat and cool for about 3 minutes.

Using a whisk or a rubber spatula, beat the eggs into the saucepan one at a time. Next, stir in the sugar and vanilla (don’t beat anything too vigorously — you don’t want to add air to the batter), followed by the dry ingredients, nuts and chopped chocolate. Scrape the batter into the pan.

Bake for 30 minutes, at which point the brownies will still be gooey but the top will have a dry papery crust. Transfer the pan to a rack and let the brownies cool for at least 30 minutes. (You can wait longer, if you’d like.) Turn the brownies out onto a rack, peel away the paper and invert onto a cutting board. Cool completely before cutting into 16 squares, each roughly 2 inches on a side.

*I used a pizza cutter to cut them, it works really well!

SERVING: These are happy being served in all the typical ways — with whipped cream, ice cream or Hot Fudge Sauce or paired with a glass of milk to allow for dunking. I think they are best at room temperature, when they are at their moistest, but they are also very good chilled.

STORING: Wrapped well, the brownies will keep for 3 days at room temperature or frozen for up to 2 months.

Enjoy!